begins? where have you been? the big push to debit cards and gradually making procurement of any reasonable quantity of cash (especially given inflation these days) almost impossible has been going on for ages.
I really don't understand this. What's a reasonable amount? I withdrew $2500 in cash from my bank last week. No questions other than "how would you like that?" and "would you like an envelope?"
Well, let's see... Living in San Francisco. If you paid for rent, groceries, and every thing in cash you could easily require 4k per month. That just so happens to be slightly below reporting amount. Do this enough and you'll be suspected of structuring your withdrawals to avoid the 5k withdrawal reporting threshold. I know the plural of anecdote is not data but it has been my experience that if you try to use cash for everything it gets you a nice little chat when you come in to make your monthly withdrawals and a threat to close your accounts that they will not give you in writing (I've asked). This is not just one institution and $deity save you if you have even so much have even looked at a bitcoin exchange let alone transacted with one. That was enough for US bank to threaten to close my accounts if I did any more business with them. If you want to transact in cash, just try to do it regularly and in volume, for everything. You'll only realise you're in a cage once you've run up against the invisible bars.
The withdrawal reporting threshold is actually $10K. In my experience, banks typically won't prevent you from withdrawing over $10K either, though they do file a report. The report is just another datapoint though, and not evidence of a crime.
If I had to guess, you probably just irritated someone because of your withdrawal size combined with the fact that most banks do not hold more than $15-$20K in cash.
and I probably did irritate someone with the withdrawal size. They started making me request it a week in advance before they decide it was too much trouble for them.
I'm really struggling to see why you'd want to pay everything in cash.
Personally, I don't even usually have any cash. New Zealand is a bit different in that there are increasingly few places that don't take cards. Even farmers markets and food trucks usually take cards these days. Hell, the parking machine also takes cards. I can go weeks without using actual physical money.
How much does cash handling costs, counting/paying in, insurance, fake notes, transport to bank, uninsured risks, shotgun robberies, still be less than 3% but not far off imho, we need something smarter than cash but not from giant ripoffs such as mc/visa/amex
It seems to me a more practical strategy for staying "under the radar" is to use cash for small daily purchases, for things where cash is more reliable (e.g., private sale of a used car), to help out a contractor I'm paying, and for purchases I don't want traced. Why draw attention to myself by paying my rent in cash?
As far as ATMs go it varies wildly. I've never hit the limit on ones attached to banks though I've never gone above 700. The free standing one like you might see in a 7-11 or a mall often have a limit in the low hundreds to make sure they don't run out.
But I just withdrew 3000 from the window last week, as far as I know there is no limit beyond what they have in the bank as far as that goes.
It's not as bad as the OP states, but I deal in real estate and 30k+ transactions aren't uncommon for me. There is certainly a process for transferring that much. Typically the process can take an hour or so and it's logged with the government (FBI IIRC). You have to fill out a form and get the requisite approvals.
