Why the Swiss Still Love Cash (bbc.com) 327
gollum123 shares a report from the BBC: Last month, the Swiss unveiled a smart new banknote to stash in their wallets. The purple 1,000 franc bill was the latest in the Swiss National Bank (SNB) series to undergo a revamp. But this revamp comes as other nations are phasing out their high-value notes and as cash usage declines in European nations, albeit at greatly differing rates. In Switzerland, cash remains the dominant payment method. Here, there's an assumption everyone carries cash, even in an increasingly digital economy. Most don't get caught out buying a sandwich or paying for a haircut when the card payment machine is out of order. If you have to pay for a coffee with a 100 franc note, no need to apologize -- no one will ask if you have something smaller. And for those big-ticket items, some banks even allow you to withdraw up to 5,000 francs per day (or 10,000 a month) at the cash machine without advance notice. Buying a car that costs tens of thousands with cash is also not that unusual.
Why then do the Swiss prefer cash? Two simple reasons are that cash is widely considered to be part of their culture and people believe that using it allows them to track their spending more easily. In Basel, 53-year-old Chris Troiani confirmed this, saying many people she knows still prefer the reassurance of carrying big bills in their wallet. There's also the identity factor: the Swiss identify with cash in part because of how they see themselves. This is a nation which values privacy and doesn't like being told what to do. They see themselves as different to their European neighbors and closely guard those traditions which set them apart, such as languages, political system and currency.
Why then do the Swiss prefer cash? Two simple reasons are that cash is widely considered to be part of their culture and people believe that using it allows them to track their spending more easily. In Basel, 53-year-old Chris Troiani confirmed this, saying many people she knows still prefer the reassurance of carrying big bills in their wallet. There's also the identity factor: the Swiss identify with cash in part because of how they see themselves. This is a nation which values privacy and doesn't like being told what to do. They see themselves as different to their European neighbors and closely guard those traditions which set them apart, such as languages, political system and currency.
Swiss banking (Score:4, Insightful)
Privacy is great, but it also allows corrupt billionaire's from China and USA to store money secretly to avoid corruption and taxies. Positives and negatives of everything.
Re:Swiss banking (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Swiss banking (Score:4, Interesting)
You could be right, but I don't get this whole 'everything bad is because of money laundering' argument. I have no doubt money laundering is widespread, but has it become any more widespread now compared to the days when drug dealers were hiding suitcases of cash around the place? The world did not fall apart then, as it will apparently do now if we don't crack down on all these money launderers.
The thing that has changed over the last couple of decades is that people are working/living internationally. It is not at all uncommon these days for a rich american to buy a holiday apartment in Paris or London, or a rich hong kong person to buy a flat in NYC as a 'safe place' for some of their savings - and so leave it empty. Or for a bunch of chinese speculators to buy a whole block of flats in London on credit and leave them empty so they can benefit from rampant price increases. It is really just a product of globalisation and low interest rates. But that is not money laundering. Even chinese people evading capital controls in China and buying in the west is not money laundering (of the drug dealer kind). If they have made the money from a legitimate business trade, then since when did the west care about enforcing domestic CCP capital control laws?
It has become ridiculously hard to deal with even smallish (10's thousand) sums of money internationally these days. I run an international business and have to regularly justify to my bank what I'm doing. Every time I deal with a professional or financial service I have to prove where my funds have come from. The whole system seems to be based on guity until you can prove innocence (they could easily spend 10 mins googling my business and figure out it is legitimate). I find it hard to believe this is not more about the govt putting in place future capital controls and wanting to track everything I do rather than a sudden moral panic causing govts to crack down on evil launderers.
The same argument goes with the move to cashless. In my view this will just enable them to continue their monetary policy games once we get to the point where real interest rates are negative 3% or more.
Money laundering (Score:5, Interesting)
You could be right, but I don't get this whole 'everything bad is because of money laundering' argument.
That's because you probably are a nice person who doesn't really spend much time thinking about how to screw your fellow human beings for monetary gain. Unfortunately enough people do spend time doing this that it's a VERY serious problem.
