Why I went Cash.
I went cash.
I didn't just leave the banks, I left the Credit unions and any other entity that requires me to "Trust" people who have repeatedly shown me that they will ignore all regulation as long as the orders come from the right people.
Now, I owe a great deal of money. I have no way to pay it, and will never be able to pay it. If I were a corporation, of course, I could declare bankruptcy and just start over with a clean slate. But as it is, much of my debt is not dischargable in bankruptcy. Therefore, whenever I have money in a bank account, there's a very real danger that one of my debt masters will snatch it away.
I had forgotten the chain of debt for a while, because I had moved to a place I loved, and was starting to make real headway, even with the limited money I had. And then yesterday, I went to pay off a bill, and was unsurprised to find that, again, my bank account had been snatched.
I had gotten out of the habit of paying things on the day I got the bill and had the money, so as a result I was a bit amazed that I had already gotten the rent and half of my bills paid before the money was taken.
So of course, I go to the collector and explain quite politely that the money they have taken is a direct deposit (Thanks for making that MANDATORY, Obama) from a VA Disability Pension. That is not subject to any form of levy, save money owed directly to the DOD. (And the DOD better not get any ideas about buying up veteran's debt and charging their VA benefits at a profit.) Of course the people I spoke to were apologetic and helpful (In that lovely "Wink and Nod" of bureaucrats who are nice people, and hate having to do this shit, but lack the support to make stands against policy.) and explained that I could happily file an appeal, but that would take a lot of time, and it would be probably better if I just wrote the money off.
So I called up the VA, and am getting paper checks in the mail again. This may end up being a good thing for me. I did tend to not think much when using the debit card when I had money. It takes business from the banks, and protects me against theft. No matter how much somebody demands, no matter how much a politician tells me I must, I'm never going back to banks. This is the 3rd time this has happened, with 3 different banks. I'm going with Ian Fleming Rules. Once is an accident, twice is a coincidence, three times is enemy action.
I have tapped my support system, what tatters of it remain, and managed to make things possible for this month. It will be a tight month, but I'll manage. Fortunately I do get food stamps, so I won't starve, and housing assistance, which allows me to actually live in Portland. This is a wonderful city, and has wonderful people.
The reaction has not been like it was the last few times, in my home of California. Here, people do not immediately assume you're a shifty layabout and that's why you're having problems. They assume that once again, shit has happened, and they want to know how they can help. At least that's been the reactions of my neighbors, significant others, and family thereof. This is a good place, and I want to make sure I stay here.
And just feeling a bit upbeat, so some 80's stuff I love:
Comments
You made the right decision
Better to pay someone a fee to have your check cashed than to get your "money" deleted from your account.
Though I hope there are places where you can cash your checks without paying a fee.
"You can't just leave those who created the problem in charge of the solution."---Tyree Scott
Well, I'm just thinking of it as a negative COLA.
I got a 3% COLA this year, so it's a five buck negative COLA.
Just the cost of living...
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
I can understand why you feel this way.
Given your circumstances, I would probably do it too - but I would keep a checking/savings account with $5.00 in each. IF you want or need it, you will have it. If you don't, there won't be enough money in them for anyone to take.
"Religion is what keeps the poor from murdering the rich."--Napoleon
Oh I still have the account...
But won't be using it, ever again. Gonna close it as soon as I can roll my ass down there. (I have PT tomorrow, and am going to be requesting a wheelchair until the PT works, OR if it doesn't work...)
Funny thing is that I have almost NO assets, unless you want to count the ones that they say poor people shouldn't have... (Fortunately the Fridge and the Washing machine are the Landlords, so they'd have to talk to HIM on those.)
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
Checking Account
You might want to think more about a checking account with a minimum balance to avoid fees cashing your gov't checks. It won't work for most checks because they'll tell you you need to wait until the check clears and you're vulnerable to confiscation. But there is no reason a bank should put a hold on a US Gov't check once you have properly identified yourself.
Ask around. Don't forget credit unions. Those fees are robbery. They really add up.
