How were you depositing MOs and at what monthly volume?

To all above. Somewhere between 30 and 50 each month. All mobile deposit. Have to say I loved their app. So friendly to use.

What kind of warning? By phone or letter? Thanks.

That doesn't help us without knowing a dollar amount for each MO. How much money, in a dollar amount, did you run through Alliant? We don't need exact numbers, anything close is fine.

letter

It seems CUs are catching up. First closer report from DCU and now Alliant CU.
Diversification is name of the game. I benchmark not to exceed more then 4k MO deposit per month to remain under radar.

where u do get that number?
u r under the radar until u aren't.

I tried to reopen when their was a bonus and that was immediately shutdown last year.

When they merged with Merit bank, my Merit account was closed.

I was not, so obviously that didn't help!

My UFB Direct account was closed after about 18 months and not very high volume. Less than 3k in MO per month. All deposited by MO. They sent me a letter saying it would be closed and that I have 30 days to get my funds withdrawn, which was only a few bucks.

they shut me down about two years ago after a similar volume and timeframe.

I read statements like "my bank is ok with my depositing 15K of MO per month". How does one know that w/o "destructive testing"? I assume one can increase the amount gradually, and when the limit is reached one will learn what it is, but then the account is closed.

No need to destroy anything. Just have conversations with the right people at your bank.

The front office people can't really sanction your business. Few can actually talk to the risk closure folk who run analytics and flag account deposit patterns for closure. And of those of us who can, like this old auditor and fraud examiner, you still don't necessarily get a free pass . Since nobody these days is going to reveal their working large scale, legal paper recycling centers the best you can do is find the places that do not work. You are gonna have to play that classic Microsoft game, Minesweeper. :cool:

Could you give an example? I tried it once with a branch manager at BoA, and all he could say "deposit as much as you want, there is no legal restriction". Even if I could reach out to a risk manager, I am afraid his answer would be that they don't want that type of business at all.

Your 1st mistake is using BOA.

Even when bank management know and accept your business model, as my Citifolk did in Texas, the riskfolk shut down the operation after processing about 17 million over 3 years. As you note, there is no legal reason to do so.

I did not bother to talk to the riskfolk then as I always maintain at least a half dozen banking relationships so my cash flow never was impeded.

In the case of one of my credit unions, I had a long talk with their risk officer about my business model and she understood the dynamic of the business, legality of it, and the fact that it did not involve any of their bank cards. However, because her analytical tool was flagging the account and she was concerned about having to deal with bank auditors, she politely asked me to switch the operation to another institution. No account shutdowns, no closure any accounts, including address related accounts for my SO and kiddo.

Understand we are just bycatch to risk management, the dolphins caught in the tuna fishing nets. Nothing personal, but we are a bit of a back office nuisance.:cool:

Shifting gears, to understand the real nature of the customers bankers prefer type Wells Fargo loves baby seals into your Google secret decoder ring. :p

Amen to this, great explanation. I too have had outcomes on both ends of the spectrum. The people who are of importance to us are the backoffice risk management department of the banks/CUs. If/when they contact you about your deposits, after explaining the model, they may simply decide that they would rather not deal with the hassle of that type of business model and may shut you down or ask you to stop. Or, they may be okay with it and allow it to keep going. YMMV.

In a large bank, such as BoA, you'll never have access to management that could shut you down. More than likely they'll be located hundreds or even thousands of miles way from your local branch.

This doesn't make any sense to me. Do I need a cipher to decode?

You need to drink at least 6 beers before AlohaDave starts making any sense. Or he needs to drink 6 before you make sense. Or else go spend 6 months reading the Trick It thread and then come back here and everything will make sense.

Windshield, bug

Indeed, banks like to keep all their goblins and RATs well hidden and isolated from the public.:cool:

It was all clear as day to me and I have not had 1 drop today (yet)! :p

I'll just pretend like I don't speak his language ;)

Ironically, here is my 2nd post.:o

All my accounts with Citi has been blocked this Saturday(I don't know if I should use the word "shut down"). Credit management didn't mention those you-know-what-it-is activity in my DC card. I did 1.5x CL per cycle though.

The reason they cite is they get an alert from credit bureau saying that I have lots of recent credit inquires (3 or 4 in last three months) and increased credit limits, not to mention I just got approved for Presitge. They specific mentioned I have more than 100K unsecured credit limit, creating great credit risk. Yes, I just go over 100k mark due to recent CLI and card improve.

Decision is not reversible. However, I did ask if they could reinstate my accounts once I lower my total CL. They said this is possible but it would result in another HP. Fine, at least it is somehow feasible.

This does reminds me of those poor folks who asked for retention offer but actually got card cancelled. Then to get those cards reinstated, it would need another HP as well.:eek:

P.S. I did remember starting from last week, when I make a payment for DC, the available credit won't immediately update. It does happened before and it took 10 days to clear. However, it won't change when I used another bank account. So I believe this is somehow connected.

Do you have a long credit history in general?

Average Age 1 yr 2 mos:eek:
Oldest Account 3 yrs 10 mos

Have been with Citi for 2 yrs 3 mos

Weigh this carefully before you ask for reinstatement of account and agree to HP, if you haven't done it. My friend just went through this, she was assured they will reinstate two of her DC accounts but it requires HP to which she agreed...only to get postal mail a week later saying that after careful deliberation, they decided to cut off their business relationship with her. She's livid up to now.

We asked her what may have flagged her account and she *thinks* it's cycling her $3K CL 8x and her recent venture into WMBP (she made six payments). It's now water under the bridge, she feels bad her CB that hasn't posted was forfeited :(

We should be aware that once our accounts get flagged for manual review and we know we've been using the card(s) for a lot of MS, we should realize the chances of re-instatement is very low so better not risk another HP.

Before she asked for reinstatement, did she do anything? Did Citi give any instruction or suggestion (or whatever it is) like in my case?

she didn't mention, we were more interested on what caused her account(s) to get flagged for shutdown. I know she reads FT, hopefully she chimes in.

Time to ditch Citi. They discovered that your business is not as profitable as laundering money through Banamex (even though your activity won't cost them the $100 million in fines they paid for getting caught money laundering).

There are plenty of other opportunities swirling on the horizon - its a Banknado out there.:p

Its not up to this "they" you spoke to.

Mind elaborate a little more?

She *thinks* cycling 8x along with WMBP might have raised a red flag huh? I think she might be onto something.

B@rclay shutdown :(

Any thoughts on the following:
1) Bonus: I have 2 cards that I met the bonus requirements, but have not received the bonus. CFPB to try and get the bonus?
2) Annual Fee: Hit with annual fee last month for 2 new cards. Wait or CFPB?
3) Arrival+ Current Balance: Its less than 20K points so not a ton, but whats the easiest way to get paid?

I'm guessing some others on here might have been in the same situation. Interesting in that MS was very minimal with Barclay recently. I was using it mostly for regular purchases. Maybe the regular purchases got me shutdown.

I've never had problems with Barclays and I've hit them pretty hard over the last two years. Additionally, I haven't seen many DPs here or elsewhere of Barclays shutdowns. I'd try the CFPB for the bonuses since you have nothing to lose at this point. Sorry for your troubles mate.

Ask Ariana Arghandewal from Pointchaser about her experience with redeeming points after all her Barclay CCs got shut down a few months ago.

Were you paying from a checking account?

Any CL cycling?