I Wish Banks Would Curl Up and Die

[seafarer124]

Just read a post in "Newbies" where a Danish person was rejected by BitStamp for unacceptable documents to verify opening an account.

A friend of mine today told me he could not transfer funds from his Australian bank account to his Thai bank account without completing reams of paperwork, which will take weeks.

I have been waiting nearly six weeks to get funds transferred from Turkey to Thailand, both accounts in my name.

I could go on with a few more examples.

All this cr@p is due to money laundering laws, AML.

The sooner banks, US government and their allies crash and burn the better off we will be.

I wish I had crystal balls to see the future with BITCOIN ruling the world and everybody can live peacefully without the fear of bombs being dropped on you because you disagree with other dominant governments.

It is always the good people, the majority, that are penalised because of the bad minority.

[polarhei]

banks still exist, but adapted to suit new models. In Sci-Fi, time is the unit. In real, banks never die, they just make stronger with bitcoin and gold. There is one question, When the last gram of gold is found, how would this be?

[desired_username]

Just read a post in "Newbies" where a Danish person was rejected by BitStamp for unacceptable documents to verify opening an account.

A friend of mine today told me he could not transfer funds from his Australian bank account to his Thai bank account without completing reams of paperwork, which will take weeks.

I have been waiting nearly six weeks to get funds transferred from Turkey to Thailand, both accounts in my name.

I could go on with a few more examples.

All this cr@p is due to money laundering laws, AML.

The sooner banks, US government and their allies crash and burn the better off we will be.

I wish I had crystal balls to see the future with BITCOIN ruling the world and everybody can live peacefully without the fear of bombs being dropped on you because you disagree with other dominant governments.

It is always the good people, the majority, that are penalised because of the bad minority.

+1


The other day I got a letter from my bank (business account), they proposed that they will charge my accounts with 208% of the transaction fees paid in the period of jan-apr 2013...A few days later they have decided not to do that and apologized through the media.

I got so many frustrating experiences with banks, I think they are obsolete and I really hope that I'll see them go out of business.

[franky1]

i love these stories.

people insulting the banks, but the crucial thing these story tellers keep forgetting...

if they truly didnt need banks and truly felt banks disapearing would be great..................... why do these story tellers even have bank accounts in the first place to complain about.

the moral of the story is that until you are not reliant on a bank and open up your mind to other methods.. banks will survive.

[desired_username]

i love these stories.

people insulting the banks, but the crucial thing these story tellers keep forgetting...

if they truly didnt need banks and truly felt banks disapearing would be great..................... why do these story tellers even have bank accounts in the first place to complain about.

the moral of the story is that until you are not reliant on a bank and open up your mind to other methods.. banks will survive.

Because you need money to live

The current system is "enforced" and mandatory for everyone.

You cannot escape it without becoming a homeless wandering on the streets or lowering your living standards significantly.

[yayayo]

i love these stories.

people insulting the banks, but the crucial thing these story tellers keep forgetting...

if they truly didnt need banks and truly felt banks disapearing would be great..................... why do these story tellers even have bank accounts in the first place to complain about.

the moral of the story is that until you are not reliant on a bank and open up your mind to other methods.. banks will survive.

Because you need money to live

The current system is "enforced" and mandatory for everyone.

You don't need money to live. And even if you decided to use money you could (still) use "unbanked" cash.

However it's much harder to live without banks because most people rely on their services. It is dictatorship of the majority for the disadvantage of the majority.

ya.ya.yo!

[malevolent]

i love these stories.
people insulting the banks, but the crucial thing these story tellers keep forgetting...
if they truly didnt need banks and truly felt banks disapearing would be great..................... why do these story tellers even have bank accounts in the first place to complain about.
the moral of the story is that until you are not reliant on a bank and open up your mind to other methods.. banks will survive.

These story tellers have bank accounts in the first place because the law compels them to use the banking system. In most 1st world countries there are many types of transactions (especially between businesses) where one has to use banks or be forced to pay fines (and sometimes even go to jail).

