Question about bankrolls and banks

I feel like my bank is playing games with me. Last week, I gave them advanced notice that I was withdrawing most of my money from my account and they said that would be fine, and I could get it today. Now today, they said I have to wait another week and a half to get it. I was going to keep the account open, now I'm so angry that I am completely closing it.

Anyone know how long, legally, they can prevent me from getting money that is in my checking account?

What can I do to get my money?

They made me put it in writing that "On April ?, 2004, I, _____, will be withdrawing (amount in $) from my checking account. Acct # ???? . Then I had to sign it. I feel like I was harassed today. I feel like I need a lawyer or something.

I am no lawyer, but I do know Finance/Banking, this may be able to help...

But first, just to be clear, You have money in a checking account, one that is not restricted in any way (such as a CD or money market account may be) and they wont give you your money? Are they a small bank? The whole point of having a checking account and getting paid little or no interest on that money is that the cash should be available to you whenever banking hours are open. If you wanted a delayed withdrawl you could have your money earning much better interest then what they are offering.

First, make sure they are FDIC insured (Check on the window for the FDIC symbol. If it is a large bank, there is no doubt they are. If it is a small one, its not quite as definite). If they are, explain to them that what they are doing is not within the guidelines of the FDIC, and if they do not give you your cash immediately, you have no choice but to believe they dont have the cash available, thus in violation of strict FDIC rules and regs. If they still refuse, tell them you will be filing a complaint with the FDIC and they risk having severe fines and/or the FDIC insurance priveledge revoked.

As a word of caution, the only time I have heard of a bank not allowing you access to your checking account funds is when there is a federal sieze on the funds. Before you do any of this, be sure there is no legal reason they could be holding your cash (such as IRS violations, FBI suspicions on where you grew the cash, back child support, etc.). If the fed believes you are in something dirty, and if they have some level of proof, they can put a freeze on your cash. If you are sure none of this is the case, you should walk into the bank very upset, stating what I said. If they still refuse, (and you are SURE the fed isnt involved) contact the FDIC, a local news station and a lawyer. They should change their tune...

Good Luck.

D

If the money in your account came from a source that is outside the US or even within the US but of "questionable source", then the bank might be holding your money until the source clears. For example, many times banks will hold funds for several days on insurance settlement checks.

If the deposit into your account was "normal" (paycheck, from another person with a bank account in US, bingo winnings, cash, etc.) then about ten days is the max they can withhold your money from you. They can always assert that the money in your account is "uncollected", meaning it hasn't cleared the source bank account.

Regardless, you should ask them why they are holding your funds. If the source is okay, then do as Blue-Spotted Stingray said, and do it now. Call their regulators immediately. FDIC, National Bank regulators (Fed Reserve) or state bank commissioner, depending on what type of charter they have.

K

Banks have this right, and may or may not use it when they feel like it. If you taking out $50, well, but you go to pull 60K (the max insurable in Canadian banks) they get real careful. Part is their float, and the other is for a cooling off period, ie wife leaves husband, takes 60K... Like buying a gun down there in some states takes you a week. That way they know it was pre meditated. ;>

They don't clear your American checks for about 30 days, so my bank will say xx,xxx and xx,xxx available. Like I said, the most they will insure is 60K so leave some room for intrest. You should not have that much cash NOT invested in GIC's or ? Just like your play bank should be 10 mini banks, so should your lifes savings be in different baskets.

Don't drop yur eggs!

Banks have this right, and may or may not use it when they feel like it. If you taking out $50, well, but you go to pull 60K (the max insurable in Canadian banks) they get real careful. Part is their float, and the other is for a cooling off period, ie wife leaves husband, takes 60K... Like buying a gun down there in some states takes you a week. That way they know it was pre meditated. ;>

No. If this guy had some checks that needed to clear, that is one thing. But the bank can not just hold your money in a checking account. The bank told him to wait a day. Then he comes in and they don't have the cash to give him. My thought is that the head teller screwed up. Most small branches will not have >$10K in cash at any one time. You need to tell the head teller that you will be withdrawing a large amount of money so they can order the cash. My guess is that they screwed up and did not realize that they do not have that amount of cash on hand when they said to wait a day. If you live near a larger city, I would go to the main banch in the larger city and ask to make your withdrawl. They should have more cash on hand.

