Shortened retail hours aren't exactly doing the employees any favors. Half of them would probably be facing layoffs—because, guess what, there isn't a single full shift left covered. Then there's the issue that most people work standard 9-to-5 shifts—meaning they can't just pop into a store unless it's late at night or during the weekend.
So, where are you guys keeping your gold? Back in a bank account? Or just stashed at home? 😲😲
Keeping it in a bank vault—or even a safe deposit box—comes with its own set of headaches. I can't help but think about natural disasters, like an earthquake hitting the coast. If everything goes sideways and the insurance company decides to bail on you...
frozenpanther11 said:Let’s be real—I'm not hitting 100 with this line of work. I've still got 30 years of grinding ahead of me. A buddy of mine over in Germany pulls in €2,600 net, and his pension contribution is €600. It’s a joke—straight up robbery. I'm not handing my cash over to any "pillars" or retirement schemes, and I sure as hell don't expect anyone to hand me anything either.
You’ve got parents who are retired, right? Or grandparents? Well, you're essentially paying their pensions...
The rest just sits in your own account, which probably sees about a 6% return annually. If you kick the bucket early, your heirs get whatever's left.
If you renounce an inheritance, you’re also walking away from any associated debts—it works both ways. If there's no estate left and no heirs to chase, the bank just takes the loss and writes it off.
Also, just a heads up—property tied to a life estate agreement doesn't count as part of the inheritance.
No, there's no way a bank can just pull that data from the government—I don't see how that's confusing.
The government (meaning this isn't some local regulation, either) isn't actually asking for your personal info—they’re just forcing banks to know exactly who they’re dealing with. And it doesn't just start and end with a single questionnaire; entire departments are dedicated to this stuff. Just try sending money or making a payment to Russia and let's see what happens. 😁
The reality is that terrorism financing and money laundering are taken incredibly seriously—no bank wants to be the one getting dragged into a scandal for letting that happen under their watch.
Laura Chavez93 said:Which makes it even more baffling to me—given that I provided all the necessary documentation when I first opened my account, what possible need could they have for additional info when they can just pull it directly from federal databases? (Assuming, of course, that this is actually about anti-terrorism and money laundering efforts, which is the excuse they keep using...)
How exactly do you think they get it from the government? Since when does a bank have the authority to demand or receive any private data from the state beyond what's already public record?
Realistically, banks don't care about terrorism financing or money laundering any more than we do—meaning, we all agree it's bad and should be handled. That's it. But if you factor in the fact that the government will slap you with massive fines during an audit if you don't have client data that the client was supposed to verify, then yeah, they’ll implement every tool available to stay on the regulator's good side—maybe even go overboard. And for banks, the ultimate penalty for being non-compliant is losing their charter. So management is left with a choice: A) Close the accounts of Krkimir and a few dozen or hundred other "rebels" just to prove to the Federal Reserve or the government that they're following every single rule to the letter. B) Tell Krkimir and people like him, "Eh, you aren't important enough to bother us," only to find out later that Krkimir is laundering money for a cartel, resulting in a revoked license and saying goodbye to $150 million in annual profit.
JP Morgan Chase is asking the same thing—take a look at this thread, I posted a screenshot from my own account showing what they're looking for. As for the others, I can't really speak to that since I don't know. And regarding privacy—it’s honestly ridiculous to bring that up here, especially considering Laura Chavez93 posts on this forum so much you could basically reconstruct her entire life just by reading her comments. Same goes for most of us, I guess.
Does it really sting that much just because someone decided they don't want you as a client? 🙏 Look, maybe you overplayed your hand—got a little too cocky—and ended up getting shut down.
A bank legally must follow certain rules, but they also have the right to choose who they do business with. If you aren't okay with that, well, there are plenty of other options out there. I'm pretty sure that’s basically what they told you, just with more polite phrasing. And then you still had to go through the trouble of filling out that questionnaire 😵 :klap:
Look, it’s "free" because you aren't paying at the toll booth—you're paying once you reach the destination. It’s just a different pricing strategy. If you actually dig into how banking works over in Canada, you’ll probably find plenty of situations where one bank is pricier than the rest, or maybe they offer better service, or they just nail one specific thing better. In the end, it might actually be cheaper to pay a monthly maintenance fee at another bank than to stick with one that claims to have none.
Nothing is ever truly free. I guess that much is obvious.
I guess my hunch is they need a paper trail—since everyone here basically treats high-speed internet and phone service as a basic right, they probably need some formal excuse for why they aren't meeting those standards.
By "transparent," I meant more along the lines of dealing with a big bank like Chase—knowing exactly what kind of margin they’re squeezing out of you. Under the new rules, they should be forced to hand over a breakdown of their fees and interest rates compared to competitors like Bank of America or Wells Fargo.
JPMorgan Chase has the right to reject any business relationship, transaction, or request without ever having to explain why. They don't owe anyone an explanation—certainly not a public one—for deciding they don't want to work with someone. Once they actually decide to move forward with a client, though, they’re pretty much forced to disclose most of the details because of what federal regulators require. If you really look at it, banking operations are probably more transparent than almost any other industry out there.
it’s basically just leverage—they slap you with a massive fine if you don't hand over the data, which gives them all the motivation they need to get it 😁 Once that's done, feel free to fly off to a different flock 🙂
My bad—I thought I was talking to someone who actually understands how retail business models work. Look, butchers don't charge you a separate line item for the cutting service; they just bake the labor cost right into the final price per pound you see at the counter. It’s just their way of pricing things to maximize their margins.
