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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

#441

Post by gnicholas »

landemva wrote: post #439
gnicholas wrote: post #306

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Biden administration has decided to build the wall, as of fall 2023: https://www.nytimes.com/2023/10/06/us/border-wall-biden.html

This is confusing. According to that article twenty miles will be built because present administration is unable to stop it. "... building up to 20 miles of border wall because he has to. The administration said that it was bound to build this section of new wall because Congress already appropriated the funding to do so in 2019. It had been unsuccessful in convincing Congress to rescind the funding, Mr. Mayorkas sai…

It's a choice to not fight it, likely because they realize that this is a losing issue for them (the administration, and the Dems more generally).

Re: Why banks are suddenly closing down customer accounts

#442

Post by Scoundreller »

ClumsyPilot wrote: post #218
lxm wrote: post #144

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> guaranteed electronic banking and funds transfer services That alone exceeds the requirement of “minimal” as there’s now a need to hire staff for fraud monitoring, handle disputed transactions, chase fraudulent transfers, deal with those who forgot their passwords to electronic banking, had their passwords stolen, etc. What are the new revenue channels that will pay for all that extra staff (and considering it’s US…

> That alone exceeds the requirement of “minimal" Does a car with 4 wheels exceed requirements of minimal? Who operates a payment service without handling fraud? Can you operste a postal service without handling fraud? > pay for all that extra staff? Do roads create revenue? Like you are fee to argue that its not worth it, but government services do not need to charge fees, rhey can create economic growth and get the…

> Does a car with 4 wheels exceed requirements of minimal?

I mean, yes? 3 should be enough without too many design changes. 2 with a kick stand. Even 1 with tech that absolutely cannot fail or else catastrophic failure.

Re: Why banks are suddenly closing down customer accounts

#443

Post by WalterBright »

switch007 wrote: post #387
WalterBright wrote: post #355

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No worries, you'll be mugged by reality sooner or later, I'm sorry to say.

One of the things I’m deeply afraid of getting older is becoming a right-wing, neoliberal Randist, and using years of being alive as an excuse to dismiss everything and act self righteous and haughty

I'm not right-wing, and never read Rand. Self-righteous, probably!

Re: Why banks are suddenly closing down customer accounts

#444

Post by Scoundreller »

rodgerd wrote: post #299
XorNot wrote: post #99

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's a very obvious utility in the US which should be able to prevent this: The US Postal Service. It's federally required to exist, and services all Americans already. Basic banking services should be one of the things it is expanded to provide in a minimal, safe fashion (i.e. no loans or lending, but guaranteed electronic banking and funds transfer services).

In New Zealand the bank that provides government departments with banking is required to provide "banking of last resort" facilities to people, even going so far as people who have (for example) done bank fraud. The facilities are minimal - no overdrafts or credit cards, obviously! - but provide enough to function in a society where cheques don't exist and cash is rarely used.

Canada has a funny approach: banks can pretty much close an account willy-nilly but they're also required to open up a basic bank account to anyone that can properly prove their identity. Not sure how far anyone has pushed that envelope.

Re: Why banks are suddenly closing down customer accounts

#445

Post by quickthrower2 »

eru wrote: post #408
quickthrower2 wrote: post #360

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Banks are a special case. If you are going to apply the “they are just a regular business like my local bar” to them by logical extension any business should be able to create new money and transmit it. Nothing special eh! Banks have special rules because they are infrastructure. A cafe needs a bank but not vice versa.

Yes, it would be good if we deregulated, so that banking wasn't special. Private companies should be allowed to print private notes. (Of course, with distinctive designs etc. We don't want anyone fooled into mixing them up.)

This would be a more “old fashioned” monetary system. Problem is people getting ripped off or rugpulled. Especially as there is no gold standard so you would presumably back these by some asset for example this note is worth 1% of our fleet cars or something.

Re: Why banks are suddenly closing down customer accounts

#446

Post by Kalium »

> “And in this scenario, you can’t really negotiate,” he said. “You aren’t talking with a person who has the power to tell you what went wrong and what didn’t go wrong.”

I find this one of the most telling bits of this entire article. It says the quiet part out loud - people are often not looking purely to understand. People want information so they can negotiate, reason, or argue with the decisions.

Re: Why banks are suddenly closing down customer accounts

#447

Post by zlg_codes »

jltsiren wrote: post #361
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…

Protip to anybody dealing with a bureaucracy, no matter whether it's automated or human-based, public or private, fair or oppressive: don't look weird. Bureaucracies function by finding the right category and using the appropriate process for the category. If they can't place you in the right category, you may be in trouble. To avoid that, you can try using products and services that signal the right category, even w…

Cool ,I'll remember that when I'm starving because my account was frozen. For 'efficiency'. I'm glad they care so much about me as a customer.

Banks are about to lose more trust, and money. I'll be doing some research into my credit union as well. Can't trust these institutions, man.

Re: Why banks are suddenly closing down customer accounts

#448

Post by zlg_codes »

zdragnar wrote: post #169
djangpy wrote: post #125

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Staying overseas, I also got my account locked last month when I invoiced a consulting client. Seemingly out of nowhere because the previous 22 invoices cleared without an issue. But I am properly set up for this. We initiated a refund, and then I invoiced them through another EU business I set up just for this type of scenario. Then I issued a B2B invoice to my business in Europe, from my LLC in Asia; which then pai…

If you're still an American citizen, don't you technically still owe US to taxes on that "salary"? And since you're paying it as salary, I'm not sure that you're able to deduct any of the fees as expenses from what's owed.

Why is America the only country that taxes people who have citizenship but aren't residents?

The only one, guys.

Re: Why banks are suddenly closing down customer accounts

#449

Post by jdiff »

hanniabu wrote: post #264
MrVandemar wrote: post #179

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> on balance detrimental to society relatively recently Let's not forget Crypto mining has a not insignificant energy footprint, and is a driver of climate change. Really, detrimental to society from the get-go.

Ethereum doesn't use mining and is incredibly energy efficient, estimated at 0.0026 TWh/yr (1/100th of Paypal) https://ethereum.org/en/energy-consumption/

Paypal has far more than 100x the adoption of Ethereum

Re: Why banks are suddenly closing down customer accounts

#450

Post by refurb »

WalterBright wrote: post #388
refurb wrote: post #376

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Census bureau poverty rate is before social benefits. It’s much lower after adjusting for social benefits.

> is before social benefits Right, and it stopped going down.

From the data I’ve seen the poverty rate has trended down since the 60’s
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