Posted on 01/26/2014 9:33:19 AM PST by SkyPilot
Some HSBC customers have been prevented from withdrawing large amounts of cash because they could not provide evidence of why they wanted it, the BBC has learnt.
Listeners have told Radio 4's Money Box they were stopped from withdrawing amounts ranging from £5,000 to £10,000.
HSBC admitted it has not informed customers of the change in policy, which was implemented in November.
The bank says it has now changed its guidance to staff. New rules
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A year before, he had withdrawn a larger sum in cash from HSBC without a problem.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.' "
He asked if he could return later that day to withdraw another £3,000, but he was told he could not do the same thing twice in one day. Continue reading the main story “Start Quote
As this was not a change to the Terms and Conditions of your bank account we had no need to pre-notify customers of the change” HSBC wrote.
(Excerpt) Read more at bbc.co.uk ...
But they changed the terms after the money changed hands, thus my claim that refusing to return the money should count as theft.
Foreign cars are much more popular these days.
You should be able to get your money out in one form or another. SCOTUS has interpreted the first amendment to include freedom of association, so you should be able to threaten them with a first amendment violation if necessary. NCAAP VS Alabama is the usual reference case.
The bank might impose conditions or control your money, but it doesn’t own it. If the bank thought it actually owned your money, by you simply depositing your money in the bank, or any language that implied that you were giving up ownership voluntarily to the bank, that would probably be interpreted as a conspiracy by the bank to commit theft, and the contract would be void.
Overboard, I guess!. Asking the guy to get a note from his Mother is way out there on the stupid gangplank. If krap like that starts to happen regularly the bank had better hope it’s fireproof. 10K$ is hardly a large amount of cash. Anybody trading guns, cars, trucks, cattle, coins or any number of other things needs bills, not checks, not credit cards, not good looks. Asking my Mom for a note like that would not only have gotten my account moved but would have resulted in my Mom moving every dime she had also. My old Mom dam near shut down a local bank once because a clerk shot her mouth off about how much money another person had on account. By the time she got thru spreading the word the bank prezzy, who was an old friend, came by to see her , promised the problem had been fired, and begged her to lighten up. Mom was mad and it wasn’t even her account. She saw the Depression, didn’t trust bankers entirely, and she got it done without firing a shot.
A small branch bank might not actually have 25K, 50K or so in the vault. My banks ask me to let them know a day ahead of time if I need bigger bills. They also have a rule about withdrawals from the drive-up. They say they don’t want to count out big numbers where it can be seen from outside. So you just go inside for bigger deals.
We were inside and it wasn’t a smaller branch. I usually only take out a few dollars in cash but if I ever want to take out a few thousand, I’ll probably call ahead. It’s still annoying in my opinion. A person may not always know a day ahead that they need to do this.
Ah well, I see what the problem for Mr. Cotton is. He holds the mistaken belief that he is a valued customer of the HSBC.
Had he said, “ Just want to wash some of my quick and ready ( wink, wink ) eh. Friends from Mexico and Columbia ( wink,wink) in for the weekend what.”, he would have received the full amount with a smile.
Because:
“Regulators worldwide are cracking down on money laundering controls just over a year since HSBC paid a hefty $1.92 billion to settle U.S. charges that it allowed Mexican and Colombian cartels to launder drugs proceeds - and lawyers said they expected more penalties to follow.”
HSBC has stopped Chinese from converting renminbi to foreign currency for the next 9 days due to a "systems upgrade"--during Chinese New Year? Keep moving, nothing to see here.
Sorry, that’s Bank of China, not HSBC. Wait, what?
“The bank might impose conditions or control your money, but it doesn’t own it.”
No, the bank DOES own it, just like you own your house that is mortgaged to them. That is the straight law.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.