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by mwally 4592 days ago
>He made a dozen trips to U.S. Bank because they wouldn't give him more than $30,000 at a time.

This is illegal. Checking accounts are legally known as "Demand Deposit Accounts," and you are allowed to show up (at any time) and demand as much money as you have available, in cash, and the banks are absolutely obligated to deliver. They cannot close their doors without first paying you, even if you show up moments before closing trying to withdraw millions of dollars. (They are, however, allowed to stay open late, if needed, should an armored car delivery be required.)
3 comments
bunderbunder 4591 days ago
From the Federal Reserve's Consumer Compliance Handbook, section II, Regulation CC ("Availability of Funds and Collection of Checks"), pp 11-12:

  Some small financial institutions do not keep cash on 
  their premises and do not offer cash withdrawal services 
  to their customers. Others limit the amount of cash on
  their premises, for reasons related to bonding, and as a
  result reserve the right to limit the amount of cash a
  customer may with­ draw on a given day or to require advance
  notice for large cash withdrawals. Nothing in the 
  regula­tion is intended to prohibit these practices if 
  they are applied uniformly and are based on security,
  operating, or bonding requirements and if the pol­icy is
  not dependent on the length of time the funds have been
  in the customer’s account, as long as the permissible
  hold has expired.  However, the regulation does not
  authorize such policies if they are otherwise prohibited
  by statutory, regulatory, or common law.
(source: http://www.federalreserve.gov/boarddocs/supmanual/cch/efaa.p...)

In other words: Unless they're violating some technicality in the law (probably a state or local law), it's probably entirely legal. Probably safest to talk to an attorney before coming to any conclusions on the matter.

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andr3w321 4592 days ago
I dunno about the legality of this or not, but banks absolutely will refuse to give you over a certain amount in cash at any given time unless you notify them ahead of time of your withdrawal. They don't actually keep that much cash on hand. If you go to your local bank and try to take out $20k chances are they'll tell you here's $10k, come back in two days for the rest and call us ahead of time next time.
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maxerickson 4591 days ago
http://www.consumerfinance.gov/askcfpb/953/what-difference-b...
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