I have no doubt money laundering is widespread, but has it become any more widespread now compared to the days when drug dealers were hiding suitcases of cash around the place?
Accountant speaking here. TLDR version is yes it has become more common because technology has made it easier that ever. Why do you think technology like bitcoin is so popular for illegal goods transactions? Money laundering is nothing more than any series of transactions that makes it difficult to trace the origin of the cash. Think of it a bit like encryption - you can often crack it with enough time and resources but the point is to make it so much work that it isn't worth the bother in most cases. Cryptocurrencies are almost a wet dream for people wanting to launder money. You don't have to have untraceable transactions to launder money - you just need enough transactions of the right type to make tracing cash flows challenging.
The world did not fall apart then, as it will apparently do now if we don't crack down on all these money launderers.
I think you don't really understand the scope of the problems money laundering facilitates. Money laundering is critical to financing, among other things drug dealers, terrorist organizations, dictatorships, illegal trade, circumvention of sanctions, human trafficking (slavery), theft, fraud, extortion, racketeering, and the list goes on for some time. The drug dealers you use as an example are merely one case among many. It's quite clear that lack of controls for money laundering would result in substantially worse world to live in.
If they have made the money from a legitimate business trade, then since when did the west care about enforcing domestic CCP capital control laws?
Those statements have nothing to do with each other. First, there is a LOT of trade that looks like legitimate honest trade on the surface but really isn't. Ever heard of a front organization [wikipedia.org]? Those are super common and they rarely exist for reasons positive to society as a whole. No the west doesn't care about Chinese capital controls except insofar as they affect the west but they don't need to to have a legitimate interest in combating money laundering. You can't stop money laundering completely but like many things it's not a good idea to just sit back and ignore it altogether either.
It has become ridiculously hard to deal with even smallish (10's thousand) sums of money internationally these days. I run an international business and have to regularly justify to my bank what I'm doing. Every time I deal with a professional or financial service I have to prove where my funds have come from.
Assuming for the sake of argument that that is true, then you are probably doing it wrong. Yes banks are required by law under know your customers [wikipedia.org] laws to understand the nature of the transactions banking customers are conducting and this is entirely reasonable. That said, I'm among other things a certified accountant and I do a lot of international trade for the manufacturing company I work for today. It's not nearly as challenging as you are making it out to be. If you are being asked a lot about your business then you need to get a better relationship with your bank and learn how to actually do things properly. When I hear people complaining about it, it's almost always because they don't understand what they are doing adequately.
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I've worked for an investment bank and am quite familiar with the KYC and AML rules and how they're intended to combat money laundering, terrorist financing, etc.
Money laundering is critical to financing, among other things drug dealers, terrorist organizations, dictatorships, illegal trade, circumvention of sanctions, human trafficking (slavery), theft, fraud, extortion, racketeering, and the list goes on for some time.
That may be true, but shouldn't the individual have a right to financial privacy? If I'm not accused of any crime, then why should I have to prove the source of my money? We don't allow the government into our homes to make sure we're not doing anything nefarious, why should we allow them into our bank accounts?
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In London a lot of the empty property is speculators who are waiting for it to go up in value before selling. Many of them are foreign, because the people building the property go to Dubai and China where the money is to market them. They are also popular with Russians looking to hide wealth from the Russian state.
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This is overblown -- the top countries for money laundering are probably the USA and Canada at this point. Who do you think is buying condos in NYC and Vancouver for tens of millions of dollars and leaving them vacant?
Pure speculation on your part. It could also be drug lords laundering money. It could also be Chinese, Russian, or some other nationality billionaires hiding money from their own governments. It would be a lot of things, but if you're going to lay a claim, please point to some evidence.
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That's a Chinese practice.
They are in the habit because rents don't come close to covering mortgages in China and for some reason untouched properties are worth more there.
I'd think they'd see the rents and behave differently outside China, but it's reported in N Cal as well.
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Not only that but can move your current tax bill there with perfectly legal tricks and measures.
Just a game which is why the socialist agenda will never work, you have to have low taxes or the profits will be elsewhere.
Google sells you a phone from local US company then pays Alphabet International (registered in Ireland) a license fee fo
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Privacy is great, but it also allows corrupt billionaire's from China and USA to store money secretly to avoid corruption and taxies. Positives and negatives of everything.
