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Why banks are suddenly closing down customer accounts

nytimes.com

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Re: Why banks are suddenly closing down customer accounts

#101

Post by krupan »

astrange wrote: post #95
krupan wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bitcoin, not crypto. And poster has to be cryptic and/or sarcastic because even though it's a solution to this very problem staring us in the face, people here shut down any intelligent conversation about it both with down votes and tired, long winded, oft repeated, uninformed arguments against it. It's pretty discouraging, honestly

Bitcoin absolutely does not have the privacy of cash! It is cash like in that if you typo the destination address you instantly lose all the money, which is sort of like how you can accidentally set cash on fire.

Serious question, what the are the privacy properties of cash that Bitcoin lacks?

Who types destination addresses by hand? Probably the same people that expose a hoard of paper money to flames?

Re: Why banks are suddenly closing down customer accounts

#102

Post by refurb »

rkagerer wrote: post #42
sneak wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Banking is optional; the problem is that many businesses insist on bank cards to transact. It’s important that businesses be compelled to accept cash for all transactions. It’s particularly bad in some cities. Rather than enforcing access to the special hell that is US retail banking, just prohibit businesses from ripping out their existing cash infrastructure. Even with a bank account, your ability to transact is su…

I'm not sure I would agree that banking is optional in today's society. Canada has laws[1] intended to ensure access to banking, with $10M fines for violations. Not familiar with them myself and wondering how effective they are, and whether anyone has sued and won. It's maybe a bit ironic considering how the government here improperly locked a lot of people out of their funds during the trucker protests (the inquiry…

Canada does the same thing with shutting down bank accounts based on "suspicious transactions" and then turning around and saying "we can't tell you why".

Pretty sure it's a global agreement around terrorist funding.

Re: Why banks are suddenly closing down customer accounts

#103

Post by renewiltord »

kylehotchkiss wrote: post #78

Protip to anybody who wants to spend an extended amount of time overseas - you’re looking at a strong opportunity to join the list of people who have their accounts closed. Red flags include quantity of overseas debit card transactions, setting a PO Box (this one apparently is a very big red flag to banks) or a PMB as your bank address, lots of wire transfers. Open multiple bank accounts at different banks, use servi…

Patriot Act expired, no? Also, I've stayed abroad for a year or more and I just swapped the address to a friend's home. Kept my Google Fi, etc. and used my credit cards all internationally alone. I think I visited the US like once in a year and it was fine for the rest of the time. I lost my phone and actually activated my Google Fi SIM from abroad too (needed to use a Wireguard tunnel to the US).

Re: Why banks are suddenly closing down customer accounts

#104

Post by RockRobotRock »

astrange wrote: post #95
krupan wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Bitcoin, not crypto. And poster has to be cryptic and/or sarcastic because even though it's a solution to this very problem staring us in the face, people here shut down any intelligent conversation about it both with down votes and tired, long winded, oft repeated, uninformed arguments against it. It's pretty discouraging, honestly

Bitcoin absolutely does not have the privacy of cash! It is cash like in that if you typo the destination address you instantly lose all the money, which is sort of like how you can accidentally set cash on fire.

you kinda just proved his point about shutting down intelligent conversation

Re: Why banks are suddenly closing down customer accounts

#105

Post by acdha »

nickff wrote: post #32
slovette wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Ehm. No. Innocent until proven guilty, not guilt until proven innocent. Being de-platformed from financial infrastructure is tantamount to being economically jailed and instantly forced into life altering poverty. This isn’t some silly app you’re getting banned from… Banks shouldn’t be allowed to ban anyone. They should need a court order to lock up/ban someone from access/mobility of their own property. That said, t…

The government is the prime culprit when it comes to financially de-platforming people, if you want more secure access to banking, the solution is lighter regulation of banks, not more. Anti-money-laundering (AML) and so-called risk management regulations make it unprofitable and complicated to provided a mount services to many people. The government (and its regulatory bodies) use this ‘flexibility’ to achieve their…

I’d say “better regulation” rather than “less” - things like fraud and money laundering are important to fight (consider how bad ransomware would be if the attackers didn’t have to convince their victims to make a cryptocurrency transaction first) but we sacrificed due process to get there. It shouldn’t be impossible to have better regulations but the national security ratchet effect is pretty strong, as I’m reminded every time the TSA scrutinizes my sandals.

Re: Why banks are suddenly closing down customer accounts

#106

Post by crooked-v »

chungy wrote: post #96
votepaunchy wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It depends on the kind of restaurant, but cash cannot be refused when paying a debt. https://www.federalreserve.gov/faqs/currency_12772.htm

Your own link says that they may decline cash payments. United States currency is legal for all debts public and private (it says so on the notes), but that doesn't mean it's required to be accepted for all debts.

No, it must be accepted for debts.

But a restaurant bill generally isn't going to be a 'debt' in that sense... if they only take credit cards and you don't have one after already eating your food, they're just going to write it off and ban you from the premises.

Re: Why banks are suddenly closing down customer accounts

#107

Post by creer »

unyttigfjelltol wrote: post #76
raincom wrote: post #41

Banks hide behind Bank Secrecy Act and other regulations in order to debank people. Chase closed my account, and the reason Chase gave: "Financial institutions have an obligation to know our customers and monitor transactions that flow through our customers' accounts. After careful consideration, we decided to close your account because of unexpected activity on these or another Chase account." I didn't dispute any t…

The article demonstrated over and over that in some instances branch managers really did know their customers, and that knowledge was ignored by an algorithm run amuck. Monitoring transactions should not be sufficient to satisfy KYC. Perhaps this article demonstrates that the largest banks are unable to know their customers and truly act on that information. And, perhaps having those banks engage in self-destructive…

No such thing as "an algorithm run amuck" - more like "another department run amuck". Someone programmed the thing, someone is running it deliberately.

Re: Why banks are suddenly closing down customer accounts

#108

Post by toast0 »

chungy wrote: post #96
votepaunchy wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It depends on the kind of restaurant, but cash cannot be refused when paying a debt. https://www.federalreserve.gov/faqs/currency_12772.htm

Your own link says that they may decline cash payments. United States currency is legal for all debts public and private (it says so on the notes), but that doesn't mean it's required to be accepted for all debts.

Many restaurants provide food and service before payment. At that point, it's a little late to refuse legal tender.

Restaurants that require payment before providing food have more flexibility.

Re: Why banks are suddenly closing down customer accounts

#109

Post by krupan »

zb3 wrote: post #90
krupan wrote: post #60

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just a tip, stick with Bitcoin, not crypto.

How can I pay my bills with bitcoin while being debanked?

Lots of discussion in the comments here about how ingrained banks are into our current system. I do honestly see Bitcoin as a way out of that, but at this early stage of it, you'd probably have to get help from someone who is not debanked in order to interact with our heavily banked system. If you are honestly interested in this, take a close look at Strike.

Re: Why banks are suddenly closing down customer accounts

#110

Post by dale_glass »

krupan wrote: post #77
RockRobotRock wrote: post #69

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Just say crypto. Stop being a sarcastic ass and just say crypto

Bitcoin, not crypto. And poster has to be cryptic and/or sarcastic because even though it's a solution to this very problem staring us in the face, people here shut down any intelligent conversation about it both with down votes and tired, long winded, oft repeated, uninformed arguments against it. It's pretty discouraging, honestly

Bitcoin is crypto. There's even a whole lot of cryptocurrencies based on Bitcoin with a variable or two changed somewhere.
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