At 07:05 PM 7/30/95 -0400, Lucky Green wrote:

Six years ago, you could walk into a Bank, show them your driver license, and open an account. Today, you need several pieces of ID. Three years ago, you could withdraw money from your own account without having your checkbook on you. Today, they make you pay for a "counter check". One year ago, you could walk into a bank an cash a check drawn onto an account at the very same bank. Today (Coast Federal), they make you pay a $10 check cashing fee.

This depends on location. The Feds require that banks use the same ID to open an account that they would require to cash a check. The banks on the Left and Right Coasts are fairly restrictive (more restrictive than they have to be). Banks in the Heartland (particularly the Intermountain West) are much easier. With a little work, it is still possible to open accounts with "soft" ID in the more relaxed regions. Since these banks are accessible by ATM and Fedex and will soon be on the net (in some cases), they can be convenient to use. Likewise Canadian banks (which routinely offer US$ accounts). In the soft ID category, I place Employment ID and Student ID which you are free to make yourselves as well as the new secured credit cards; some of which can be obtained in spite of one's lack of existence. The latter make very good ID.

The US banking industry has gone to the dogs. The day a non-US bank offers an account that can be accessed over the net will be the day I close my US accounts.

This will be the most interesting story of the next few years. I will be anxious to see if the new ease of "switching" money reverses the trend toward decreased financial privacy caused by the war on money laundering. DCF "If Work, Jobs, Income, and the Middle Class Dream are all over, how come more Americans and a higher proportion of Americans are now in paid employment than ever before in our history."