Clearly, the AC is a corrupt billionaire from Russia.
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Because, despite being known for banking... (Score:5, Insightful)
Because of Steven Mnuchin (Score:4, Informative)
EU (and Swiss via EEA) handed all the banking data over to the USA for "investigating terrorim". The USA in turn promised it would only be used under supervision by the US Treasury.
Look at Steven Mnuchin. He won't hand over the tax returns of Trump's companies to Congress IN DIRECT DEFIANCE OF US LAW, and yet a political player like that is supposed to a gatekeeper for European banking data.
You see the problem here? You let a bad actor have all that private data!
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That legal "right" applies only to the chairs of certain House & Senate committees, not Congress as a whole, and it has been used by them many times over the years since the law was passed in the 1920s, and specifically to investigate executive branch scandals. The only way to make it legal for the IRS to withhold the tax returns is to pass a new law overturning the old one -
Culture? (Score:5, Insightful)
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.
It's always a really weird juxtaposition when I read stories about Sweden (or other countries) going cashless: https://interestingengineering.com/sweden-how-to-live-in-the-worlds-first-cashless-society [interestin...eering.com] . It's neat, but it's so wildly different
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Japan is very big on stored value cards. You load them up, usually with cash since you can only use one or two debit/credit cards from specific banks, and then tap to pay. Widely accepted on public transport and in chain shops like convenience stores and electronics retailers.
They don't seem to be as big on credit or debit cards. Credit cards work differently in Japan though, I'm not sure of the exact details but I think basically you state how many months you are going to pay it off in when you make the pu
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Or maybe people just don't like the convenience over there? I mean it's not like anyone is forcing many western countries to go cashless, but fuck carrying cash around.
I don't even take my wallet shopping anymore. I just pay with my phone.
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>"Switzerland hasn't been infected with the viruses of monetization and "big pig data," pushed by Wall Street filth."
I think you need to turn your ire just as much to the huge, expensive, ever-more-corrupt, out-of-control Federal government, which is at least as interested in tracking everything we do in the name of "safety" (control). AND has the power to do things far more dangerous with that data than just selling it to push the latest ads on you.
You can't really have freedom when everything you buy,
1 Swiss Franc ~= 1 US Dollar (Score:3)
For those wondering, since it didn't appear in TFS anywhere. The exact rate today is 1 SFr = $0.99, it's been sliding a bit over the past month.
By comparison, the US $1000 bill hasn't been printed since 1945, and although technically still legal tender, was officially withdrawn in 1969 (which means the Fed started destroying such bills turned in by banks). They're worth more than face value to collectors.
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The reason the Swiss National Bank introduced the negative interest rate is well known and very clear: in a time of weak economy when many look at the Swiss Frank to store value, countermeasures have to be put in place to avoid it's excessive appreciation and to ensure money gets invested instead of held in account.
An excessive appreciation of the Swiss Frank would be a problem since it would negatively affects exports. Furthermore, money held in SNB accounts is effectively not being invested as it could, w
It's easier to track spending with cash (Score:4, Insightful)
or
Get paid on friday, put it in the bank. Buy everything with your credit card. Come end of the month, you can't cover your bills, end up paying 27% interest on your Starbucks double cappuccino mocha mint grande.
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Re:It's easier to track spending with cash (Score:4, Informative)
Or there's the technique I use - get paid on Friday, put it in the bank, buy everything with my credit card, pay the credit card at the end of the month.
Yeppers, I use credit cards for everything, and it's been literally decades since I came up short at the end of the month and had to roll over my credit card balance till the next month....
Here's the trick, by the way - know how much you can afford to spend, and don't spend more than that, even if you really, Really, REALLY want that neat new toy....
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Get paid on friday, get $100 cash. Come Wednesday, when you're out of cash you quit spending. or Get paid on friday, put it in the bank. Buy everything with your credit card. Come end of the month, you can't cover your bills, end up paying 27% interest on your Starbucks double cappuccino mocha mint grande.
So use debit, not credit.