"Opening my mind to other methods" would require me to be able to afford to overthrow my government. Even Satoshi with all his BTC wouldn't be able to afford to do so.

[Buffer Overflow]

why do these story tellers even have bank accounts in the first place to complain about.

Because their bosses won't pay their wages cash in hand.

[desired_username]

i love these stories.
people insulting the banks, but the crucial thing these story tellers keep forgetting...
if they truly didnt need banks and truly felt banks disapearing would be great..................... why do these story tellers even have bank accounts in the first place to complain about.
the moral of the story is that until you are not reliant on a bank and open up your mind to other methods.. banks will survive.

These story tellers have bank accounts in the first place because the law compels them to use the banking system. In most 1st world countries there are many types of transaction (especially between businesses) where one has to use banks or be forced to pay fines (and sometimes even go to jail).

"Opening my mind to other methods" would require me to be able to afford to overthrow my government. Even Satoshi with all his BTC wouldn't be able to afford to do so.

Not to mention the politicians and groups who lobby against cash and offshore banking. It's their interest to have complete control over money and their sheep.

[countryfree]

Sadly, most often we have no choice anymore. It's getting next to impossible to pay for utility bills in cash. Some companies even ask for a hefty charge if you don't want to pay by direct debit.

BTC's our only hope!

[marcus_of_augustus]

Financial facism, welcome to the 21st century.

[cr1776]

Much of this is due to authoritarians who wish to control everyone else imposing rules via threat of government force to put them in jail otherwise.  The banks are the victims here too.  Certainly there are individual bankers who are part of the authoritarian establishment or who are corrupt etc, but it is not a necessary prerequisite to banking that they have all these hoops you have to jump through.  There would be a lot of banks who would allow anonymous, no-document banking if there were not laws against it.

Prior to all the AML/KYC rules, banks were very good at protecting privacy, and keeping your business to themselves.  Just look at the Swiss banks (and others of course) who were extremely good at it until the busy-body, power-hungry politicians wanted more control to tax people to death. For hundreds of years in fact.  Now those banks face the choice of either huge fines and jail OR following what the politicians require.

Ditto for customers when the governments require that you don't use cash or whatever.  The people who should be blamed are the people who want to control others "for their own good."  Well, frankly, I don't need anyone telling me what to do "for my own good" and most people don't need it either.  But the busy-body control freaks what the power and the money from the taxes they can get from having that power.


Crystal balls need a really good cup for rough sports, by the way.  ;-)

Edit:  I agree "Financial fascism" - enforced at the point of a gun.  No better than any one of a number of "isms" that require force to implement.

Just read a post in "Newbies" where a Danish person was rejected by BitStamp for unacceptable documents to verify opening an account.

A friend of mine today told me he could not transfer funds from his Australian bank account to his Thai bank account without completing reams of paperwork, which will take weeks.

I have been waiting nearly six weeks to get funds transferred from Turkey to Thailand, both accounts in my name.

I could go on with a few more examples.

All this cr@p is due to money laundering laws, AML.

The sooner banks, US government and their allies crash and burn the better off we will be.

I wish I had crystal balls to see the future with BITCOIN ruling the world and everybody can live peacefully without the fear of bombs being dropped on you because you disagree with other dominant governments.

It is always the good people, the majority, that are penalised because of the bad minority.

[knight22]

The whole monetary system banks have created is a complete scam

[ArticMine]

why do these story tellers even have bank accounts in the first place to complain about.

Because their bosses won't pay their wages cash in hand.

+1 Even worse in some cases their employers insist on a prepaid debit card that then extorts the employee with usurious fees. The latter is becoming a very serious problem in parts of the United States.
 
