561–570 of 901 posts
People were happy when it was only "fascists" getting debanked but now it's happening to normal people they don't like it.
Wait until it starts happening to everyone that attended a pro-Palestinian rally.
I didn't get de-banked, but I had a similar wacky experience last year with Wells Fargo. I was buying a car from a guy in Salt Lake City. Not a terribly expensive car. I live in Montana but at the time I was physically in Northern California on a trip. I'd driven to SLC and looked at the car, met the seller, and done various things to ensure I knew his identity (e.g. he used his work email and he had a medium profile…
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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).
We actually have this in Brazil. The mail provider from the state is in far away areas the only bank that exist in some places!
Debanking is deeply unfair but more so in our society that is moving increasingly towards a cash-less society. A person can be debanked for no fault of their own and that causes them to be unable to pay rent, bills, etc. Like being arrested - there is little recourse without great expense or effort.
This was and remains an important USP for cryptocurrencies. Security in one's ability to pay for goods and services is incredibly important for any currency. In Canada, the government effectively de-banked hundreds of people and froze their funds for participating in and donating to the trucker protest. As more and more people experience this loss of liberty, the need for free and secure transaction methods will grow…
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Ok; can we do the same to your industry? Would you enjoy being required to serve incredibly unprofitable customers until you can (very expensively!) take them to court? If being banked is so critical (and it is, in modern society) then it shouldn't be handled solely by private enterprise. Government needs to step in and offer basic services.
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.
Locking up the money is basically theft, but I'm sure the law and regulations say otherwise.
Debanking is deeply unfair but more so in our society that is moving increasingly towards a cash-less society. A person can be debanked for no fault of their own and that causes them to be unable to pay rent, bills, etc. Like being arrested - there is little recourse without great expense or effort.
My job is to help immigrants settle in Germany. This is a serious issue for a lot of immigrants. The documents they need to open a bank account (plastic residence permit, address registration certificate) are not available to them, sometimes for up to a year. The ways around it are poorly documented and change often as German banks tighten their KYC requirements.
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We'll probably see people get demailed then too. They'll probably go for inmates first.
Ask the homeless about their mail address. Not having a physical address is a huge problem.
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I'm usually a crypto sceptic but your story scares me, because it'll only get worse with time.
Why reach for crypto? My strategy would be to have a small emergency fund with a different bank. The risk of being debanked by two independent banks _at the same time_ seems lower than crypto.
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It wouldn't solve the OP's problem.
$200 emergency cash would have allowed him to fill up with gas, and pay for a motel or wherever he was going over the weekend. Having multiple cards would too (I have a debit card and two credit cards, kept at home, but I don't want to be stuck with no money if my wallet/phone gets stolen) I have no idea why a university which had received multiple on time payments would suddenly drop someone off the role for paying…
The $200 would've helped guarantee food and gas, it wouldn't cover shelter, i was studying in California, the cheapest hotel was $130~ a night. I also tried explaining the situation to the university, but unfortunately you are considered a current student only if you paid your tuition.
There were also programs to help students in crisis (provide them with place to stay, food) but its only available to students who paid the tuition.
PS: As of that situation happening, now i have 6+ accounts with different banks, emergency cash, I do not want it ever happening to me again.
My belief is their is some data science team responsible for this. They are ruining people's lives with their false positives. I hope those people read this message and realise what they are doing.
I was lucky. I would've got a marker put against me that could've had every other bank close my account. I only escaped this because of my persistence in calling them and getting lucky with a customer service rep who went the extra mile.