If they gave me crap like what they gave this guy, I would ask to talk to the head teller, and then the manager for an explanation. No matter what, I would want to know why they were stalling me. If I did not receive a non-BS answer, I would change banks, or at least the branch where I did my business.

Personally, I do not make large cash deposits and withdrawls all the time. It is a pain for myself and the bank. I have a safety deposit box with a large amount of cash. Say I would want at most $20K in cash. Then if I went over $20K in cash I would deposit the rest. If I went bust then I would ask for $5K or whatever from my checking account. That $20K may vary wildly depending on your bet size and how often you want to deal with depositing and withdrawing money. And that is just the way I do it.

Math Boy

well, I can get my money now for some reason.

Just to clarify.

I had the money in my checking account after making some large deposits (not more than 50K). I checked at the atm to make sure it was there, and it was. I called the week before I was to get the money, and one teller said the money would be available late monday afternoon. I show up and they make some phone calls and start whispering to each other and tell me I have to wait 10 more days !!

I let 2 more days go by and then got a "friend of mine" to go in with me and whaddayyaaknow the money is available now. I went in after 2 days not the 10 they told me that I had to wait before. They are full of it. They told me it was their policy that I had to wait 7 business days (10 total), and I had to sign and date a paper saying I was taking the money out. Turns out, they were just being a-holes that day.

I have worked as a teller while I was in college, and I cant imagine ten grand being a problem for any bank. Both big and small branches, my drawer alone had on average 20-30K, with another 100-200K in the vault (not to mention the other tellers that can "sell" money by doing a teller to teller transfer. Something is definitely fishy here, unless of course the amount is a HUGE amount of money, or the branch is one of those "In store" branches that are in the grocery stores. But if its a regular branch, there definitely should not be a problem with cash availability until it gets well into six digits...

D

I lived in a major city, but not downtown. Once I asked for $8K without notice at my local branch. They had to give me the last thousand or so in $20's. At my current bank, they have had to scrounge for $9K before. They really appreciate it if I tell them before they order cash if I know I am going to need more than $10K. I usually get to know the head teller and sometimes the bank manager wherever I am banking. I will go out of my way to get large checks instead of cash for slot jackpots from casinos, and will write "gambling capital" when I write out a check to cash. So they know real quickly what I am doing.

Different banks have different amounts of cash on hand. I don't want to give away where I live by quoting a bank that may not have a lot of cash at local branches. But I know that certain small branches of the same bank will have more cash. The policy of how much cash to have by the bank I use locally may be set by the head teller or the bank manager. I'm not sure and have never asked.

Bank of America always has tons of cash. I would imagine that BankOne and other national level banks have a lot of cash on hand. Branches near casinos always have a lot of cash on hand. If you are a gambler who travels a lot a BoA account could be useful.

Can you tell us the name of the bank at which you worked? If everything else is equal, perhaps one of us may need to choose between your bank and another one for an account. How much cash a bank has is something you can only learn by experience.

Math Boy

Well all of the banks I worked for were in the VA area where I went to school at the time. Funny enough, all of this was in the early to mid 90s so that most of those banks dont actually exist anymore. One was a small state bank that is now Wachovia, one was a larger multistate bank that is now First Union (and may be one of the larger ones by now), and the third was one similar to the second that was taken over by First Union as well. It is possible that cash procedures have changed since I worked for them, so perhaps you are correct. I would say without a doubt the larger banks will have more cash on hand, again, provided it is an actual branch and not one inside a retail or grocery store as some of the larger chains have begun to do. I have had problems getting even 5K from one of the interstore banks, but when I went to a main branch, no problem at all. I would have to agree with BoA, they even have quite a few branches in LV for those of us who frequent sin city as our gambling mecca of choice:)

Good Cards.

D

Yeah, something was fishy at my bank. A while back, a bank I was at was bought by BankOne. Being the anti-bigcorporation guy that I was at the time, I took my money to the bank I am at now. Now, I want to take my money to BankOne because I figure they will give me my money when I need it and not play games.

off to play now !!!!!