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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

#581

Post by mattdesl »

mcny wrote: post #544
trompetenaccoun wrote: post #523

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Horrible. I've heard similar stories but this one's the worst by far. This shouldn't be allowed to ever happen again, such sudden closures without warning need to be illegal. The issue is banking is highly regulated but a lot of the regulation is about AML, terrorism screening and such. Not actually protecting customers from abuse but rather the other way around - banks are taking precautions to protect themselves fr…

> There is a solution - not sure if everyone's ready to hear it yet: Decentralized finance. I want the pendulum to swing the other way. Everybody gets and gets to keep forever an account at the Reserve Bank. > self-hosted Ethereum wallet I'm sorry. The technology might be fine But I simply do not trust the people involved with cryptocurrency. Not just the scammers such as SBF, I don't trust the "victims" to make wise…

> I want the pendulum to swing the other way. Everybody gets and gets to keep forever an account at the Reserve Bank.

Overhauling the financial system to ensure that citizens cannot have their accounts revoked on a whim sounds like a nice pipe dream. I am cynical we will ever see that in our lifetime, as countries prefer to have full control over their citizen's wallets (e.g. see Canada enacting Emergencies Act to curb protests).

Re: Why banks are suddenly closing down customer accounts

#583

Post by gvurrdon »

dboreham wrote: post #490

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…

Similarly, not de-banked, but I did recently have a payment blocked, with no explanation from my bank other than that the recipient seemed suspicious. It was a payment made in person to a garage that had just serviced my car, to which I've been going for servicing for ~15 years, for an amount similar to the usual cost. This was rather worrying as if they'd block that I have no idea what other payments might mysteriously fail (the bank's agent did not seem to understand why this might be a concern).

Re: Why banks are suddenly closing down customer accounts

#584

Post by ArabicBaklava »

manojlds wrote: post #576
ta1243 wrote: post #556

Earlier quoted context omitted.

$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…

Yeah the story doesn't check out.

Well, sadly you are not the only one that did not believe me. My family, the closest to me, said the same thing, and it took a while to convince them i was not in california to play.. that is after coming back empty handed / degreeless.

Please refer to the FAQ from the university i was studying at. #10 to be exact https://sbs.fullerton.edu/about/FAQs.php I was late to pay the tuiton, only because the bank account was suddenly frozen, on a long weekend.

This is the program i was talking about, you can review the eligibility, which states that the student must be currently enrolled. https://www.fullerton.edu/basic-needs/

Re: Why banks are suddenly closing down customer accounts

#585

Post by teddyh »

pjc50 wrote: post #552
neonsunset wrote: post #518

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I wonder if the bank can be sued for this. That's how random bank managers get found in a river, due to policies like these impacting the innocent.

I'm surprised we haven't heard more lawsuits about this in notoriously litigious America. I find it hard to believe that "we can ruin you at any time" is a sustainably fair contract term.

In order to sue anyone, you need money. To have money, you need a bank account. Therefore, if the bank takes your account, you can’t sue the bank.

Re: Why banks are suddenly closing down customer accounts

#586

Post by Aerbil313 »

TheHiddenSun wrote: post #231
redox99 wrote: post #206

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Glad we have so much energy focusing on legit bankers instead of the crypto that is actually funding multiple US adversaries at this very moment Funny you criticize crypto, when it actually solves all the bullshit you're mentioning. It's so nice knowing for a fact that when I send or receive crypto, it will 100% arrive within moments, unlike the absolute shitfest that is international transfers (like SWIFT).

100% agree. Crypto today is the only way how you can take control of your own funds. What use is the money in your Bank account if the ruling political party can label you an ultra-right extremist and retroactively lock all your money down, just because of a single 1$ donation you did to a cause you believed to be right, like Canada did?

> Crypto today is the only way how you can take control of your own funds.

Well, digging a hole in the forest and storing money there technically remains an option.

May be more viable than crypto for certain rare use cases.

Re: Why banks are suddenly closing down customer accounts

#587

Post by Quindecillion »

hanniabu wrote: post #254
krupan wrote: post #109

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

[flagged]

You obviously don't spend much time in, or interacting with, the Bitcoin community.

Re: Why banks are suddenly closing down customer accounts

#588

Post by shapefrog »

fyzix wrote: post #48
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…

I'm usually a crypto sceptic but your story scares me, because it'll only get worse with time.

Using Crypto is probably the #1 reason for being debanked ...

Unverifiable, untraceable money arriving into your account does not work well with AML regualations.

Re: Why banks are suddenly closing down customer accounts

#589

Post by j-a-a-p »

trompetenaccoun wrote: post #523
ArabicBaklava wrote: post #494

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Well, this happened in 2017.. fast forward to this account closure effect on my life: I had to go back to my country, without a degree, was not able to land any job. Unfortunately, good places require degrees. Stayed unemployed, hit with chronic depression as anyone would. Lost 4+ years of professional progress. When covid came, i was able to complete my degree online and graduated in 2021, but because all fresh grad…

Horrible. I've heard similar stories but this one's the worst by far. This shouldn't be allowed to ever happen again, such sudden closures without warning need to be illegal. The issue is banking is highly regulated but a lot of the regulation is about AML, terrorism screening and such. Not actually protecting customers from abuse but rather the other way around - banks are taking precautions to protect themselves fr…

We simply should not blindly rely on services like banks. You can invent any other new system, but you will never avoid this to happen. The lesson to be learned here is never let yourself get cornered.

Re: Why banks are suddenly closing down customer accounts

#590

Post by HenryBemis »

bostik wrote: post #480
xioxox wrote: post #465

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No fan of Farage, but then why was most of the document the bank produced about what he did as a politician? Farage also claims he never met these supposed thresholds.

Combination of reputational damage[0] and him being a PEP. I believe the account closure was a business decision, but they definitely had no reason to be public about it. One good thing came out of the debacle, though: it put the spotlight on UK retail banking regulations and how they are allowed to treat customers in the first place. Financial institutions don't like small-time PEPs. They don't net the banks anywher…

Negative brand value is no reason to debank someone, half musicians that do drugs would give their bank a bad name. There must be a legal basis to debank someone.

I don't like Farage's opinions, and being a PEP only means "more eyes on you", doesn't mean "kick them out". 1) Now, if Coutts dropped the ball on something, shame on them. A good lawyer can get some good ££££ for damaging the client's business/etc. 2) If Farage didn't mean a minimum-net-worth.. that's another story.

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