Put $X into savings and $Y into checking each month (easy to do with direct deposit). Make sure you don't agree to any of your bank's overdraft services.
Or, you know, just budget and pay attention to what you spend.
Swiss here... (Score:5, Insightful)
Swiss here. I typically carry cash for small purchases - why mess with anything else to buy your lunch? Cash is simpler. Second choice is a debit card from my bank (directly from the bank, not branded MasterCard or Visa), because this is free to me, and the transaction fee to the merchant is very small.
Apparently loved in the US, but not used quite so much here are credit cards. Credit cards are, factually, expensive. Those great point systems, cash-back, or whatever? Ultimately, you pay for those through higher prices, because the merchants have to pay whopping fees on the transactions. Why do that to yourself? Why do that to a merchant whom you actually like? I only use credit cards in cases where the fraud protection is important, mainly online purchases with vendors I've never dealt with before, or else with vendors silly enough to insist on payment by credit card.
Speaking of online purchases: most vendors here are happy to send you an invoice along with your purchase, rather than insisting on up-front payment. Just add it to the pile of other invoices you pay at the end of the month (via online banking). Cheaper for them (no credit card fees), simpler to order since you don't have to mess with a payment portal, and psychologically it's really nice gesture of trust. Of course, this only works in a society where most people really are that trustworthy, and will pay the invoice for goods they received.
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Can you explain to me why the 1/2 Frank coin has the same size and outward appearance as the 10 Rappen coin?
The cashiers in Zuerich always gave me dirty looks when I confused them .
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Swiss here. I typically carry cash for small purchases - why mess with anything else to buy your lunch? Cash is simpler.
Yankee here. I also carry cash for small purchases, but I use my credit cards for virtually everything because I get airline points or cash back on every purchase. I'll normally leave cash for a tip, but that's about all. I pay off my credit card balance every month, so there are no fees involved for me.
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Swiss here. I typically carry cash for small purchases - why mess with anything else to buy your lunch? Cash is simpler.
Simpler than debit? Stick a card in, type a number code? Vs. fumble with bills and coins, and getting bills and coins back as change?
Cash has many benefits and I don't want to see it go away, but "simpler" at the point of purchase is not one of them.
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take out mobile phone
If you own one, and if it's compatible, and if it's charged.
Online purchases are as simple as pointing my mobile phone at the barcode on screen here.
Does this work with flip phones, or only smartphones? Is this payment feature worth an upgrade from a flip phone to an entry-level smartphone?
Inflation... (Score:2)
20 years ago I always had a $100 note tucked away for emergencies. It is laughable just how much less that would do today than back then. While normally I use the credit card a lot, in the places cash is king the small notes start to get painful. Countries where the largest note is $30 can make it painful for big bills
What (Score:2)
and people believe that using it allows them to track their spending more easily [emphasis mine]
Uh, that's a really weird thing to say. Unless you don't know how to use a computer/phone or your bank's website is absolute shit or something.
Privacy? (Score:2)
That's rich! (pun intended)
We just recently voted in a new law that allows middle management at social security insurances like welfare, medical and invalid pension to have people receiving money put under surveillance by a private investigater. No judge necessary.
And this all for small and unrealistic hope that the services will become a few bucks cheaper.
No, no, no... we're not about privacy... we just do it because that's how it's always been done. Nothing more to it.
Situation in Germany (Score:2)
ah (Score:2)
They see themselves as different to their European neighbors and closely guard those traditions which set them apart, such as languages, political system and currency.
Which is OK if the Swiss do it, but eeeeevil if Americans do it.
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No, this is very much analogous to one stupid and evil American "cultural difference." Swiss "cash culture" will massively enable crime, just like American "gun culture." And just as in the US, the consequences the Swiss feel at home will be just the tip of the iceberg of international crime enabled by their "unique culture," and they will profit from it (international banking for white-collar criminals in Switzerland; and gun manufacture and the security services/products that make a weak attempt at addres
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Only if it involves invading third world shitholes for a few trillion or so.
News for nerds about the new Swiss notes (Score:4, Interesting)
The 1000 Frank note has some geographical info in silvery micro font. Yes, I have one, got it from a regular ATM last week.
