- 08 Jul 2022
- Personal Safety
- 100 Reads
- 0 Comments
Once upon a time in America, commercial banks offered superb service and bank managers answered their phones and serviced their best customers' accounts personally.
Today, commercial banks have voice mail for customers who call to discuss opening an account, often have a different part-time teller each time one makes their way to the bullet-proof plate glass teller window, and clerks demand multiple pieces of identification to open an account to store your money. Many potential customers will not pass the ChexSystems database test or other credit-type screening test, and will not be permitted to store their funds with a commercial bank. Banks often demand a credit bureau report prior to opening a checking account in one's name or opening a trust checking account.
Do you want to be a customer of a company making such demands on your time and privacy? Or do you want bank secrecy in the U.S.A. through the use of new financial resources available to allow you to keep your money secrets and financial privacy?
Check cashing services-sometimes known as check cashing stores are the pseudo banking operations that have surfaced during the last decade or two for the purpose of cashing checks and providing loans to customers who cannot open a bank account or choose not to do business with banks. Until recently, these operations were considered the "weak sister" of the banking industry-places where only "undesirables" went to cash their checks due to their inability to prove citizenship or their worth as a banking customer.
Times have changed. More mainstream customers are using check cashing stores than ever before due to the more competitive rates offered to cash checks and the convenience of having an account that provides them with the ability to present their check, pay their 1.9% fees (average payroll check fees), and walk out with the cash. There are no hold times, generally no hassles, and certainly no risk of having a bank account "frozen," seized, or otherwise made inaccessible to the banking customer-and these "inconveniences" happen more often than you would expect. Such seizures and confiscations do not occur when you walk up to the plate glass, bulletproof window at the check cashing store, give the clerk your "account card" to swipe, get your cash, minus the 1.9% fees, of course, and walk out with your money.
Because your checks are deposited in the check cashing store's company account, there is no account held in your name, and there is no money of yours to seize-just in case someone or a certain agency believes they have a right to it. Check cashing stores eliminate a good deal of "banking" risk for certain customers.
Once you have your cash in hand, where do you store it? There are financial privacy resources that provide options for security and bank secrecy. You can regain your banking secrecy when you utilize some of the non-traditional personal finance resources that are available to you. And you may have to make a long distance trip every so often to store your cash in total secrecy.
You could elect to open a safe deposit box at a bank in the name of a Trust, a Limited Liability Company or a Limited Partnership. These entities can provide one with high-level privacy for storing valuables or cash equivalents. Or you could buy a money safe and install it secretly on your property. If you elect this option, you should keep it a secret. A final choice is to open a safe deposit box anonymously with a private company that guarantees your privacy. 24-7 Private Vaults, Las Vegas, Nevada provides anonymous safe deposit boxes to privacy advocates while requiring no identification, no Social Security number or other personal and confidential data.
In summary, if you are tired of the privacy invasions imposed upon you as a banking customer, you may choose to create your own "demand account" through the use of check cashing stores for converting your payroll or company checks into cash. Once you have the cash, surplus funds or valuables that are readily convertible into cash can be stored in a safe deposit box of your choice as described in this article. You can improve your financial privacy and keep your money under your control through the use of check cashing stores and safe deposit boxes or safes and relieve yourself of your dependency on commercial banks. You can exercise your privacy rights while keeping your money your business.
Grant Hall is the author of Privacy Crisis; Identity Theft Prevention Plan and Guide to Anonymous Living and has published articles on business and personal privacy on a variety of websites and media sources. Readers may subscribe to free informational e-mail courses on personal privacy, identity theft prevention, anonymous banking and stalking protection at http://www.PrivacyCrisis.com and Hall's e-book, Privacy Crisis is available for purchase and immediate download from this same website.