Last Updated on February 28, 2021 by Filip Poutintsev
It’s not your money anymore
The moment you put your money in the bank account, it becomes the property of the bank. Legally speaking you have lent your money for minuscule interest. Since the money is not yours, terms do apply, so, for example, you cannot withdraw all of it in one day, especially if the amount is high.
The government will know everything
Today banks are obligated to tell the authorities everything they know about you, including how much money you have, how you got it and where you spend it. The golden age of bank secrecy is over. Of course, if you are a law-abiding citizen, you might think you have nothing to hide, but it’s not about hiding stuff. It’s about fundamental human rights and the right to privacy. The government should not be allowed to watch you.
Banks ask too many private questions
It’s your money, you rightfully earned it, but still, you need to explain to the bank where you got it from and be shamed by them. The funny part is that after long and painful due diligence process, the bank may still decline in providing service for you.
They can legally freeze or even steal your funds
Laws are not made to protect people; they are made to protect the government from the people. And this is why the government can legally take all your money from your bank account, and the bank will, of course, let them to this. Not to mention that bank can suspend your account for an indefinite amount of time if they suspect something, which happens so often that everyone familiar with it.
Banks are making a profit with your money, and you are getting nothing in return
A typical bank has hundreds of billions of US dollars of clients funds at its disposal, and it pays less than 1% yearly interest on that, which is lower than the inflation. People basically give money to the bank for free, and banks make millions of profit with it. That’s an excellent business plan.
Banks have too much power
Money is power; we all know that. By giving our money to the banks, we are giving them power. A lot of power. So much power that they basically control our society. Their power can be only taken away if people and companies would stop using banks.
You can lose all your money if the bank goes bankrupt
Luckily in most western countries, the government will back up your funds up to a specific amount (usually 100k€/$), but it’s only that. If you have over that amount, the rest will be gone. And if you are using an off-shore bank or an online bank, the amount can be significantly lower or lack entirely.
Bank transfer is the slowest way to send funds
Today sending money via bank is the slowest option. The only way it could be slower is if you sent cash by physical mail. Average bank transfer takes 1–2 days for IBAN transfer and 3–4 days for SWIFT transfer. And guess what? They don’t work on weekends. Compared to this, with every online wallet and with cryptocurrencies you can send funds instantly every day, so why use banks in the first place?
High fees
Banks have the highest service fees compared to any other payment solutions. Especially for a corporate account you may and up paying hundreds of dollars per month, just to have it. Sending money is expensive and every other action you perform costs money too. This is understandable, as the whole point of the bank is to make a profit by milking you.
Banks are no longer needed
The original idea of the bank as an institution was quite useful. The point was that you would give your money to trusted 3rd party and they would keep them safe for you so that thieves and criminal syndicates such as governments would not be able to steal it from you. But there are a lot of other options to store your funds securely. Besides the crime rate has dropped significantly from what it was even a hundred years ago, so even if you keep cash at home in the coffer and have some alarm system, it will most likely be safe there.
