A close friend of mind was upset today after going to her branch of PNC Bank in Pittsburgh. She wanted to withdraw $2,000 but the teller said she couldn't because she hadn't called the day before. My friend said that she never had to before. The teller told her they didn't have a lot of cash and said because of Y2K they are requiring it. If the government has printed billions, then why are they short of cash. Maybe because there have been lots of withdrawals lately? My friend was, of course, quite shocked as PNC Bank is a huge international bank. She had just deposited a large real estate commission the previous week, so I told her she better start calling everyday and making withdrawals every day. I'm sure if she does that the bank will start questioning her on that. But, of course, up till now she hasn't thought Y2K would amount to much. I'm glad I got mine out awhile ago. So, if you need to do so, don't wait much longer.

-- Diana (healthy53@hotmail.com), December 17, 1999

Answers

Diana, rest assured that if your friend starts making daily withdrawals of 1 or 2 thousand, it will only be a very few days until the federal boys visit or freeze her account for trying to avoid the law. The banks are under orders (and have been for some time) to report any suspected 'structuring' type transactions to the feds. The feds then follow up and examine not only the bank records but the credit history, lifestyle and criminal record of anyone that catches their attention. I went through something very similar to that and had one hell of a time proving my innocence to the 'boys'. As it turned out, I had a very legitamate business reason to do what I did and they finally decided to believe me. If it had not been for the local bank manager being willing to go to bat for me, there would have been a far different resolution to the problem.

One of the things the bank does is freeze the account for at least 10 days.....and they bounce your checks while the account is frozen, too. Thank goodness the problem was caught early on and I was able to head off most of the impending problems.

DON'T mess with the banks. They have the complete upper hand at this time. If you need cash, go in and get a couple of cashier's checks and cash them at seperate branches of that bank. Quite legal if you pay for the checks. I didn't have any problem with a large check against my account and accepted 1500 in cash and a couple of cashier checks that I 'recycled' the next day. Just be careful, OK?

-- Lobo (atthelair@yahoo.com), December 18, 1999.

she could also do multiple smaller withdrawals on her bank card and on her credit cards over a few days and get the same amount. can't believe people waited this long? is she a DGI? she had better be to wait this long. DUH

-- tt (cuddluppy@nowhere.com), December 18, 1999.