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Bank accounts getting closed
 

I have not had an issue with banks up until this point. All in one week, TD, Ally, and USAA have closed or threatened to close my accounts unless business activity was ceased. Most were shut down. Some said because incoming payment names didnt match and others said its because i was using a non business account for business transactions. Anyone having issues lately?

Re: Bank accounts getting closed
 

how much are you generating through these banks?

Re: Bank accounts getting closed
 

About $500 -2K a week overall in each bank. All legit, all reported.

Re: Bank accounts getting closed
 

Ally are known for being a problematic bank.
Not sure about the other two. Thought TD was good. Might have something to do with the amount. $2k per week seems a bit high to be running on personal accounts.
have you thought about opening them as business accounts to avoid this sort of trouble?

Re: Bank accounts getting closed
 

Yea, it looks like that's what I am going to have to do. It's just a headache, the bank managers don't know their own business account requirements and I end up having to return several times with new information each time. I tried different branches, same story.

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All those bank accounts? You need to have business accounts if the amount coming in is quite high - normal interpretation by some banks

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It's usually the use of non business accounts that cause these issues. Same story here in the UK. Running amounts through personal accounts they hate it.

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You can't use USAA for business purposes.

Re: Bank accounts getting closed
 

chase/boa/citi.

fixed.

Re: Bank accounts getting closed
 

With personal accounts?

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BoA is a bit more loose.

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Yea I had never had an issue with them before, haven't been using them as of lately though. You think I can get away with personal accounts dealing in those size transactions?

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Yes, been doing it for years.

1-15k per account per month

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Interesting, that's the first time I've seen this getting mentioned.
In terms of personal accounts, whats a healthy sum? Also, in terms of business the same "usual" banks are fine in UK I guess? Halifax, Natwest Barclays etc?

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I agree with the others in that you need to start using these as business accounts. That way, the amounts won't trigger account closures. USAA and Ally are known to be problematic. I have not heard anything bad about TD bank, but there COULD be a new issue with them - at one time Ally was just fine with mismatched names - but things change.

The one thing that concerns me is this all happened in the space of a week. It COULD be just a coincidence, of course. However, I would be nervous if you were selling anything that you are not supposed to be selling. I'm NOT saying this to scare you - it is just that for all three banks to shut you down at the same time is very suspicious to me.

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Nope everything's legitimate. Just an influx of new accounts being opened probably triggered a manual review. I have opened a bunch at once with BOA with no issues, this was the first time trying it in other banks.

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Just a thought, but why cant we go into the bank as a legitimate business man and say we run a number of ebay shops and require 10 accounts to keep our shops separate.

I used to work in a bank and the high turnover businesses (not sole traders) had anything from 10 accounts to the big companies having dozens.

If you present yourself ok it can't be that difficult. So long as you have the turnover the bank should be happy. They might want you to start small with one or two until you prove yourself.

What a bank does hate is empty accounts (they will also rank you based on your turnover) and business used in a personal account as they get to add charges for doing everything on a business account.

Also some banks only log your end of day balance. So if you pay in and instantly withdraw or transfer it to a main account then it might look as though you have no turnover.

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That is certainly an option. It CAN be done. Greenbean, myself and others have ALWAYS advocated building a relationship with an employee at your bank branch, because it can come in handy if you are ever questioned on anything.

There IS a danger in that, however, since stealth accounts are technically against eBay PayPal and Amazon rules. The people at my branch know what I am doing in general, but I never got into specifics with them. If you go that route, I recommend avoiding the specifics.

We also have young people here and they should probably avoid this. With no life experience to speak of, this could go south very quickly if they say the wrong thing when answering questions. This is NOT a slap at the young, I was young once too. But when you are young, you haven't yet learned how to answer questions without hurting your case in the process. Many years ago, I was looking for an apartment and I met a leasing agent at a building who couldn't have been more than 22 or 23 years old. We went through the apartment and he pointed out all of the advantages of living there, the new appliances, the hardwood floors, the fact that there was a lake breeze in the summer and the fact that there hadn't been a gang fight in the courtyard in nearly 3 months! He was just being honest, probably bragging about how they had cleaned things up, but that is NOT exactly the way to go about leasing an apartment! Needless to say, I didn't end up signing a lease...
:pound:

Re: Bank accounts getting closed
 

Also check out PNC wallet, pretty convenient and get 3 banks in one

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Yes I have developed a good relationship with the manager at my main bank. He's just not the brightest bulb in the bunch...:noidea:

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Will do, no problems with mismatched names?

