Letter to the Editor
Today I was told by a friend that there could be some hassle with the banks and there was the chance of a bail-in. As I was in Busselton town when she rang on my mobile, I went to Westpac where I have an account and said to the teller I wanted to draw out $20,000 in cash but if they didn’t have that much, could I please order it and pick up next week.The teller said because of all the scams, she would have to ask me some questions, to which I said OK. She then asked me what I wanted the money for and I said why would you want to know that?
She said because they had lost 6 million dollars replacing scam money from customers and I said well I’m not sending it to an online lover in Africa. She then asked if I was buying a washing machine or some appliance or a car etc and did I have the receipt to show her, and she would give me the cash.
I said I’m not buying anything so there are no receipts, I just want to draw out the money which is my money and my business. She said she would have to go and get the Manager so after about 5 mins back they came – and the Manager showed me a tick list of Q I had to answer. So we start the process again! So I say I just want the money and I’m not buying anything and jokingly said I’m putting it under my bed. The Manager then suggested we go into an office as all this talking had taken place outside the teller’s booth. Once in the office with the door shut, she proceeded to tell me about all the scammers and how a lady had pulled out cash and bought a dodgy caravan etc and I said I am not buying anything, I am not sending the money to anybody, I am putting it in a friend’s business safe. This still wasn’t a right answer to release my cash.
She said I could have a bank cheque and I said no, I wanted the cash. She said I couldn’t have it because of their protocol in place to safeguard their customers, so I said well I’m happy to sign an affidavit to say I won’t come looking for a refund if the money has an accident somewhere. So she then said I would have to talk to one of the guys in the Scammers department and got him on the phone. She spoke to him first and he then asked her for my Medicare Card. Without thinking to say no, I handed it over and she wrote the number down and handed it back. As she had already had my drivers licence, don’t know why they wanted the Medicare card and was cross with myself for refusing to give it as was nothing to do with me wanting to draw money out!!
So we went through the whole thing again and me saying the cash was going in a friend’s business safe wasn’t good enough so in the end I told him what my friend had said about the banks being broke and there could be a bail in so I was playing safe in case this happened. At that he said the banks have plenty of money and asked to be put back to the Manager. They spoke for a few minutes and I said well just give me $5000 then in cash. He apparently said no to her re this, she hung up and said I could take $1000 out from the ATM, but that was all. So I said that means I have to come up here every day for 5 days to get $1000 out each day because you won’t now even give me a lump sum of $5000 cash? (and I live 11kms out of town) She said yes that’s right.
So I got quite vocal and said how disgusting it was and this was Australia for heaven’s sake and it was my money and they had no right to refuse to give it to me. So I said as far as I am concerned, the bank can stick its protocol up its arse and I will close my whole account and take out all the money in it and I want it in 2 cheques and I will be taking this matter further. The Manager typed all my complaints which was sent to HO Complaints Dept – she said they wouldn’t be contacting me but they held round table conferences re all the complaints and discussed how they could improve. We then moved to the teller and she organised my 2 cheques which I then deposited in 2 different banks where I have accounts.
I am sending this around as a warning to others. Maybe I played it wrong and should have just gone in and withdrawn $5000 today and done it again 3 times next week so that I flew under their radar.
from Jill Ilott, Abbey, Western Australia (80 years old)
Editor:
We have received a torrent of similar complaints since we published the first story about Westpac. Perhaps the bank has started to remove cash from circulation before the Liberal/Labor coalition makes it compulsory?
Completely disgusting! I went to the bank with a friend who wanted to put some money into a special type share trade. I have a specialised broker in sophisticated trades. He would have received $15000 just for the use of his money for a mere ten business days. That’s about a 30% return for putting your money into something. Well the bank called the police. We were questioned for two hours, had our mobile phones confiscated. This all happened on Friday, August 13th, 2021. I am looking for a lawyer to litigate and sue the bank manager personally. I’ve been tirelessly searching the internet to find what it’s called when you have a loss of income or a loss of opportunity or some sort of economic loss or damages … because the bank thinks they know better than you do over your own money. It is unbelievable that we have to explain what we want our own money for.
It was the same a year ago for me at the Commonwealth bank. I remember 10 years previously they b wouldn’t let me withdraw $5,000 for a car.
So I withdrew $20,000 over a fortnight.
