Posts
...dealing with the bank didn't make your wonder WTF? Case in point:
Our records indicate that you have made zero (0) transfers/withdrawals month-to-date.<rant>
Federal Regulations limit transfers from savings accounts, including Money Market Savings Accounts (MMSA), to a total of six per calendar month by means of preauthorized, automatic, telephonic (FAX, Touch-Tone Teller, or oral) or Internet instruction. Please note: From MMSAs only three of the applicable six transfers can be by means of check. Transfers made in person, by mail, or by ATM are exempt from these regulations.
Thanks a lot, government. First you turn travel into a godforsaken nightmare. Now it seems that some beancounter is going to lean on me if, for some unforeseen reason, I need to make a seventh transfer.
Would such a request mark me a terrorist? Do you have rationale for this? For the tax money spent letting you spineless nitwits think up this nonsense, I should at least enjoy a YouTube link to some pencil neck geek explaining to me WTF this means, including:
- What metrics demonstrate that this inanity adds to national security.
- How Madoffs and sub-prime mortgage crises will be averted.
- Where the limit on the prostate exam is to be found--the tonsils?
</rant>
It has nothing to do with security. It was done back in the 91 recession to try and get people to save more. Of course now people are saving to much.
ReplyDelete@Dagpotter,
ReplyDeleteNuts to that. Getting people to save more should be done through education on the merits, not restrictions.
Yeah, I thought you were going to point out the stupidity of first telling you that you made 0 xfers then warning you about making too many in a month. The limit on monthly xfers actually isn't all that stupid; it's there so the acct doesn't become an ordinary checking acct.
ReplyDeleteAnony's right--kinda, mostly.
ReplyDeleteBut the banks got themselves into this by blurring the line between actual savings accounts (which pay some decent interest rate) and demand (checking) accounts, which allow for lotsa in/out transactions, but SHOULD pay no interest.
Then the banks got "competitive," and some offered interest on checking accounts! That was in the days when they were stealing lotsa munnies by packaging nuclear-waste loans and selling them to BearStearns (etc.)....
Sadly, the moneyfountains have frozen over in this winter of recession--so the banks now recall Fed regs (which, of course, they lobbied for)--and send out these mind-numbing "reminders."
See how simple this all is?