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nope works great

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The amount would depend on the individual and very much boils down the relationship they have with the bank in question. For many, the use of personal bank accounts for business use never even rates a mention with the bank.

Likewise with mismatching names. It's why some people report issues with a specific bank and others say it's fine.

UK banks are excellent at stereotyping people. If you are white, middle aged or elderly you are less likely to have banks asking questions about your activities than if you are young or of foreign descent.

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No issues from experiences reported

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To date, PNC Wallet is fine.

Overuse and abuse may see this change.

:ballchain:

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That's a good plan - some investments and talking...always helps

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Thanks everyone. Definitely very helpful. I will put PNC on the back-burner for an emergency only.

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Funny you mentioned that.
Two days ago I went into one credit union close to where I live.
I asked if they accept mismatch names, since i have several people running
my stores on ebay, so technically the account is under their name.
After she spoke to the manager, she returned and said it is no problem as
long as I DO NOT operate it as a business account.
Nice people. I am probably going to open an account with them on Monday.
I do the same with every branch i go to. I would think it makes more sense to
present it as stores being operated by other persons and my routing
and bank account attached, rather than telling them i use different names/identities to present myself.
I am not sure if not mentioning the purpose of having to use mismatch
names is better. I think it would trigger more questions from their side,
so i prefer to just go with explaining in advance what I am doing.

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I said this same, exact thing about US banks a while back (about 6 months ago) and it started a huge flamewar, fyi.

But I also said it with less tact.

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I agree I wouldn't even mention the mismatched names as it might look suspicious or get them asking more questions. Just pick a bank that everyone has confirmed accepts them or find out for yourself with a personal account.

You would think mismatched names would only be acceptable on a business account unless its limited. The name is more of an issue for things like cheques. You hear loads of stories about how people got one account digit wrong and paid the wrong person and the bank doesn't care - but if the name had to match this would never be an issue and would be a get out clause for the customer.

But yeah saying you have several online stores and you want an account for each one for easy management should work. Then maybe an expense account, a stock purchasing account, a savings account, a payroll account, etc, just present it like its absolutely normal and necessary to operate your business. If you get online banking, you can usually then add more current accounts online (that's what I do with personal ones after my initial account at each bank). Some open straight away, others send me out a form to sign but its always quick and easy.

If your taking this ebay business far, then a proper business banking relationship should surely start to come into play sooner or later. Imagine getting audited and you have 30 personal accounts hidden all over the place...

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I have somewhat of an update...

My friend had a similar issue with TD. They closed her accounts and told her she had to get in touch with the Global Fraud unit (or something along those lines). After weeks of getting an answering machine which its voicemail was full, she finally got in touch with someone. They told her she can no longer bank with them and to go to the nearest branch and her funds will be released to her.

After a lot of BS and speaking to multiple reps, she was told her money cannot be released to her because it wasnt coming in as her own name. So now what does she do? She has thousands in the accounts.

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Or you can be married to someone at the bank :0

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Weird - TD has been really solid for my stealth - up in Canada anyhow

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New Update....My friend told the Fraud Unit Agent just to send the payments back to the paypal account. She replied, she doesnt know if they can do that and will check with her manager. Can they not send the money back to the account??

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I mentioned a while back i had the same issue with my bank. I had 3 accounts open with tcf, one checking and 2 savings... a few thousand each week between them all and the bank told me i had to open a business acct to keep doing business like that.

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Definitely understandable with those amounts involved.

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They wont give her her money. Wow, they told her to get an attorney.

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Did she try going to a different branch?

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It's not the branch handling it anymore. It's "Global Security"

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Few thousand dollars going into personal accounts under different names will obviously trigger a red flag with a bank or their internal security team. It blatantly looks like your doing something illegal even if your 100% legit. I'm sure banks wouldn't care about mismatch names if it wasn't for all the money laundering and all the other illegal stuff going on. Its just the way it is, there is and always will be people out there to make it harder for you.



"The Internal Revenue Service has been seizing bank accounts belonging to small businesses and individuals who regularly made deposits of less than $10,000, but broke no laws. And the government is refusing to return all the money taken.

The practice ‒ called civil asset forfeiture ‒ allows IRS agents to seize property they suspect of being tied to a crime, even if no charges are filed, and their agency is allowed to keep a share of whatever is forfeited, the New York Times reported. It’s designed to catch drug traffickers, racketeers and terrorists by tracking cash deposits under $10,000, which is the threshold for when banks are federally required to report activity to the IRS under the Bank Secrecy Act".