I didn’t know that I would be flagged. I never heard anything about me withdrawing $2,000 a day for a fortnight as Commonweath bank lets you withdraw $2,000 a day.
And yes it is disgusting that you can’t withdraw your own money. As soon as covid hit I starting withdrawing because i knew it was the start or their agenda.
The epistle from Richard Noakes is typical of an in house troll, ie. include a fare amount of common sense to sure up the large amount of lies.
Lets take a few “nudges” (“my understanding” the banks are propped up by gov. guarantees ), your understanding is not worth a crap without evidence.
No I don’t believe the banks are about to collapse, but they ARE controlled by the gov. which does not want cash out there. As to “a fine example” the American gov. ran out of gold in 1935 and has been bankrupt ever since, so that one doesn’t wash.
If it costs you money to close your account “fees and other things” then your bank has been scamming you for a very long time. IF you can get your own money out of the bank, and you stop being bloody lazy and continue to pay your financial obligations personally, SO THAT YOU KNOW WHO’S BEING PAID AND WHEN, you won’t suffer any credit down-grade and things will continue as normal at probably, less cost to you for not relying on somebody else to hold your hand.
I’m of similar age to the original informant, and I promise you that if you try to get between me and a dollar that I don’t want you to have, you’d better bring a shot gun.
Many many years ago, as a result of circumstances beyond my control, I had no bank accounts, no credit cards and no association with ANY fiscal organizations, I had to deal with every body on a cash basis. I had more disposable money then than I’d ever had before, or since. Banks and loan company’s are very expensive to uphold. If you don’t have the cash to buy something, you can’t afford it! And yes I do own my own property and yes it was paid for without a mortgage, no I’m not wealthy, I just learnt about banks the hard way and handled my own money carefully.
I have already made a post in keeping with “Neville’s” post, suggesting that you remove your cash at a $1000 a day (my ATM limit is $1000 a day) until YOU hold the cash, then go buy negotiable assets as a hedge against “bail ins”,
Quite possibly the bank is insolvent. With the fires, floods, and now COVID, plenty of loans are never going to be repaid.
That’s because the banks don’tkeep your money onsite, they loan 90% of your money, they all do the same thing, it’s a scam. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFDe5kUUyT0
Similar problems for me with ANZ during first lockdowns. They are all super nervous about a bank run. ‘Bank’ on it happening at some point to all the banks around the same time. If you have significant deposits, when the time actually comes, you won’t be able to get your money. Sorry to tell you, but it gets worse, even if you get cash, after a period of crazy inflation where the value gets less and less all cash will be worthless and we will all be forced to use the new digital currencies.
This is common practice with all the 4 BIG BANKS a $5,000 limit per day and all the questions as if the bank are the real owner of your cash in the Bank the answer is always we do not keep large amounts in the bank to give you $20 to $30,000 cash WOW when was the last time you heard of a Bank robbery in 1970 ? I asked the question recently when I asked for $35.000 cash at NAB to buy a truck I had my drover licence passport and Birth certificate and they still only gave me $5,000
Sent from Mail for Windows 10
We are systematically taking our money out of the bank too.
This is a fine example of unintentional “nudging”, someone says something which is unfounded and then everyone else panics into thinking the impossible is about to happen and goes the way that the “nudger” wanted, like, for example with vaccines to save everyone from Covid, when the reverse is actually the case.
My understanding of Australian Banks is, that they are all covered by the Government Guarantee up to $250,000. so that if, for example, a bank collapsed, everyone’s funds would be guaranteed to be replaced by the Government, up to A$250,000 and that would apply to Westpack as well.
So the idea that Westpac was about to collapse or run out of money is silly, as is moving money to another bank, because if one bank were to collapse, all banks would collapse and money would not be worth the paper it is printed on, because the country would collapse as well.
A fine example of that is America – as you will recall, the American Government spent all of their gold reserves propping up their banks who had invested badly in the American property market and lost all of their savings to wonky deals – the American Government spent trillions of dollars propping up the banks and the fortunes of the rich people, without giving a flying f*ck about the poor people who paid their taxes every year from their incomes and to all intents and purposes, America is bankrupt now.
However, money is just numbers and does not mean anything much and bankrupt though America is, Biden can still spend millions or trillions of US Dollars doing this or that, without any idea how that money is going to ever be repaid, however, supported by the World Bank, just the same as Australia is.