The 10 Frank note has swiss tunnels with their length.
The 20 has distance in light seconds to heavenly bodies, Luna, mercury, venus, Sol, etc, ending with CMB at 430 000 000 000 000 000 s.
The 50 has Swiss mountains, just listing them.
Coolest/nerdiest is the micro writing on the 200 Frank note, it has the events after the big bang in scientific time notation. Planck epoch from t=0 until ~10^-43s, then inflationary epoch until "?", then Electroweak Symmetry Breaking until 10^-11s, then the quark epoch until 10^-6s,... It ends with 13.8x10^9 y Now.
Unfortunately, I can't seem to find any link that shows it.
aRTee
It's for your good protection (Score:4, Informative)
Better that you only lose 5000 rather than all your money if you get hacked. Besides, I think you can withdraw more if you speak to the teller insidem this is just for ATMs, where the risk of someone stealing your card and using it along with your birthday pin number is quite real.
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Re:It's for your good protection (Score:5, Interesting)
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How does making an appointment stop it from being your money?
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Re: It's for your good protection (Score:2)
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In India I can do instant transfer to any other account in the country using my phone and it's executed within minutes if not seconds.. works even on weekends and holidays... And it's almost free
You just have to worry about the government arbitrarily demonitizing some of the most circulated denominations of cash notes because reasons.
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Ever tried coming to a local branch and withdrawing more than 5K? In Canada, where I am they will tell you that they don't have that much and that you have to call them in advance next time. So much for it being "your money". The truth is those rules are not made for your protection. The protect the bank from (a) robberies, (b) bank runs.
How does making an appointment stop it from being your money?
Your access to your money is limited. If you need to have them urgently - you just can't. You don't have full control.
No, your access to paper money is limited because it's a physical thing. You can do a wire transfer or write a cheque.
Don't be obtuse.
You own a car, the guy who manages the parking garage in your building tells you that you'll have to call three days in advance if you want to drive the car you bought and paid for. Would you be pissed off? I would, and I can understand where he is coming from if somebody tells him that he has to call in days in advance to withdraw his own money as if they have to fell the trees, make the paper and print the bills first. Years and years ago when I lived in Germany I went through several banks before I found
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I haven't seen a cheque in Norway since the 90s I think, do they still exist? I think they dissapeared around then; I remember seeing someone in my family buy a used car by card in the mid-90s and it worked (somewhat to the surprise of the dealership, who was expecting that a cheque was needed).
All money transfers -- from when you owe a friend a few NOK because he brought chips from the store, to when you spend a few million to buy a house -- are in my experience electronic through various systems (VIPS, VI
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In Switzerland too by the way -- while restaurants love cash (they often don't even have a machine, even in touristy areas), everywhere else cards are common. It seem to have speeded up a LOT the last 2 years tho, due to contactless.
Banking services and the price you pay for it seems to be in the middle ages compared to Norway or even France tough, but I'm sure it's OK if you have > 100'000 CHF on your account... They all pretend to be very important, very serious, well dressed, but they don't actually o
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In Switzerland too by the way -- while restaurants love cash (they often don't even have a machine, even in touristy areas), everywhere else cards are common. It seem to have speeded up a LOT the last 2 years tho, due to contactless.
Banking services and the price you pay for it seems to be in the middle ages compared to Norway or even France tough, but I'm sure it's OK if you have > 100'000 CHF on your account... They all pretend to be very important, very serious, well dressed, but they don't actually offer much services AND charge you lots for it. That may be why the Swiss prefer cash.
Switzerland currently has a negative interest rate of 0.75%. I get absolutely zero in my normal account. You get a bit more in the savings-account - but only if it's below 250k. Then you get zero there, too.
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Checks don't cost me anything. In fact, when I pay by check, I'm often saving the fees that many merchants and government offices still tack on for using credit cards. I don't get what you have against them.
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Cheques are expensive tho, at least her in Norway, and slow, I don't get why they are so popular in the US, would someone care to explain that? Tanks for the info
Maybe because here in the US cheques are neither expensive, nor slow, slow being relative to our modus operandi. Some systems and nations work better with one medium than others.
