This is probably a stupid question, and most likely been discussed...With all the stories you hear about depositing your checks into banks, why not go to those 'checks cashed' places? then deposit the cash

Don't those places charge a fee or percentage to cash the check?

I know they charge a fee, cant be much, but if people are so concerned about their accounts be closed and the government, why not

i also propose this option because i plan on starting to play again and reading some threads on here makes me weary. Just want to know if anyone could shed a light on that method

The vast majority of banks are not going to be a problem. You've established a relationship with the bank and have no cost. While the check cashing service might be an option for someone they are more likely to give the third degree about what the check is for etc since you probably wouldn't have an established relationship.

thats true, and i had no problem in the past with depositing checks to my bank but that was more than 6 months ago

you do understand “know your customer” is a federal banking law, not some industry wide sales gimmick? the federal government does not waste time passing laws to make selling bank products such as savings accounts and cds easier for bank employees such as yourself.

certainly banks use the ‘know your customer rule” to sell products and prospect for future needs. In fact, I would even agree that banks probably emphasize this angle when dealing with the customers and low level bank employees. After all nobody wants to be a snitch or be snitched on. Wise up.

The expression, ‘feed them **** and keep them in the dark” comes to mind.

As a bank employee I was required to know all applicable laws regarding the banking industry.

If you want to continue to spread foolish conspiracy theories about something you obviously know little about, then go ahead I guess.

yeah i dont buy this thread. Ive used wells fargo for years. I have also been able to deposit on ftp and stars with no problems. in fact I recently started my stars and ft back up and deposited money on both. usually what happens is they will block your debit deposit onto the site due to it being an international deposit. this is for your own security. all you do is call up there and they will flat out ask you if you are depositing on a online gambling site. you say yes and they release it. they actually told me they support us being able to spend our money how we damn well please. after legislation im not sure i would flat out say its for online gambling anymore but i highly doubt they give a **** about a check from stars. this is just my opinion on the matter.

maybe i missed it but if this thread is real, then you should have a written statement from wellsfargo about your account being terminated.

lol what conspiracy? "know your customer" is federal law. the purpose to help the government find and track illicit activities. end of story.

are you familiar with the law? please enlighten me on your take?

I deposited a check from PokerStars into my Wells Fargo account on Nov. 14th, the day this was posted, and nothing has come of it. The money is in my account. I have deposited literally dozens of such checks, and made many eCheck deposits directly from my Wells Fargo account, or off my debit card. I have never had any problems whatsoever.

Whatever the issue was, there has to be more to this than meets the eye. There has to be.

"Know your customer" was to be a FDIC regulation proposed during the Clinton administration in 1998. It was never implemented and died in 1999 due to Congressional backlash.

There are many reasons why a bank would put a hold on a check. As I recall though, they are required to notify you of any holds placed. I don't think they are required to tell you why, just that there is a hold and how long it is for. Typically it's just a period of time long enough to make sure the funds have been transferred and that the check is not fraudulent.

Was the check for a large amount? Was it a significantly larger amount than usual?

I can't remember all the specifics but there were various reasons that checks would receive 3, 5, 7 or 10 day holds. Pretty much all were related to fraud prevention.

Again though, they should have notified you that a hold was being placed.

thanks. good to hear if true. wikipedia seems to think otherwise.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Know_your_customer

I was going the mention the Patriot Act but thought it would simply misdirect the discussion. The Patriot act accomplishes similar results but the "Know your Customer" regulations as originally proposed died. "know you customer" seems to have become a catchall phrase these days but that is one reason I never use Wiki for accurate research, it is fatally flawed in most areas.

jaime,

Please explain how a customer wanting funds from a matured CD placed in his checking account would be deemed a suspicious activity to a bank employee? Do they think he's going to write a check for a few kilos of cocaine?

Sounds like BS. I cashed some from Stars and got a check.

Ok, I've written this in many threads but feel I must paste it here after the last post (which hopefully will be deleted soon).

Richmhv it may be BS, but it won't be if you keep dangerously posting processor information like that. Your argument back to me is probably the usual "the government knows everything", so you are rediculous Mr. Commonsense. Well let me explain how things work these days and hopefully everyone reading this will choose to be more careful for their own sakes.

I could care less about the government. For the most part the government could care less about poker. Its Sportsbooks they are after.

My point is BANKS DO NOT WANT TO BE KNOWN AS ASSOCIATING WITH ONLINE GAMBLING. When you START NAMING BANKS, processors and gambling all in the same thread, suddenly that BANKS NAME (including processor info) and those threads pop up as first hits on a google search for that bank (especially when that thread gets several thousand hits). Now that is publicity a bank doesn't want if the risk is real or not for them. Most banks turn a blind eye to this stuff but are forced to action when information like this becomes overly public.

Picture a big bank CEO deciding to google his bank name and suddenly he sees a 100 threads about his bank and gambling as the first hits on google (or he googles "poker" and sees his bank pop up first on the list). He might very well shut down any processor attached to his bank. Due to government fear, social backlash or even personal morals he may choose to do this. My god this reality is beyond common sense.

My last point is NAMING PROCESSORS, BANKS ETC. is unnecessary in 99.9% of the cases, so even if I'm delusional, why do it anyway on the slight chance I am correct? You're only protecting your self by doing this. Its your payments that are at risk.