Sometimes some Sacrifice Money is useful
There's a recommendation that when you are in an area where robberies may happen, you should carry a certain amount (I don't know any more how much, & it probably varies by area) so that robbers won't be angry at a poor haul and beat you up.
Not too much, of course. Just enough to hopefully minimize head-bashing.
Good public transport anywhere I want to go...
Well lit, highly populated areas. I also don't travel at night except in a Significant Other's vehicle.
(As far as cash goes for walking around, I tend to follow the homeless model. Don't LOOK like you have it. Best trick I found for not being a target is to look poor but honest.)
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
I use a somewhat different defense
I look crazy-paranoid and walk fast.
____________________
The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
Thanks for that
laugh, Pluto! I Really needs that this morning!
peace
Ya got to be a Spirit, cain't be no Ghost. . .
Explain Bldg #7. . . still waiting. . .
If you’ve ever wondered whether you would have complied in 1930’s Germany,
Now you know. . .
sign at protest march
I like the looking-poor tactic, or feisty sometimes
Driving an old beater, or walking fast and thinking mean thoughts...
I was thinking, too, of keeping a little spare money in an account for the predators to grab, so they could think they'd gotten it all. Probably not necessary.
I recently went to cash, as well.
And "portable wealth" as my immigrant ancestors would call metals and gems. SOP.
For some of the same reasons as you, and because I happen to read economics. Also, it seems like a lot of nations are executing similar disentanglements.
I plan to take up residence in Portland, too. It may be one of the last safe places.
____________________
The political system is what it is because the People are who they are. — Plato
Probably a really good idea
The big guys seem to be getting out of the system:
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/2017-05-03/they-know-something-we-dont-%E2...
Then there's the run on all the luxury underground bunkers in New Zealand.
Protected income is supposed to be coded,
so the bank knows that it is protected income. The bank is responsible to protect that income from creditors, even those who have won court ordered judgements. My SIL lives on SSDI and has significant credit card debt (much of which was racked up in late fees, overdrafts, less than minimum payment penalties, etc.) which she could not pay off in three lifetimes. Providing her available balance is under approximately twice the amount of her monthly SSDI check, siezure by creditors is not allowed, by law. The bank is responsible to protect her deposits from creditors.
There are some caveats to keep in mind.
* Funds must arrive by Direct Deposit.
* ONLY protected income is protected, and if it is mixed with any other sources of income in the same account ALL of the funds in that account lose their protection. Any cash deposits, gift checks from friends or family, employment income etc., can lead to the entire balance being snatched without warning by creditors.
*The amount of dollars protected at any given time is limited. To the extent that the balance exceeds that amount it is vulnerable to creditor seizure.
There may be other factors that limit the protection that I am not aware of (IANAL), and VA Disability may not be treated exactly the same as my SIL's SSDI, but if you know and follow all the conditions and limitations for that protected income stream, the bank has no right to allow the unauthorized theft of those funds.
Banks and credit card companies are all about money, and all too often forget about, or simply don't give a shit about, the grief their avarice causes people just trying to survive. I am sorry that you have been a victim of institutional thievery of the lowest sort.
Capitalism is the extraordinary belief that the nastiest of men for the nastiest of motives will somehow work for the benefit of all."
- John Maynard Keynes
Yep, I of course can file an appeal...
Once I provide all the documents that prove it was a VA disability account and that 100% of all deposits for the last 3 months were from the same source.
THEN they'll protect my account, but as far as the money that's already gone... I'd have to file a different appeal.
Checks. Much easier, and the thieves have to beat me to my front door.
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
Just realized how it might have lost protection...
Cashed a couple checks from my mom to my kids on the account.
Never officially "Deposited" the funds, but knowing my bank they probably deposited the checks into my account and advanced me against them.
Never mind that the checks were drawn on the exact same fucking bank...
I do not pretend I know what I do not know.