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Ever tried coming to a local branch and withdrawing more than 5K? In Canada, where I am they will tell you that they don't have that much and that you have to call them in advance next time. So much for it being "your money". The truth is those rules are not made for your protection. The protect the bank from (a) robberies, (b) bank runs.
Which transitively protects you (specially with reason #b.)
Re:It's for your good protection (Score:5, Funny)
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I'd be massively pissed off if someone told me to bring A, and then, when I did exactly that, told me that I was actually supposed to bring B.
That isn't what happened here; it was a misunderstanding based on lack of knowledge of the financial industry. In this context, cash does not mean banknotes or coins. It means a liquid financial account you can essentially write checks out of. Saying they need a cash deposit simply means you cannot pay with bonds, stock positions, or other non cash equivalent assets.
So what really happened here is someone told him to bring A, which he thought meant to bring B because terminology used was taken out of contex
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It's similar here in the US. All transactions above $10k
https://www.irs.gov/businesses... [irs.gov]
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Indeed. Major ATMs (train station, airport) may contain CHF 100k in Switzerland, and they will get re-stocked during the day if needed. Most regular ones just get restocked overnight. No, I cannot provide a reference for that information. You can order more cash to be delivered to a branch office though.
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Where is "over here", that you can easily get your hands on C4? My brief google on this turned up with all sorts of unrelated stuff.
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Russia. In the same way all those Russian soldiers who keep getting "lost" while on vaction in Ukraine take their guns, artillery pieces, IFVs, and tanks with them.
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ATMs hold much more than that.
And in our days the money is stored in the basement and the ATM is just a machine at the street.
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The trend in Europe is to put the losses on the bank. Unless the customer was exceptionally stupid they should not lose out to fraud.
And I really do mean exceptionally. Fraudsters calling people pretending to be the bank and getting them to willingly transfer the funds to another account wouldn't be enough, and some banks are starting to voluntarily refund all such cases in anticipation of further regulation.
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"some banks even allow you to withdraw up to 5,000 francs per day (or 10,000 a month) at the cash machine without advance notice."
I should be able to withdraw 100% of my money immediately, no matter the amount, or else it's not my money.
Why is he modded as troll? What is wrong with that statement?
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Wow, I had no idea there were two people so laughably ignorant they'd never realised that: (A) they entered into an agreement when depositing money at a bank, and the agreement covers access, and if the terms were unacceptable, other banks are available, and you can also just put the money under a mattress or in a safe; and (B) that runs on banks are a bad thing, and banks take measures to limit them.
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Um, no, they don't. Different banks have different rules for how much cash can be withdrawn, notice periods, etc etc.
But I tell you what, if you don't like the rules, stop fucking whining, keep your cash at home, and if you're really bothered, go set up your own bank with a different set of rules, and see how you do.
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Um, no, they don't. Different banks have different rules for how much cash can be withdrawn, notice periods, etc etc.
Actually with every bank I ever dealt with: *I* define how much money I can withdraw in a single transaction and/or over a course of a week/month.
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I should be able to withdraw 100% of my money immediately, no matter the amount, or else it's not my money.
Because that is nonsense. One steals your card, all your money is gone.
You are rich and want to withdraw 2,000,000 from an ATM, that is ridiculous ...
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If you go to an ATM, there is a limit for security reasons and because the machine has limited stock. The quoted limits are the defaults for ATM machines, you can raise or lower them, but within limits.
If you order the money in advance a day before or so, you can withdraw any amount you like from a branch office, although you pay a fee for withdrawing more than CHF 50'000 per month from a regular account. If you are a high-value customer, you can probably withdraw any amount they have on stock within half a
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"some banks even allow you to withdraw up to 5,000 francs per day (or 10,000 a month) at the cash machine without advance notice."
I should be able to withdraw 100% of my money immediately, no matter the amount, or else it's not my money.
That's at a cash machine, dipshit. They have a limited amount of cash in them at any given time. Plus, the daily ATM withdrawal limit is a safeguard to mitigate loss if someone compromises your card. If you go into the bank and talk to a teller, you can take out as much as you want, and even liquidate your account and close it, if you wish.