So at days end – use your common sense and ask the right questions of the bank manager and don’t jump to silly assumptions which are simply not true.
To close a bank account costs you money in fees and other things, also, if like me, monthly payments are automatically deducted from your Mastercard or Visa with that bank and payments in, they all have to be set up again with the new bank and you might have to earn your financial standing with the new bank all over again, not counting any purchases you made, which the old bank will hold you accountable to refund, often after cancelling all automatic payments you have made, after you withdrew all of your cash and at days end, you shoot yourself in the foot over nothing and you might damage your credit rating and not be able to buy anything on the hire purchase for quite some time – because you have made yourself a financial risk to would be lenders and once your rating changes with one, everybody sees it immediately which won’t help if you have a mortgage or a car or something else on a managed timed monthly payments.
Perhaps all banks in Australia are the victims of scammers and the refusal to issue cash is Australia wide, because when banks issue cash, it is gone and cannot be recovered.
However, when money is transferred between banks, world wide, it is not available for withdrawal and has to be put into someone’s account and they can’t withdraw that money for up to 2 weeks later – so if there is a scam going on, the scammed bank can recover the money, before it is cashed out.
It is a method I have used to recover cash, when I have been dissatisfied with e.Bay online purchases when eBay won’t assist (very, very rarely) and works really well, as a last resort.
What is a gambler .. my mum & dad “There is no luck” which went hand in hand with “There is no God” .. instead of saving their money they WANTED to WIN it & be wealthy .. favoured by the gods.
Ophthalmologist Lance Liu .. his family & business partners know him & therefore he is a silent partner .. with no capacity to sign away anything.
He went to a card game .. an illegal gaming venue .. in his new car of 3 days .. he went home in a cab ..
4 days later he bought a new car.
Go the the ATM and withdraw the maximum daily allowance which I think is $999 every day of the week to stay under the radar
I went to St. George bank the other day to withdraw a substantial amount of money, but under $10,000 the teller contacted their Fraud Division and I was asked if someone else had requested that I draw this money out. The reason she gave me was that people were doing this for others and being given counterfeit money in exchange. Unbelievable. Why would I want to be passing on counterfeit money? I was then questioned extensively about what it was for. She said that there had been a run on cash. I wonder why? When people no longer trust the government, they at least need to protect what is theirs. I eventually got it, but perhaps it is a warning to us all. It once was $10,000 reportable. Now it looks like it is $5.000. Maybe less. Who really knows. We work for our money. I say hands off.
Frank
In regards to Westpac not paying out clients money from their bank accounts, I can’t believe anything Westpac say and for paying out and refunding clients who have been Scammed, that’s a load of rubbish. Westpac just inform the Scammed clients that they will not refund them or cover their losses. So much for their Fraud Department. Take it from someone who has experienced being Scammed and not receiving any assistance from Westpac itself. And if you think you will get any assistance from the Police to investigate the crime, think again. They wipe their hands of it. Now is that because we only have Police with very low I.Q’s and are extremely lazy, because all they know what to do is just arrest people without masks and bash the shit out of them, chasing an invisible boogie man. We call that a democracy now.
Here is what you do, Lets say its Monday, contact the bank branch and advise them that you will be in that branch in 48 hours and you want 20 grand cash. (if you want large amounts of cash they may not have enough on hand for everybody if you waltz in and ask for say 20 grand unannounced especially if they are a small branch) Naturally on the day of you going to get cash they will want to be absolutely sure that it is you they are giving the money too.
Now if you attend that branch say at midday after 48 hours and they fail to supply you with the cash you ask for, record the details and conversation or have a witness etc and then waltz on down to the police station or indeed get on the phone to the police and demand they attend the bank as you have had 20 grand stolen etc. Naturally you can expect in the circumstances that the police will try and negotiate the bank giving you the money, as if the bank does not then they are obliged to take action against the person failing to supply you with your cash.
You in theory don’t have to answer any questions other than to ensure correct identification of you, however please be aware you are 80 years old and it is not uncommon for older folk to have memory problems etc, so give them the benefit of the doubt in that area, but aside from all the above paragraph, getting money from them is easy peasey if you give them 24-48 hours notice.
Time to hold common law courts into the fractional reserve banking that has been taking place, to hold them all accountable.