A large flagship state university has recently begun
converting all of its metered parking to a system that requires you to have, at the time you park:
A. A working phone or wifi device
B. An online, "funded" account (ie., capable at least of using paypal to charge your "purchase") with the private company to whom they have contracted
It's possible, barely, to manage this with a dumb phone -- there's a number you can call, and arrange the payment, provided you have available to you whatever banking/payment info is needed; and if it's the first time you've ever bumbled your way into one of this company's managed lots, you can set the whole thing up then and there -- because everybody knows that websites always work properly, and it's easy to navigate through an unfamiliar one while squinting and poking at a 2x4 inch screen in the rain, in a hurry because you didn't arrive early enough for your event to accommodate an adventure in internet commerce. Of course, if you misplace your phone after you parked, you're fucked. If your phone battery dies after you parked, you're fucked. If you drop your phone on the pavement as you're getting out of the car, and it crashes, you're fucked. There are in fact dozens of scenarios in which this new model of efficient parking toll-collecting creates inconveniences and even real constraints on the person parking. None of these scenarios is particularly common in itself, but each represents a diminishment that nobody cared about in their cost-benefit analysis.
However, MUCH more significantly, if you fall into the substantial fraction of americans who for one reason or another do not or can not or will not possess the necessary financial and technological resources, as well as the tech know-how, YOU'RE FUCKED.
This is exactly the kind of odious socioeconomic discrimination that I get lathered about when I hear people talking about "checking privilege". Demographics around here are such that this policy was most likely adopted by a team of middle-class white bureaucrats, but it isn't their ancestry that is exercising itself as un-checked privilege. This is real privilege in real action -- socioeconomically privileged people functioning in a socioeconomically privileged social milieu, in which "everybody has a smart phone" and "everybody has online banking"; or if they don't they are mouth-breathing Trump voters whose anti-banking paranoia is their own choice, and thus they don't deserve to be able to park on the campus of a public institution whose own mission statement makes it clear that it exists to serve 100% of the state's population. People like my mother -- who barely understands that the web-browser through which she manages her email is only one of 10,000 different "applications" (a concept meaningless to her) that her laptop could be running, because the nice people at best-buy understandingly configured her macbook to automatically on boot-up launch the browser and the connection to her email provider -- simply do not count to these decision-makers.
I am furious beyond reason about this policy, and there is exactly not one thing I can do about it.
The earth is a multibillion-year-old sphere.
The Nazis killed millions of Jews.
On 9/11/01 a Boeing 757 (AA77) flew into the Pentagon.
AGCC is happening.
If you cannot accept these facts, I cannot fake an interest in any of your opinions.
The Judicial System is broken, like everthing else
I sat in the local court for many sessions, district and small-claims. It's a joke. Nothing but credit card companies, debt collectors and banks suing average, but lower income people, essentially the victims of social injustice. It was endless. The lawyers for the plaintiff would show up, but not the defendants. Who knows how to defend yourself in court? It was like a meat-packing plant, savings butchered and wages wrapped for delivery. It is disgusting. It's our inherited English system of law, the law exists to protect the property of the wealthy, period. There is no sense of social justice. How does a $200 Billion credit card company get to steal the wages of someone near the poverty level?
One of the problems of being a small business owner is that you get sued endlessly. The judgement went in my favor, but my lawyer demanded payment and sued me. I told him at our first meeting that he would have to wait until the business was profitable enough to pay him. He agreed to this. Instead he filed a motion with the court to have my 86 y.o. mom's condo mortgaged against the debt, since my name was also on the deed. His argument was that he was likely to prevail in court and therefore he should be protected from my mom suddenly selling her condo. He was completely in the wrong and totally savage about getting paid.
I have a great deal of sympathy for people who want to run a cash life. It avoids a totally immoral justice system, the lawyers, the judges, the banks, the credit card companies and the scumbag collection agencies. It also denies the bank use of your money. Consider that the rich can off-shore their money, but the rest of us can't. There should be some mechanism to declare a bank account off-limits to a judgement, up to a reasonable amount of money.
Capitalism has always been the rule of the people by the oligarchs. You only have two choices, eliminate them or restrict their power.