Banks' Financial Scam Cheats Consumers - Legally

The way it works - you pay a bill; the money is removed from your account immediately; you are NOT paid interest on the amount - but your bill is NOT paid for 2-3 days. The bank keeps the cash and plays with it; it remains a bank "asset" for that 2-3 day limbo. On a personal note, if you don't factor in those 2-3 days into your bill payment deadline, you not only lose the interest on your bank account but you ALSO pay late fees and interest charges on the bill you thought you paid. This blows many peoples' budgets out of the water - and can threaten the stability of their home. Still, taken one individual at a time, we're not talking that much money. But start multiplying, and the scam comes clear.

If only 1,000,000 customers each debit $2,000 for bill payments in a month, and all that money goes into "bank limbo" - the bank has $2,000,000,000 to play with, for free, for 2-3 days.

Just 1/2 hour with $2 Billion in a money market can easily double or triple a financier's holdings. That money is suddenly worth $4-$6 Billion. Free and clear.

So how much profit does $2 Billion generate over 2-3 days? At the low end, maybe $384 Billion? At the high end, about $576 Billion?

How about if a bank has 2 million customers debiting $3000 each on average for bill payments? What's that worth in the money markets? …$24-$36 Billion per hour? Maybe $576 Billion per day? $864 Billion per day?

About $10.368 Trillion per year? More? While customers' tax dollars go to multi-trillion dollar bailouts AND they get stuck with late fees and interest charges on their bills from companies often owned by the banks that are screwing them.

Welcome to the real world.


Study shows powerful corporations really do control the world's finances

Why Do People Defend Unjust, Inept, and Corrupt Systems?

Good thread with good information. I had to reply not only to post a thought but to bump it as well.

I can understand the "lag" in holding payments or funds as an asset. It's the same as a trick used by the home-building industry, and one which helped lead to their downfall.

In that industry, they would pre-build houses (called "specs") which would then be listed as a "house under construction". This enabled them to draw credit on it from the banks. When the house would be completed, there would be a mad dash to unload it either by reselling (and taking a loss) it to an asset-based company or actually finding a customer.

When the housing market crashed in 07, builders were left with tons of inventory (specs) on the ground with money drawn against them BUT nobody to buy them.

I'm sure these banks are using these funds (assets) as a way to gain credit, borrow against it, and basically create money out of nowhere.

reply to post by TXRabbit

I'm sure these banks are using these funds (assets) as a way to gain credit, borrow against it, and basically create money out of nowhere.

That too - but playing the money markets is HUGE business. Think about it - banks and the stock markets are closed overnight here but open in Asia, and vice versa. Money doesn't sit still doing nothing - people and computers move it around, play with it - and profit.



PS. Thanks.

You are absolutely right. But your numbers are a little inflated.

No one doubles or triples their money in two or three days. Still, they are playing with billions, so it's a lot of free profit for them.

However, the money is fake to begin with, so, they are just playing with numbers in computers. About as real as WoW coins. Seriously.

reply to post by CaptChaos


For the average person maybe - but I bet the Big Boyz clean up with insider info. ...and pretend or not, it does make the world go round and keeps our national governments in hock and hostage to their corporate states.

reply to post by soficrow

Dear soficrow,

You know how much I respect your work, but this one time I have to go with CaptChaos. You've correctly identified the problem of "float" the bank having your money to use without paying you for it, but I think the scale of the problem needs a little adjusting.

My best, off-the-cuff guess is that banks can get a bout one uarter of a percent interest per day, but lets make it bigger. Say the banks can make 100% interest per day. (Which I really don't believe, since at the rate you can turn one dollar into over a billion dollars in one month.) Then $2 billion will become $16 billion in three days, not the $300 to $600 billion in your post.

Good work finding the problem, just a little adjustment to the scale is needed.

With respect,
Charles1952

My bank must be different, if I pay a bill online during business hours, the transaction goes through immediately.

I have confirmed this by paying a bill using the online banking, then calling up the recipient company an hour later to confirm if they got the money, and they had. "Yes sir, we recieved the payment from Halifax Bank, almost an hour ago."

reply to post by CaptChaos
reply to post by charles1952


I'm sure you're both right - the numbers are likely a "little inflated." ...You'll note I used a lot of "maybe"s and question marks. ...But as you say, it's still a problem.

reply to post by BMorris

Your bank MAY be different - I thought mine was, based on past history, but the problem came up this month. I had no penalties, but immediately thought of everyone who's out of work and scrambling to meet mortgage payments and hang on to their homes.

Now, also am thinking of a scam run by a major grocery chain when I was in Santa Fe - the cash register computers were programmed to add 10% to every 3rd or 4th bill (NOT across the board). Who knows?