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Squillions: How money laundering won

lrb.co.uk

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Re: Squillions: How money laundering won

#141

Post by AnthonyMouse »

tunesmith wrote: post #129
akomtu wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't you pay 3% of every purchase to your credit card?

as opposed to what, though? You don't get a 3% discount for using cash.

In many cases they do actually offer the discount (or tack on the "hidden" fee for using a credit card). In some markets there are also sellers who only accept cash (often discount stores etc.) and correspondingly have lower prices, which is a slightly more inconvenient version of the same thing if you patronize them.

Moreover, we should encourage every retailer to offer this, because getting 2% back (or less) while paying 3% more is not just a net loss, it's also worse for privacy.

Re: Squillions: How money laundering won

#142

Post by satvikpendem »

tunesmith wrote: post #129
akomtu wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't you pay 3% of every purchase to your credit card?

as opposed to what, though? You don't get a 3% discount for using cash.

In some areas you do actually, lots of local restaurants for example.

Re: Squillions: How money laundering won

#143

Post by satvikpendem »

AnthonyMouse wrote: post #141
tunesmith wrote: post #129

Earlier quoted context omitted.

as opposed to what, though? You don't get a 3% discount for using cash.

In many cases they do actually offer the discount (or tack on the "hidden" fee for using a credit card). In some markets there are also sellers who only accept cash (often discount stores etc.) and correspondingly have lower prices, which is a slightly more inconvenient version of the same thing if you patronize them. Moreover, we should encourage every retailer to offer this, because getting 2% back (or less) while…

Depends on your points usage, airline points can be much more valuable than the 3% fee.

Re: Squillions: How money laundering won

#144

Post by AnthonyMouse »

satvikpendem wrote: post #140
akomtu wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Don't you pay 3% of every purchase to your credit card?

No, the merchant pays, although recently more and more have been handing off the 3% to the consumer by giving a lower cash price. But well, most people don't have cash so that's essentially a convenience fee.

The credit card companies tell you that the merchant pays. Cost incidence doesn't work like that. If every seller in a fungible commodity market has the same additional cost, the price is going up by that amount.

Re: Squillions: How money laundering won

#145

Post by deltoidmaximus »

masfuerte wrote: post #134
gambiting wrote: post #91

Earlier quoted context omitted.

>>Sadly true (including "find my iPhone" reports I'll give you one better. I know someone who had their nearly new Range Rover stolen in Manchester - reported to the police etc. Few days later, they found it parked at a car park near a big supermarket. Rang the police, they said well, if you still have the keys...just take it? And he was like hang on, you don't want to look at it, check for drugs, take fingerprints,…

I've heard that this is quite common. The criminals drive the car a short distance and leave it for a few days to check if it has a hidden tracker. If the vehicle isn't recovered they assume it is clean.

The story I heard is the car is stolen and used briefly to commit other crimes like robberies or general mischief. Then the car is discarded leaving the surveillance trail largely dead or at least difficult to follow.

Re: Squillions: How money laundering won

#146

Post by AnthonyMouse »

satvikpendem wrote: post #143
AnthonyMouse wrote: post #141

Earlier quoted context omitted.

In many cases they do actually offer the discount (or tack on the "hidden" fee for using a credit card). In some markets there are also sellers who only accept cash (often discount stores etc.) and correspondingly have lower prices, which is a slightly more inconvenient version of the same thing if you patronize them. Moreover, we should encourage every retailer to offer this, because getting 2% back (or less) while…

Depends on your points usage, airline points can be much more valuable than the 3% fee.

Airlines also sell "points" for cash and you can get them for essentially the same cost as the credit card companies do. They're just using the 2% cash back to buy them for you, so even if you want flights, getting a 3%+ discount and using the money to buy points puts you ahead. It also lets you time your purchase (there are sometimes temporary "deals" on points), collect interest on the cash until you exchange it for something, and not lock yourself in to getting only airline miles instead of any of the other things you can buy with money until you decide that instead of having it imposed you at the point you use that card.

Re: Squillions: How money laundering won

#147

Post by TFNA »

dhosek wrote: post #138
Gigachad wrote: post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It used to be super common for many small businesses to be cash only or a 10% discount for cash. Likely the main driver for this was tax avoidance. I haven't seen a cash only business since covid. With a dwindling number of legitimate cash users, any business that is pulling in huge sums of cash well beyond the average is going to look increasingly suspicious.

It varies on the country. In Mexico, it’s not uncommon for landlords to want rent paid in cash (which can be a challenge in that one has to safely transfer tens of thousands of pesos from the bank to the landlord on a regular basis in a country with high crime rates), although the numbers of cash-only businesses in Mexico has been declining. On the other hand, the main thing I use cash for in the US is to get quarter…

> the main thing I use cash for in the US is to get quarters for the laundry machines in my apartment basement.

In Finland I was paying for apartment-building laundry machines with my phone in 2005. Mind-boggling that in the US, those still require quarters over two decades later.

Re: Squillions: How money laundering won

#148

Post by gambiting »

deltoidmaximus wrote: post #145
masfuerte wrote: post #134

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've heard that this is quite common. The criminals drive the car a short distance and leave it for a few days to check if it has a hidden tracker. If the vehicle isn't recovered they assume it is clean.

The story I heard is the car is stolen and used briefly to commit other crimes like robberies or general mischief. Then the car is discarded leaving the surveillance trail largely dead or at least difficult to follow.

Depends on the vehicle. Range Rovers are commonly stolen to be exported for countries where registering them is not a problem and where buyers are likely to pay cash. Some cars are stolen to be broken up for parts, some are used for other crimes, and some are exported and re-sold as-is. LR products are very frequently in that last group.

Re: Squillions: How money laundering won

#149

Post by SkiFire13 »

humoctopus wrote: post #94
marysol5 wrote: post #77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

FYI, handling cash has fees to "third parties" too. In a lot of cases it's a lot higher than just taking card.

My business needs to insure cash that we keep at the shop in case we get robbed, but that amount is much much less than we pay in credit card fees. In other words, we would much prefer customers to pay with debit or cash.

Is this comparison made with the cost of transactions in the US or elsewhere? For example in Europe interchange fees are generally much lower, especially for debit cards which are also more common than credit cards.

Re: Squillions: How money laundering won

#150

Post by evanjrowley »

mike_hearn wrote: post #66

I learned a lot about the AML system many years ago and still have some books about how it works on my bookshelf. It's fascinating stuff. A few minor comments. My wife and I have owned and used 1000 CHF notes quite a few times in the past. The last two times we moved apartments I paid part of the moving fee with a 1000 CHF note. We've also bought furniture this way. Nobody was surprised to see this and the notes were…

Which AML books would you recommend?
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