Post: #1

Because they are going to keep it unless you give them a good reason to return it to you.

"Stephen Cotton went to his local HSBC branch this month to withdraw £7,000 from his instant access savings account to pay back a loan from his mother.

A year before, he had withdrawn a larger sum in cash from HSBC without a problem.

But this time it was different, as he told Money Box: "When we presented them with the withdrawal slip, they declined to give us the money because we could not provide them with a satisfactory explanation for what the money was for. They wanted a letter from the person involved."

Mr Cotton says the staff refused to tell him how much he could have: "So I wrote out a few slips. I said, 'Can I have £5,000?' They said no. I said, 'Can I have £4,000?' They said no. And then I wrote one out for £3,000 and they said, 'OK, we'll give you that.' ""

Sounds like the bank freezes after the Cyprus fiasco.

Flashback: HSBC laundered hundreds of millions of dollars to narco-terrorists, Libya, Sudan, Burma and Iran.

I guess if you're building bombs you can hit up HSBC for free cash but when you want to go to the Poosy Paradise, you're going to need a letter of necessity.

Post: #2

Since 2010 I've been accumulation precious metals, and keeping cash at home. If you don't hold it you don't own it.

Post: #3

From my reading of the article, there's no restrictions on how much you can wire out, just how much you can take in cash?

Post: #4

Fuuuck that. Anyone with an HSBC account needs to close up shop ASAP!

Post: #5

My understanding is that HSBC is moving away from consumer banking globally due to declining profits and is doing everything in their power to make it as unpalatable as possible for retail clients to do business with them.

Post: #6

Damn that is bull shit I would be pissed and yell something like "Wait a minute, who's fucking money is this, mine or yours?"

Post: #7

And cats wonder why I'm a huge advocate of Private Vaults.

Right.

I'm happy to keep cash and precious metals in spots where no one can keep me from them.

Fuck that.

I worked at a bank for a period of time in college and had this situation where a middle aged man came in to withdraw $200 from his savings account.

I went to do the withdraw and it showed a -$10,000 balance and Hold Alert. I called the number and his entire savings account was frozen due to his past child support. The guy started crying and almost had a panic attack.

That was all I needed to see. Once again, Fuck That.

Post: #8

I've experienced working in a bank. A few observations:

The amount of people who live paycheck to paycheck is staggering.
People who give off the vibe of being well off often have the worst finances.
The amount of money that disappears in child support payments was an education for me.
There are few things that can cause people to became maniacal quicker than financial problems.
A ridiculous number of people won't take personal responsibility to take care of and provide for themselves throughout adult life.
Young people have terrible conversational skills in general compared to older generations.

Post: #9

HSBC: They accept large briefcases with cash, no questions asked. Then they need "justifiable reason" to give it back.

Post: #10

This is going to need to be dealt with at some point. I'm very happy I read this post I was really considering getting an HSBC account as they're the only bank I've know about that is international. I have a few ideas. For one I'm starting to think it would be better to store ones cash in multiple types of accounts I have a friend for example he's a beast at forex he rarely pulls out his funds from his forex account the money just sits there he has a Mastercard attached to it so he can use it as he likes, almost like another type of bank account of sorts. This idea will need a bit more polishing but for sure a single hole to put your money is looking like a recipe for disaster.

Post: #11

I worked at HSBC in the collections department briefly.It made me aware of how credit is the new slavery.I only worked there for a couple months but some of the stuff I saw was fucked up.Buying cars and homes you cant afford just to impress people you dont even like is a fools game.

Post: #12

I was struck by the amount of young guys co-signing on high interest loans (for holidays/cars/new boobs) for low value broads.

Post: #13

Couple facts about banks most people don't know....

First off for ever dollar you put in they lend out 10. But most likely closer to a 100. So that means your money is not there.

Secondly a deposit( your money ) is a liability to a bank... YOU ARE CONSIDERED AN UNSECURED CREDITOR TO A BANK. All governments and courts will recognize that and you will have no chance winning that in a court battle in any country

Good luck

Post: #14

(01-28-2014 10:28 PM)BIGINJAPAN Wrote:  Secondly a deposit( your money ) is a liability to a bank... YOU ARE CONSIDERED AN UNSECURED CREDITOR TO A BANK. All governments and courts will recognize that and you will have no chance winning that in a court battle in any country

But isn't the customer's deposit insured anyway by a third party, like by the FDIC in the case of US banks?

Post: #15

(01-28-2014 10:28 PM)BIGINJAPAN Wrote:  Couple facts about banks most people don't know....

