AlohaDaveKennedy

What is with the terms abusing and shady activity? MS folk operate in a straight forward manner - it is not like we illegally foreclose on homes, lauder money for Mexican drug dealers or game Libor rates like bankers. No somos como las ratas del banco.

corp8

Does your credit score drop when the bank shuts down your CC?.. Thanks

cashcyclone

gumercindo

I'm assuming because it directly impacts your AAoA or something else? If it's something else, what's the magnitude of the drop? Asking for a friend.

ChrisFlyer66

I think the AAoA is not necessarily adversely affected, but it could be. More likely the credit utilization will go up because your friend will have less total credit available (and credit utilization is a large component of credit score).

I've had cards canceled by the bank and it wasn't a big deal. In my case the impact to my credit score was negligible.

GundamWing01

i see. to me, youre really DL with BofA, but I guess somehow eyes got on your GC.com over the years and they decided to put the breaks on. again, im still in shock. times have changed. be sure to decide ASAP on your other BofA accounts if they matter to you. good luck and keep us posted.

well ADK, someone like you already knows the dilemma of mistaken identity with MSers vs money launderers. GC fraud and MO is the tool of choice for criminals to move funds, including BTC. matter of fact, i would bet criminals love reading FT, churning blogs and MS reddit posts so they can fly J/F while stealing peoples IDs and money. we use the same financial freeway as they do and authorities have to distinguish who is legit which they cant and do not bother to care. they would rather play it safe and bust out a huge shut down blanket.

shut down story time for our FYI?

AlohaDaveKennedy

Meh - this is FAKE AML! GC fraud and MO is too amateur hour for real ML. Come down to Miami and see how it is really done! The millions we store in Homer buckets in our attics is not held in MOs and they weren't smelting illegal plastic in that recent $3.6 billion gold sting. You really think any self respecting drug dealer in Miami would be caught flipping gift cards in a Walmart? Busting out the big shut down blanket on MS is so wrong. I have talked to AML folk who know the MS game but play Kabuki for the benefit of their auditors. I can't think of one bank caught laundering drug money by someone depositing even a few hundred thousand a year in MOs. Pablo Escobar enterraría todo su efectivo en el suelo antes de tratar de limpiarlo en Walmart.

gumercindo

I grew up in Miami and I can confirm. Was a kid in the 70s and 80s but know enough from my dad (who worked in construction during that time) to know that stuff is correct. I think big time narcotics folks would laugh at the notion that MOs is the way to go for them.

ADK, are you a native Miamian? My family lives there and I still go back often but I haven't lived there in 15 years.

NoonRadar

Re AAoA, I believe closed accounts still get factored into AAoA through 10 years after closing, so it would eventually affect it.

Besides overall CL and thus utilization, I wonder if recon reps look at accounts that have a note to the effect of "closed by bank" and factor that negatively beyond what their computer generated risk score & model. I have no idea but if I had to guess I'd say prob not with 'regular' consumers, i.e. the ones who don't have many recent accounts open or high utilization ratio, but might affect their decision with one of us (one of us, one of us!).

AlohaDaveKennedy

No, I'm not a Miami native - just here about 5 years now. I grew up a few miles from what was then the #1 Mexican heroin importing city, Guadalupe, California in a county where bales of pot washed ashore regularly just like here in South Florida. For over 20 years I lived in one of the top 10 money laundering cities, San Antonio, Texas which catered to the Mexican Mafia. As a longtime auditor and fraud examiner who attending many FBI presentations on ML I might know a little about how real ML works.

BTW, word on the street down here in Miami is that the boys are back in business surpassing cowboy volumes. These days the drugs come in by sea rather than air. The overly ostentatious cars are appearing again and in my building we have at least one convicted dealer we could not kick out.

Now we have a new game in town - stealing credit cards to buy gift cards to buy 100 plus gallons of gas at a time to store in tricked out trucks and vans with tanks and bladders. The gas is then resold to the gas stations. This is similar to the game played in Houston after the last hurricane where some businesses and homes became impromptu tank farms.

Carl

1. SHUTdn by Schw@b (brokerage + checking)
2. Opened 01.17
3. Average daily balance last 12 mo = $4k; last 4 mo = $5.8k
4. Average MO monthly deposit volume last 12 mo = $10k; last 4 mo = $14.7k; last month was highest at $17.9k

Received a reasonably friendly call yesterday afternoon letting me know that they’d made the decision to close my account. As expected, they wouldn’t provide a reason. They are giving a full month to drain the checking account and are allowing withdrawals and transfers out but not deposits. I received a letter today via UPS basically confirming the conversation.

Since I knew I would regret it later if I didn’t exercise the option, I cashed out 160k MRs last night (worth 1.25˘ ea when you have their AX). The $2k appeared in my brokerage account this morning. However, the option to transfer between brokerage and any other account (internal or external) is gone, so I have to request a wire ($25) or paper check to clear these funds.

I signed up for the accounts after hearing an FTU speaker recommend them as very MO friendly and never having issues with $5k deposits multiple times per week. I made 99% of deposits in a branch (which only allows them to go into brokerage) and then transferred them to checking the next day. All interactions in multiple states were always friendly and no one ever questioned the MOs (typically $3-$5k). There was one branch manager who encouraged me to use mobile deposit just to save me from having to come in, but I only did that a couple of times (and only one MO per day) as that seemed riskier to me. I never deposited anything other than MOs, nor did I use the brokerage for any trading. I regularly ACH'd from checking to some external accounts to hit monthly DD minimums.

He said the AX card would get closed on its own sometime after my accounts, as holding it requires a brokerage relationship. Fortunately I’m in my renewal window and can cancel it and not have to pay the AF.

Really sad to end this relationship as everyone was always friendly and helpful, but it was a good run.

worldtravels

They actually make lots of money on MS. The problem is they are running scared because of fear of government regulations. They don't even care to make a basic inquiry that would show MS is perfectly legitimate. It would be wise to withdraw any rewards on the cards immediately as BA has a bad habit of confiscating everything.

MaxVO

Would you mind sharing which speaker peddled this institution at FTU?

Carl

OssianBlue

The basic advice of don't defecate where you eat should have applied even back then.