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by RandomBacon 2209 days ago
If your bank questions you for withdrawing $10,000 or more, I would use a different bank.

I withdrew about $13,000 a few months ago, and my (national) credit union didn't hesitate or ask me anything (except for an additional piece of identification).
3 comments
raincom 2209 days ago
Yes, they don't ask you any thing. However, banks/car dealerships/etc have to file CTRs(Currency Transaction reports). It is good that you withdrew $13K in one shot. Structured withdrawals (4k, one day, 5k three days later, another 4k ten days later) will be flagged by AML software of any financial institution. And folks in the compliance team will file SAR(Suspicious activity report).

Lesson: when you legitimately need $30K cash, just withdraw it in one transaction. Never ever withdraw $5K every week for six weeks. For every SAR, there are 100 CTRs filed.

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RandomBacon 2209 days ago
Thank you, it sounds like you have some insight about the process.

I'm aware of structuring, but I don't think most people are. I've heard about it only once in the news where a store owner had his money seized because he was trying to avoid depositing more than $10,000 at a time, over a long time period.

IIRC, this was the case: https://www.forbes.com/sites/instituteforjustice/2015/05/05/...

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thephyber 2208 days ago
Re: structuring, the most famous example I know of is Dennis Hastert[1].

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dennis_Hastert#Indictment

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bluedino 2209 days ago
Do it again. They will flag your account and you will be filling out paperwork if you regularly make large cash transactions. Federal law.
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RandomBacon 2209 days ago
That doesn't change anything about the comment I replied to or my comment though. I don't need to withdraw more cash, and I'm not going to do so based on a command from a random person.
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bluedino 2208 days ago
The point is if you were a "cyber criminal" doing it regularly, the FBI would eventually trace it back to organized crime and you'd get in trouble.

People make one-time withdrawls of large amounts of cash all the time.

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papercrane 2209 days ago
In the US any cash withdrawal that large triggers a legal requirement for the bank to file a transaction report with the government. If the teller didn't ask you anything and you don't regularly make withdrawals like that then somebody messed up.
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RandomBacon 2209 days ago
As far as I can tell, they are only required by law to ask for identification; no requirement about asking why. The report they make goes to the IRS where the IRS might ask a question.

https://finance.zacks.com/federal-banking-rules-withdrawing-...

The teller asked for identification which exactly what the law requires, so it doesn't sound like they screwed up.

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