Cautionary tale on using Chase bank for indie business • Hacker News Board

Re: Cautionary tale on using Chase bank for indie business

#121

Post by ryandrake » Fri, Aug 23, 2024, 6:41 PM UTC

WaitWaitWha wrote: post #60

I have been burned by a bank (stagecoach in red field) very similarly. I now only do my financial transactions with smallish credit unions. Big enough that they can have the services I need, but small enough that my business is a large-ish part of the Unions' business. This works internationally, not just US or Europe. Most nations have some sort of a member-owned financial cooperatives, equivalent to credit unions.

Why would you say "stagecoach in red field" instead of Wells Fargo? I don't get why people are so coy about calling out terrible companies by name publicly. They're not going to kick your door in and shoot your dog. Do you think Wells Fargo (the terrible shitty bank) is going to actually search through HN looking for instances where users said their company name "Wells Fargo" and linked that company name "Wells Fargo" to their reputation "terrible and shitty"? When they find your username, are they going to scour the web to find your real name? And then, when they do, what then? You probably no longer do business with them so there's nothing much they can do in retaliation.

Re: Cautionary tale on using Chase bank for indie business

#122

Post by bdcravens » Fri, Aug 23, 2024, 6:43 PM UTC

Chase stole about $900 from me from an account I setup just for freelance income. This was during the pandemic when I had to take a 2/3 haircut in my day job to keep the company afloat (we did, and all is well now). Every time I'd try to reach out to try to get answers, I'd get bounced around among different foreign call centers. After months of trying to resolve it I just gave up. (I could and should seek legal recourse, but I just didn't have the emotional energy for it at the time)

I will never do business with them again, even though their many branches (literally have one across the street from my office) would make it convenient.

Re: Cautionary tale on using Chase bank for indie business

#123

Post by bootlooped » Fri, Aug 23, 2024, 6:46 PM UTC

rglover wrote: post #111

This is why Bitcoin is ideal. You can hold and transfer any amount, any time of day, without fear of surprises like this. Would I use it as a primary cash account for my business today? No, because of the obvious exchange rate/price swings. But long-term, moving toward Bitcoin as a settlement layer (i.e., a modern SWIFT) would solve a ton of problems and avoid situations like this. The more people that do that/normal…

I don't see why having a different settlement layer would prevent the bank from freezing money that they have custody of.

Re: Cautionary tale on using Chase bank for indie business

#124

Post by unanimous » Fri, Aug 23, 2024, 6:48 PM UTC

Djdjur7373bb wrote: post #94

otteromkram wrote: post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Who said you have to deal with a bank? That's not written into law, is it? Try a credit union if you want to avoid banks.

Is the experience that different? I've never tried one, but I assumed the level of bureaucracy must be similar in order to defend against fraud and fulfill regulatory requirements.

Banks are for-profit and credit unions are not-for-profit. Banks will do whatever they think they can get away with to increase their profits, which affects every interaction you have with them. I've had accounts at Citibank and now multiple credit unions, and I regret ever having had accounts at Citibank. They were constantly making things difficult in new ways. I don't know how the bureaucracy compares, but how they treat customers is definitely different.

Re: Cautionary tale on using Chase bank for indie business

#125

Post by briandw » Fri, Aug 23, 2024, 6:48 PM UTC

jxnlco wrote: post #15

briandw wrote: post #3

I know that it's an extra expense, but shouldn't you get a lawyer involved first thing?

i was just a dude with 3 contractors, i figured it'd just get resolved cause i didnt do anything wrong...

I can absolutely see myself falling into that same trap. Thinking that it's just a misunderstanding and that it'll get resolved any day now, just have to do one more thing. They can't be that unreasonable right? The unfortunate lesson that that you have to assume the worst and escalate right away.

Re: Cautionary tale on using Chase bank for indie business

#126

Post by navigate8310 » Fri, Aug 23, 2024, 6:48 PM UTC

sizzle wrote: post #114

CliffStoll wrote: post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks JM. Long time back, and lotsa changes. Cleaning out my attic last month, I just found a stash of punch cards left over from the 1980's. Some paper-tape that has my phd dissertation. And a fortran manual from my high school's IBM-1620. Oh my...

What are you up to these days? Were you able to predict or see the advent of modern AI and LLMs coming from earlier in your career? Thoughts on the future of computing? Thank you.

https://youtu.be/Gj8IA6xOpSk?t=140

Re: Cautionary tale on using Chase bank for indie business

#127

Post by mijoharas » Fri, Aug 23, 2024, 6:49 PM UTC

benzible wrote: post #9

About 10 years ago a startup I co-founded had about $3M in a Chase account. We received a notification that they were closing our account within 30 days. We weren't able to get any information but I assume this was a KYC false positive. The only thing I can think of is that we had some investors from the Middle East. We had no problem withdrawing our funds but since then, I've opened another business account and a pe…

> I've opened another business account and a personal travel credit card with Chase

Out of interest, why would you do that after your previous experience with them?

Re: Cautionary tale on using Chase bank for indie business

#128

Post by CliffStoll » Fri, Aug 23, 2024, 6:49 PM UTC

pjmorris wrote: post #100

CliffStoll wrote: post #86

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Thanks D'moy! I'm still having fun with Klein bottles and other topological manifolds. Toying with immersions of the projective plane and several knot embeddings. At the moment, retirement mainly means "start taking out required minimum distributions". All the same, I wonder: How do you retire from a marginally profitable nano-business built upon glass mathematical shapes? How'd I ever reach 74 years old?

The Acme Klein bottle and its packaging materials are among my prize possessions. And 'The Cuckoo's Egg' was a great read. Thank you for being you.

// blush //

Re: Cautionary tale on using Chase bank for indie business

#129

Post by mandibles » Fri, Aug 23, 2024, 6:53 PM UTC

crote wrote: post #81

oasisbob wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This may vary a lot by bank. At the small regional bank I used to work for accounts were assigned a home branch, typically where the account was first opened, and that branch had enhanced responsibilities in terms of servicing and maintaining the relationship. Chase is big enough that their KYC fallout queues probably have an entire team working them, and it wouldn't matter who else you CC on the email. ("Hey Joe, co…

> Chase is big enough that their KYC fallout queues probably have an entire team working them, and it wouldn't matter who else you CC on the email. The trick is to become so incredibly annoying that some CxO / VP is going to bump you ahead in the queue and assign a dedicated customer experience manager. Personally, if a bank were to steal $180.000 of my money, a few weeks in I'd probably start considering sticking "C…

> Chase is a criminal organization

This should be your operating assumption from Day 1.

Re: Cautionary tale on using Chase bank for indie business

#130

Post by arcanemachiner » Fri, Aug 23, 2024, 6:55 PM UTC

calmbonsai wrote: post #97

CliffStoll wrote: post #26

Similar experience: Citibank Retirement. I had about $80,000 in IRA/CD's. I'd created & contributed to them over a period of 35 years. Last year, it's time to retire, and Citibank won't give me half the money. It seems that some CD's are for "Cliff Stoll" and some for "Clifford Stoll". Citibank Retirement demanded a "Marriage Certificate, Divorce Decree, or Court Order" to demonstrate that "Cliff Stoll" is the same p…

Ah, Citi. Related to an earlier comment I posted on a different thread https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=41316889 , I didn't name the "national bank", but I now feel perfectly comfortable outing "Citibank" as the national bank that I will no longer (personally) do business with. Corporate stuff is a different matter. As a matter of policy, they do not empower their front-line (personal) banking CSR reps, and even…

Couldn't hurt to keep an eye on the account to make sure those dummies don't start tacking on some "account dormancy fee" or other nonsense like that.