Cash withdrawal limits

I had a coffee can for years that I threw
all my spare change into. The middle
of Dec every year I would roll it up and
it was always between $135 and $150.
In the last 10 years it would be $5 to
$10. If that.

Quote: Evenbob

Paper money, I only see it and use it in
the casino. It would never occur to me
to buy anything with it. I love looking
at my debit card statement and seeing
where every penny I spent went to.

This is fine until the feds decide to confiscate your funds. The IRS will take theirs and leave you to starve. Or if you have a legal hassle. Even a traffic ticket could drain you.

I will take paper as a back-up, thanks.

Quote: AZDuffman

This is fine until the feds decide to confiscate your funds. The IRS will take theirs and leave you to starve. Or if you have a legal hassle. Even a traffic ticket could drain you.

That was the talk during the Depression,
people hated banks for decades. Were
you raised by Depression ear parents?

Quote: Evenbob

That was the talk during the Depression,
people hated banks for decades. Were
you raised by Depression ear parents?

No, but I have seen people get frozen and could barely function. I'm talking function for even a week or so. I always keep enough food and cash to survive such a disaster, at least for a month or two.

Sweden has one of the most overvalued real estate markets in the world, and when it inevitably goes bust, commercial bank money is all based on loans. The banks have no money at the tellers, so you can't do a bank run. ATM's can easily be restricted to give only a maximum of $56.93 (500kr) per day like they did in Greece.

Quote: AZDuffman

No, but I have seen people get frozen and could barely function. I'm talking function for even a week or so. I always keep enough food and cash to survive such a disaster, at least for a month or two.

One Swede posted on a forum his experience when travelling a few hours from his home within Sweden. He thought he lost his debit card and cancelled it, but found it a few minutes later. It seems he didn't have one of those phone apps where you can temporarily suspend your card while you try to find it. He had only a small amount of cash in his pocket, but not enough to pay his hotel bill and purchase a train ticket to get home.

He used his last bit of cash to get to the next town where his bank had a branch, but they refused to give him any cash at the teller counter. He had the equivalent of tens of thousands of dollars in an account. At one point he begged the teller to give him some cash, and he would authorize a withdrawal for 50% more and give it to him. The teller would not help him. He ended up pawning a valuable watch that had sentimental value for 10 cents on the dollar just to pay his hotel bill and get home. Once he was home, he found it to expensive to return to the pawnshop on the other end of the country to get his watch out of the pawnshop.

I would think that the bank would have some way to make an emergency card so that he could use the ATM, but apparently that was not the case.

Quote: Statistics

In the USA these statistics show the amount of cash in circulation for the major three denominations
(on a per capita basis | 12/31/16)
$20.00 : $546
$50.00 : $257
$100.00 : $3,559
(Many of the $100 notes are circulating overseas)

In Sweden these statistics show the amount of cash in circulation for the major three denominations
(on a per capita basis | 2/28/17).
Values are converted to USD and only banknotes valid after 30 June 2017 are counted.
$22.77 : $75 : 200kr
$56.93 : $171 : 500kr
$113.86 : $39 : 1000kr
(The largest denomination has effectively been reduced to a token level. I am not sure why it wasn't eliminated, but it may exist in case of national emergency)
It is expected that more banknotes will be produced in the next few months. There are no official predictions, but I doubt it will be more than $150-$200 per capita.

Quote: Pacomartin

Once he was home, he found it to expensive to return to the pawnshop on the other end of the country to get his watch out of the pawnshop..

Why, when he has 10's of thousands in the
bank. Pawn shops hold items for months.

Quote: Evenbob

Why, when he has 10's of thousands in the bank. Pawn shops hold items for months.

We can probably agree that there were more intelligent ways to behave for our hapless Swede. But the real point of the story was that the bank was not very helpful to one of the customers with plenty of money.

If Sweden is only circulating a few hundred dollars per capita in cash, they are not going to be able to handle a lot of emergencies.

In the year 2000, the largest Greek banknote was worth €29.35 (10,000 drachma), and Greeks had about €850 equivalent in cash per capita.

After the request for the Greek bailout in 2012, Greek banks lost ~ €100 billion over a few years. For a population of 10 million that is about €10,000 per capita. It would have been very difficult to move that much money out of the country without the Euro banknotes.

Quote: Swedish Statistics

In Sweden these statistics show the amount of cash in circulation for the major three denominations
(on a per capita basis | 2/28/17).
$22.77 : $75 : 200kr
$56.93 : $171 : 500kr
$113.86 : $39 : 1000kr

Quote: Evenbob

Why, when he has 10's of thousands in the
bank. Pawn shops hold items for months.

Doesn't matter how long they hold it if he does not plan to come back.

Point is he was denied access to his own money. Exactly as I said to be afraid of.

Though the usual sheep will cheer the convince of being a cash free society and if you are not breaking the law you have nothing to fear......

Quote: AZDuffman

Though the usual sheep will cheer the convince of being a cash free society and if you are not breaking the law you have nothing to fear......

People have been predicting the end for physical money for nearly 60 years.


David Woman argues for the immediate end of the production of coins. Since most people will not forego their change, everyone will be forced to have some kind of electronic account, even if it is nothing more than a phone app with a digital wallet.

Since South Korea has the most mobile electronic devices per person of any country in the world, the government has announced that coins will not be legal tender after the year 2020. Now 1000WON ~ 90 cents, so if you must lose your change, it won't be that much.



As an added benefit to abolishing coins, the prevalance of electronic transactions will nearly wipe out the use of the smallest denomination banknote, thus reducing the most expensive portion of currency production and maintenance.

Quote: Pacomartin

A pathological love of the $20 when inflation means we should have upgraded many of our ATMs to $50 banknotes decades ago.

Really? I'm quite happy with the $20. It works well for me, and I don't like carrying around a 50. I hardly make any cash purchases, so while the purchasing power of $20 has gone down, so has my need for cash.