My take on this is that the war on cash in many 1st world countries is having a particularly detrimental effect on the poor and lower middle class. A very simple example is payroll. 50 years ago many employers would pay their employees in cash. The cost of handling the cash was the responsibility of the employer. Today many of the same employers will pay by cheque or even worse a prepaid debit card. The cost of handling cash is now passed on to the employee either in the form of a fee to cash the cheque at a cheque cashing store or fees on the debit card.

I do not begrudge the banks at all, they have their place and actually do a very good job in many cases of meeting the needs of the upper middle class and the wealthy. Where they fail is at the bottom of the income scale, where it is very difficult for them to break even let alone make a profit from these customers without charging exorbitant fees. Let us not forget that the cost of AML / KYC compliance to the bank is the same regardless of whether the customer has a net worth of 1,000,000 USD or 10 USD. The profit opportunity for the bank on the other hand is very different.

The reality is that cash and now Bitcoin are by far the most cost effective solutions at the bottom of the income scale.

[Lethn]

As long as they're honest, banks have actually always played a legitimate and fair role in society, the problem is now you have things like the interest rates being fixed to below 1%, they're receiving infinitely printed money from central banks and they lend money to people who couldn't pay them back in a million years, I suspect quite literally in some cases, look at the ridiculous governments bonds for an example, granted banks won't be involved in the ones publicly traded as much but certainly in private.

[marcus_of_augustus]

why do these story tellers even have bank accounts in the first place to complain about.

Because their bosses won't pay their wages cash in hand.

+1 Even worse in some cases their employers insist on a prepaid debit card that then extorts the employee with usurious fees. The latter is becoming a very serious problem in parts of the United States.
 
My take on this is that the war on cash in many 1st world countries is having a particularly detrimental effect on the poor and lower middle class. A very simple example is payroll. 50 years ago many employers would pay their employees in cash. The cost of handling the cash was the responsibility of the employer. Today many of the same employers will pay by cheque or even worse a prepaid debit card. The cost of handling cash is now passed on to the employee either in the form of a fee to cash the cheque at a cheque cashing store or fees on the debit card.

I do not begrudge the banks at all, they have their place and actually do a very good job in many cases of meeting the needs of the upper middle class and the wealthy. Where they fail is at the bottom of the income scale, where it is very difficult for them to break even let alone make a profit from these customers without charging exorbitant fees. Let us not forget that the cost of AML / KYC compliance to the bank is the same regardless of whether the customer has a net worth of 1,000,000 USD or 10 USD. The profit opportunity for the bank on the other hand is very different.

The reality is that cash and now Bitcoin are by far the most cost effective solutions at the bottom of the income scale.

These are good points. Also there is the fact that small to medium size businesses provide 70-90% of the economic activity and employment in many countries. Stifling the cash economy to such an extent is effectively killing economic activity at the bottom end of the scale. It might not look like you are stopping much, since who cares about $1-$1000 trades ... well if there are millions and billions of small cash trades then even small disruptions of the cash economy inevitably lead to less economic activity and growth for the wider economy.

I'm quite sure if they rolled back all these insane cash restrictions and printed larger denomination notes again (e.g. $500, $1,000 and $10,000 dollar bills) then the economy would grow significantly ... oh wait, the terrorists might win if the economy booms?

[ronimacarroni]

Man if Ron Paul had been elected we would probably have had the choice to pay our taxes with bitcoins.
What a shame.

[Remember remember the 5th of November]

I already transferred away my coins from Bitstamp, they screwed up with this verification thing.

[seafarer124]

I already transferred away my coins from Bitstamp, they screwed up with this verification thing.

Can't really blame BitStamp, they have to comply otherwise they will not survive.

It is all very frustrating.

[AndrewWilliams]

I think the biggest issue people have with banks these days, is lack of privacy.

If you see some of the characters that work as bank tellers these days..... wow is all I have to say.

I try to use bank tellers as little as possible. They are always trying to cheat the customer at the teller window; short changing, and all kinds of tricks.

I have had at least three tellers try and steal from me in the last 4 years.



Lack of trust with today banks, no good.