Could this really be true? If you pay a large amount on your credit card, you set off some bells and whistles and the financial institution has to notify the government? I’m not sure if I believe this or not. Here’s the article for your reading pleasure:
One other thing to note. I’ve never seen this website before and don’t know if the Scripps Howard News Service is legit or not. I found it on digg.com
That is pretty scary, something as simple as a large payment sent into the credit card company can get this kind of reaction.
Scripps Howard owns a bunch of TV stations around the country, so they’re definitely legitimate. I can believe the story, too, but I think it’s being exaggerated a bit. There are lots of crazy clauses in bank policies now including some that let them hold your money indefinitely if they suspect you maybe possibly could be sort of involved in something somewhere at some point in time. I wish the article had mentioned whether that credit card debt continued to accrue finance charges while the money was being held or not. I can’t imagine it did though, so there was probably no real harm done in the end.
The laws requiring them to report large transactions have been in place for a number of years. The government uses the information to keep tabs on drug transactions and I suppose terrorist cash now.
It’s called the bank secrecy act. Here is a government site about it.
http://www.fdic.gov/regulations/examinations/bsa/
Interesting article. Looks like there is 2 different ways to look at this law depending what side you are trying to see it from!
Link 1 – www.fincen.gov/helpfin.html
Link 2 – www.privacilla.org/government/banksecrecyact.html
Either way, good find!
On a random, note I have really enjoyed reading your pf blog. I have added your link to our blog, and I should have asked first. I apologize, and if this link is a problem, please let me know!
-MM