It's still your money. Technically, it is owed back to the Federal Reserve, if you are dealing in American dollars. But in everyday practice it is your money.
Re:How KIND of those banks... (Score:5, Funny)
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In America, Cash is King.
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Not to mention the US's love of violence, both to their own people by the so-called justice system, and to other countries by its military thugs. The Swiss have a military for defense (other than the Swiss Guard) and incarcerate 1/20th as many people per unit of population as the USA, land of the "free."
And if the US was populated by almost 100% Swiss, we'd be about the same.
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Why the confusion (Score:2)
I'm confused -- I thought you were FOR mass surveillance in other threads on Slashdot. Why the sudden change of heart?
You can recognize mass surveillance is inevitable, and even support it to some degree - while still wanting to support things that help maintain anonymity.
After all, mass surveillance only potentially gives information about where you were - but not for instance hat you did there in private.
Personally I am neither for nor against mass surveillance, I just recognize the inevitability of more
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Re: Why the confusion (Score:2)
"Facial recognition is a stone bitch to do accurately under all conditions"
No need to be accurate in 100% of conditions, when the average citizen is spied by literally hundreds and hundreds of (internet connected) cameras every day.
Look around - how many bug eyes are watching you right now? At one of my favorite cafes downtown customers are surveiled by no fewer than 22 bug eyes. Interestingly, totally apolitical non-paranoid folks tend to become suddenly quite paranoid if I point out to them all the camer
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Re:Bullshit (Score:5, Insightful)
And what makes you think that you, as an individual, are that relevant to call bullshit on the article?
Swiss citizen here as well. I pay as much as I can with cash.
Reasons:
(1) I value my privacy
(2) I prefer not to "donate" a few percent of the transaction value to MasterCard, VISA & co (and spare me the "handling cash also costs money". Yes it does. But that cost/value is generated locally, not remotely and by a huge financial player)
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I prefer not to "donate" a few percent of the transaction value to MasterCard, VISA & co (and spare me the "handling cash also costs money". Yes it does. But that cost/value is generated locally, not remotely and by a huge financial player)
It's ridiculous to call it a "donation". Credit Card transactions have a fee for good reasons: first of all they do provide a service so it stands to reason for it to be paid for. Far more importantly, if you pay with CC you are covered by their zero liability policy. You just need to contest a transaction to have the money back right away, no questions asked. Basically, all your CC transaction are automatically insured against fraud.
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You just need to contest a transaction to have the money back right away, no questions asked.
Have you actually tried that? I have, and it failed miserably with American Express. I had a completely valid claim, and they flat out denied it.
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Just 'cos they got one of them fancy-ass machines at Migros doesn't mean they're everywhere.
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That's not "tracking". That's providing a natural limit to transactions. It's equivalent of having a $200 checking account where money are automatically transferred to a different account for which you do not have a debit card. Completely different thing.
That's a DIFFERENT argument.
Sane people control their spending by looking at the price and thoroughly analyzing if the price is right. There is even a TV program devoted to that named just that: "The Price is Right".
Sane people do not do impulse purchases.
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They know exactly what they want when they go to Amazon website..
Which is why they use cash to buy on Ama . . . Heyyyy. Wait a minute.
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How on earth it is easier to track spending with cash? ... are you really that stupid?
By watching how your cash in your wallet is dwindling
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The Visa/MasterCard "Tax" is something like 30cents ... your post makes no sense.
Re: Support the local vendor and they support you (Score:2)
The tax is more like 3% which, in this case means $30. They actually bet on people like you who don't know what the actual charge is to make all their purchases with a card.
0.30 USD + 3% for credit; 0.30 USD for debit (Score:2)
The Visa/MasterCard "Tax" is something like 30cents
Credit card fees are 3%
You're both half right. The credit card processing fee is 30 cents per transaction plus 3 percent of the total. For a $1 transaction, this totals 33 cents, which is why some shops that deal in mostly small transactions don't take plastic. By contrast, debit card processing fees on the ATM networks (Cirrus/Maestro for Debit MasterCard or Interlink for Visa Debit) are on the order of 30 cents.