"If you owe the bank $100 that's your problem. If you owe the bank $100 ~~million~~ billion, that's the bank's problem."
--J. Paul Getty
this post was submitted on 29 Apr 2025
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Software Gore
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Fair warning, this could mean your account was flagged for money laundering and/or fraud, and you’ll have a hell of a time getting access back. Adding a massive charge to the account and forcing it into the negative is a fairly common way for banks to go “wait woah hold up, kill access to that account’s funds right now.”
Like maybe it was flagged for money laundering, so they can’t have you spending any (potentially illegal) money via a debit card or making withdrawals while they investigate. So they just add a massive charge to the account and force it into the negative, so the systems already in place will refuse to let you use your card; you try to pay for something, and your card suddenly declines because your account is in the red.
If this is the case, you should consider any money in that account inaccessible for the foreseeable future. The bank will likely stonewall while they investigate, (after all, they can’t really divulge anything about the investigation to the person who is being investigated) which can take several weeks (or even months) to wrap up. It’s likely that the bank tellers you speak to don’t even know any details of the investigation; They’ll only see that your account had the large charge. And no amount of “how the hell am I supposed to pay my bills when my accounts are all locked” will get the bank to budge.
Source: My buddy had this happen to him. He started working at a head shop. Apparently head shops are notorious for money laundering, because his account was flagged for investigation as soon as his first paycheck deposited. It happened right at the end of the month. It took the bank four weeks to return his funds. In the meantime, his landlord had already started eviction proceedings, because he was a month behind on his rent.
I wonder how much healthier the economy would be if all bank accounts were stored in a 32-bit system. No one account can read more than 21,474,836.47
Whatever you intend to achieve with this, it would be of zero consequence for multiple reasons. one reason is that everyone can have multiple accounts and many ppl already do. In my teens there was a time I had 4, but now I just have 2.
Also, what does this have to do with "the West"? Are you implying this vast region has sone sort of unhealthy condition related to the maximum number of digits in their account balances?
So I see I owe you 100 billion, and I'm absolutely good for it, but as I am low on liquidity at the moment I'm going to need you to front me an extra 50 million, a really reasonable ask if you consider the how it compares to the total amount if you think about it
That interest charge is gonna suck...
For the bank lol