Banks operate on a different, more complex logic. They prefer unbundling everything—they figure they'll pull in more revenue by charging separately for account maintenance and wire fees rather than rolling them into one single transaction fee.
rowdypilot19 said:Is this really your answer to me?
What does any of this have to do with a business account?
Also, your figures in dollars are just like my figures in pounds—they aren't even comparable. It would be normal if my services were at least 5x more expensive than yours, but they aren't, which is kind of sad, I guess.
All of this looks great on paper, but what was offered to me back in the States versus what I actually received from what was written on that paper... those two things were totally different.
Plus, most of these extra perks are usually free through insurance anyway, especially abroad. And online banking often glitches out (I've tried Citigroup and Bank of America), and I've never been charged for internal bank transactions at any bank I've used. So that's not really a special privilege; they just don't charge for it, even if you aren't a client.
It feels more like that immigrant mentality where people claim "everything is better abroad," and then when it actually isn't, they just keep complaining about it. What I mentioned is exactly how it is. I’m a demanding customer, sure, but I can't really complain about much. Their service package actually saves me money. And they’re happy with me because I pay back borrowed funds on time. In fact, I don't even view the bank as a bad thing—more like a useful tool. 😲
What people don't get is that banks are private companies. They exist to turn a profit for their owners, just like the local corner grocery store. By the time people realize that, they'll stop whining as much as bluecyclist64 does. These are the types who will act all aggressive over a couple of bucks or some question about whether they're a US tax resident, yet every month they'll basically roll up their sleeves and tell the government, "Please, take 50% of my paycheck right now, and then grab another 25% later in the month." Then they'll wait six months for a hospital appointment with total resignation, while proudly sending their kid to school without a computer or a gym. But they'll still yell at the teller—because, well, why not? She's lower on the food chain. 😁
Alright, here’s the comparison. I don't see how yours is any better than what we have at Chase—and they’re usually considered one of the more expensive banks in the US.
My wife and I have accounts at Chase and we use:
- 2x checking accounts - 2x foreign currency accounts - 2x savings accounts - 2x Maestro debit cards - 2x Mastercard with a limit of three paychecks - 2x online banking access - Service center perks—2x free home repairs a year (plumber, glazier, locksmith, or electrician). We use it maybe once a year (service value is roughly $500-$200) - Roadside assistance—free (though I haven't needed it) - Travel insurance—free (used to pay $100-$67 per trip) - Overdraft protection up to $7,500 (rarely use it, but I like having it there) - Ability to take out a quick loan via online banking—up to $10,000 (hits the account in about 30 seconds) - No fees for internal transactions within the bank (at least 10 or so transactions a month) - A personal banker available via email/mobile/landline—we set appointments whenever works for us, though I rarely need them - Online business portal access through the app - Phone, internet, and email support (including video chat with a banker) - ATMs and branches on basically every corner
And we pay $20/month ($10 per person). Is that a lot? Not to me. Honestly, I hope it stays this way forever. Mind you, interest rates are higher here than in some other Western countries, which might suit you or not depending on whether you're looking for a loan or a CD. But things are changing fast—mortgages are around 3% for the masses (pretty decent), while CDs are about 1.5% (not great).
And I don't mind answering 5 or 6 benign questions for FinCEN via the app—I've already become a bit of a regular on this thread asking for that stuff, nothing special.
At the end of the day, any business—banks included—has the right to set its own internal policies regarding who they’ll work with and under what specific terms. Whether that works for you or not is up to you. If it doesn't, maybe just look elsewhere.
Banks can also choose whether or not to play ball with specific regulatory demands. If they don't like the rules, they can just walk away. From what I can see, everyone else is staying in line—they’re following the playbook and pestering clients for data, then closing accounts if people refuse to hand it over. It looks like JP Morgan Chase is being used by regulators as the new benchmark, so I wouldn't be surprised if the rest of the industry starts following suit pretty soon.
Like, picture this: every single month I take some cash and turn it into crypto—let’s say $500. I just stash it under my mattress. Fast forward 10 years, and I’ve got $60,000 sitting there. Now, for whatever reason, I decide I want to deposit that money into MY own bank account...
Am I really supposed to sit there and prove to a bunch of bureaucratic idiots where my hard-earned money came from?
Well, that's what an audit is for, rather than an automatic shutdown. That kind of behavior—keeping cash under a mattress—isn't exactly common for anyone under 60 or 70, unless they're total paranoiacs. You can probably justify it to the IRS fairly easily. But for every one of those eccentrics, there are at least ten people who made their money under the table. It might be "benign" off-the-books work, but it could just as easily be a drug dealer.
Naturally, people working under the table won't like that, so they'll trash the government, the tax collectors, the banks, or anyone who disagrees with them—invoking privacy rights and all that... Because, honestly, if you earned the money legitimately, there shouldn't be any reason to care if the IRS asks where it came from. It's the same as not being bothered by a border check because you know you aren't a thief, a criminal, a smuggler, or on the FBI's most wanted list.
If this were actually an honest country, buying a house, a car, a boat, or even just dropping a significant chunk of change into your savings account would require some kind of justification. I mean, where is someone making, say, $400 a month supposed to get $5,000, $10,000, or $200,000? If you're playing by the rules, proving where the money came from shouldn't be much of an issue—but if you aren't, and that cash came from the underground economy, then you ought to be hit hard and thrown in prison.