I am also tired of the LAME government knows all argument. Heard it a million times. Think out of the box PEOPLE. How many processors have gone away without government intervention? DOZENS. Big mouths here are responsible for contributing towards many of their downfalls. I also do not mean BIG MOUTHs just because they are writing too much in online forums. I'm talking about them saying far too much at bank tellers. If a bank asks you what a check is for please just say "Payment for services" or any of the dozen other great examples people have posted in this forum.

Seriously folks, aside from the common sense of MrCommonsense, I posted a while back that this is going to vary bank to bank, and branch to branch, maybe even teller to teller.

ALL banks are going to issue memos stating how it is important that the bank not do online gambling transactions (the law basically requires it now). But are they going to educate their empoyees as to what exactly is illegal online gambling? No, they are not. This is because no one, not even the Treasury Department, can actually say what is "unlawful internet gambling" with any degree of legal certainty (except for Sports betting - sorry sports bettors, that old Wire Act at work again).

The really good thing for us is that except in circumstances not worth mentioning, the banks are not required by the regs to check any transactions beyond credit card coding. So those memos will not have to include any specific directives unless some VP somewhere decides its a good idea. Most banks are very happy not to have to monitor their customers (it can be expensive).

So - those memos will go out and individual bank employees at individual banks are going to react independantly and once in a while one will confront a customer over a transaction. There is nothing you can do about that until litigation is succesful or the UIGEA is repealed and replaced.

If you have an account that is working, great! Keep it quiet and just go on. If you have an account where you are getting flak, do not mention poker (unless they accuse you of it directly - perhaps you would like to litigate? - and even then dont give away any details), and get a new bank if your transaction is refused. That some will get along fine and that some will get their accounts closed is the future, and will remain so until the law is changed or favorably defined.

Skallagrim

Again Skal you are the man. I could not have said it better myself.

that’s just the thing…there is no way such a transaction should be deemed as suspicious. i would not be willing to answer many/any questions as to my intentions based on principle alone.

i agree their questions may start innocently enough (primarily as a sales tactic). however one question leads to the next. coincidently this is not only a sales tactic but also an interrogation tactic. Gather information, build report and gain trust.

i am no conspiracy theorist. most of these conversations are probably entirely sales driven. however, it is a slippery slope. as others have advised, there is no reason to be evasive, instead be vague. let them know you do not wish to be engaged in "sales" tactics and furthermore if your privacy and time are not respected you will find another bank.

Couldn't you just take your checks to one of those ghetto check cashing places and pay like$10 or whatever or just go get a check cashing card at the supermarket and cash em there if its an issue. Obviously for smaller amounts, I'm not talking $10k or anything.

Ok, literally 3 posts after Skal and I ask people NOT to post processor information, somebody goes and POSTS PROCESSOR INFORMATION (which is hopefully DELETED or EDITED by now). I thought our reasoning was quite logical but I guess some people just don't care. No wonder this industry is completely falling apart. Ok, I will POST THIS AGAIN.

Deucegame please BE CAREFUL about posting PROCESSOR INFORMATION. Your argument back to me is probably the usual "the government knows everything", so you are rediculous Mr. Commonsense. Well let me explain how things work these days and hopefully everyone reading this will choose to be more careful for their own sakes.

I could care less about the government. For the most part the government could care less about poker. Its Sportsbooks they are after.

My point is BANKS DO NOT WANT TO BE KNOWN AS ASSOCIATING WITH ONLINE GAMBLING. When you START NAMING BANKS, processors and gambling all in the same thread, suddenly that BANKS NAME (including processor info) and those threads pop up as first hits on a google search for that bank (especially when that thread gets several thousand hits). Now that is publicity a bank doesn't want if the risk is real or not for them. Most banks turn a blind eye to this stuff but are forced to action when information like this becomes overly public.

Picture a big bank CEO deciding to google his bank name and suddenly he sees a 100 threads about his bank and gambling as the first hits on google (or he googles "poker" and sees his bank pop up first on the list). He might very well shut down any processor attached to his bank. Due to government fear, social backlash or even personal morals he may choose to do this. My god this reality is beyond common sense.

My last point is NAMING PROCESSORS, BANKS ETC. is unnecessary in 99.9% of the cases, so even if I'm delusional, why do it anyway on the slight chance I am correct? You're only protecting your self by doing this. Its your payments that are at risk.

I am also tired of the LAME government knows all argument. Heard it a million times. Think out of the box PEOPLE. How many processors have gone away without government intervention? DOZENS. Big mouths here are responsible for contributing towards many of their downfalls. I also do not mean BIG MOUTHs just because they are writing too much in online forums. I'm talking about them saying far too much at bank tellers. If a bank asks you what a check is for please just say "Payment for services" or any of the dozen other great examples people have posted in this forum.

People that mention processors need to start getting banned for a few days. Then maybe the message will get accross. What is the easiest way to alert mods of a post anyhow? Is it by PM?

Do what? I named the bank that check was drawn on which happens to be a bank mentioned in this thread several times. I didn't mention any of the account names and I feel that the fact that it changed the day after the regs went through was material to the conversation.

The easiest way to report a post is to click the link under my number of posts that says "Report Post." The fact that I have to point that out to you...well...

Greens - feel free to delete the post if you think it's best and/or ban me for my "offense."