First off for ever dollar you put in they lend out 10. But most likely closer to a 100. So that means your money is not there.

Secondly a deposit( your money ) is a liability to a bank... YOU ARE CONSIDERED AN UNSECURED CREDITOR TO A BANK. All governments and courts will recognize that and you will have no chance winning that in a court battle in any country

Good luck

Post: #16

Do your banking at Credit Unions

Post: #17

Same thing happened to my parents very recently. They tried to withdraw $20,000 they had with HSBC for over a decade to an account with one of the Big Four Australian banks, it took three months for HSBC to finally let them do it.

Post: #18

(01-29-2014 12:11 AM)paninaro Wrote:  

(01-28-2014 10:28 PM)BIGINJAPAN Wrote:  Secondly a deposit( your money ) is a liability to a bank... YOU ARE CONSIDERED AN UNSECURED CREDITOR TO A BANK. All governments and courts will recognize that and you will have no chance winning that in a court battle in any country

But isn't the customer's deposit insured anyway by a third party, like by the FDIC in the case of US banks?

I dont know what the level is now but before crisis it was 100,000 and after it went to 250,000... Not sure what current levels sit at...

But if a big bank goes under I believe the FDIC has 25 billion to cover all deposits... Maybe 50 billion... But the big banks have over a trillion in deposits, so the FDIC won't do shit... If they have to print to pay everyone back, that will create even a bigger panic.

Post: #19

(01-29-2014 09:26 PM)BIGINJAPAN Wrote:  I dont know what the level is now but before crisis it was 100,000 and after it went to 250,000... Not sure what current levels sit at...

But if a big bank goes under I believe the FDIC has 25 billion to cover all deposits... Maybe 50 billion... But the big banks have over a trillion in deposits, so the FDIC won't do shit... If they have to print to pay everyone back, that will create even a bigger panic.

It's $250k per depositor per bank, so someone with more than that can just open accounts at multiple banks.

The FDIC did run out of money in the late 80's/early 90's when thousands of thrifts went bankrupt. The US government stepped in to cover the depositors.

I'll take FDIC-insured over gold bars under my bed.

Post: #20

Once I tried to exchange dollars to mexican pesos, the teller asked why i wanted to exchange so many dollars (300 USD to MXN daily limit for foreigners).....

...my answer "I'm spending it on cocaine and hookers."

Post: #21

It would be interesting to see what the maximum withdrawals are for each bank.

Speaking personally, I withdrew $13,000 cash to buy my car a year and a half ago, and that was with Chase. Took them 15 minutes but no problems at all.

Post: #22

(01-30-2014 12:20 AM)paninaro Wrote:  

(01-29-2014 09:26 PM)BIGINJAPAN Wrote:  I dont know what the level is now but before crisis it was 100,000 and after it went to 250,000... Not sure what current levels sit at...

But if a big bank goes under I believe the FDIC has 25 billion to cover all deposits... Maybe 50 billion... But the big banks have over a trillion in deposits, so the FDIC won't do shit... If they have to print to pay everyone back, that will create even a bigger panic.

It's $250k per depositor per bank, so someone with more than that can just open accounts at multiple banks.

The FDIC did run out of money in the late 80's/early 90's when thousands of thrifts went bankrupt. The US government stepped in to cover the depositors.

I'll take FDIC-insured over gold bars under my bed.

If you added up the entire S&L crisis it is only a fraction of lost money compared to if one Bank of America or JP morgan sized bank went under..

Not to mention your government didnt owe the rest of the world 17 trillion at the time or roughly a 100 trillion to unfunded programs to american people.

Wouldnt be a bad idea to have a few gold bars under your bed just in case

Post: #23

Great, they're going to start using a keychain device with a changingcode everytime you want to do online banking in the US. Really stupid "security feature".

Post: #24

Depending on the bank, location, and time of day in the U.S. you should call first. A lot of locations only keep $30-40k on hand daily. If you go late in the afternoon, they might not have $10k to even give you.

Safe deposit box solves this problem. Its not like you're missing out on a great interest rate.

Post: #25

(02-10-2014 01:07 PM)Drazen Wrote:  Great, they're going to start using a keychain device with a changingcode everytime you want to do online banking in the US. Really stupid "security feature".

Why? Most security experts I've read say the best security is a combination of "something you have" and "something you know". So the something you know is your password, and the something you have is the security device. So a hacker who steals your password is out of luck (no device), and a burglar who steals the device from your desk is also out of luck (no password).