Are banks allowed to ask why I’m withdrawing cash?
Bank customers who seek to withdraw large amounts of physical cash from a bank teller as increasingly being questioned about the reason for the withdrawal.
There are plenty of viral videos on social media of people trying to withdraw their own money from their own account and being asked for more information by bank staff.
I strongly don’t like arguing with bank staff or checkout workers. There are some good examples of bank staff saving customers from losing their money to scammers by asking a few questions.
Sometimes (smaller) banks need to be told in advance about big withdrawals.
Withdrawals over $10,000 may trigger Anti-Money Laundering and Terrorism Financing red flags and cause the bank to ask questions about your cash. These should be pretty easy to answer and leave with your money. For withdrawals under $10,000 there is less reason for the bank to want to know why you want your own cash.
It feels like bank staff are managing the demand for physical cash in each branch and generally always steering us toward digital transactions.
Hopefully, unless there is reason to suspect that a customer might be getting scammed, bank staff can get back to assisting us to get our own cash.
“Banks need to hand over our money and say, ‘Thank you have a nice day’,”