With the progressive waning of privacy the line in the sand is being drawn for more and more people every day. Some people who have for years stuck to the old meem “I have nothing to hide so I’m not worried” are now coming around to the side of putting on the tinfoil hat. Where and when the line in the sand is drawn for you may vary but I will stick to my favorite meem: “If you’re gonna be a bear, be a Grizzly”!
If you are an intense privacy seeker, you may have reached the point that many of our readers have and thus, I want to answer a burning question that is in many minds today. Can banking be private? This is a huge question to tackle and to be honest I feel pressure from the evil one concerning this, so let me just get some disclaimers out of the way.
First of all some of you may be reading this in hopes that you can find some way to stash some funds you may have obtained illegitimately or you are trying to find a way to handle your money without allowing the IRS to be involved. This is called money laundering and I will never recommend it to my readers, nor will I condone it. My goal is to teach useful things to my readers and anything I teach that lands you in a jail or prison is quite useless.
If you are intent on private banking, you have to be beyond above board on your financial activity. This means if at some point rules change or someone helping you decides not to help anymore you would actually have nothing to worry about from a legal prospective. I believe evil deeds always come to light, so any attempt at concealing a bad transaction will always get you a one way trip to the gray bar resort!
Second, I want to point out to you that a numbered account is possible in a few countries. Switzerland and Austria are the most famous countries that have these accounts. It is private banking to an extent. A regular citizen will have no idea that you have a bank account there, but your government will most certainly. Any bank that tells you they don’t have a deal with your government to reveal who has an account is just flat out LYING! I don’t care if it is in Switzerland or Venezuela; they have deals and they make deals. Just because you see an enemy of your country on the news and think we are getting ready to go to war with them, don’t think deals aren’t being cut in the back channels. (Also keep in mind there are laws against treason and sedition which will be violated by having a bank account in countries like Iran and Venezuela.)
Before we get into crazy ideas you need to ask yourself what level of privacy you want. If you are trying to just not be seen going in and out of the bank or if you are going to be gone for a while you may just want to give a trusted person power of attorney. Let me warn you however, that there are many predators who would love to con you out of money. You may have a grandson or nephew or a “trustworthy” relative but you need to check this person out well before signing power of attorney. When you pick the person you also need to have a clear concise agreement. This eliminates confusion. For those looking for a greater degree of banking privacy read on.
I would like to suggest at this point that if you are not a millionaire and are serious about privacy you should consider being your own banker. There are really good places in just about every home to hide a small amount of cash out of reach of a burglar. This is really the best way to keep it simple. However, if you are looking to be able to go here and there pulling out your visa card at a fancy restaurant and buying things on the internet, then you will need a proxy. This is really hard to come by. The reason is that you could get a proxy who supports you in good faith but he or she is subject to your treachery. How would you feel about handing your bank cards and account number over to somebody? Even a loved one who is bad with money could really put you in a bad position. Anybody with any sense is not just going to help you. However, if this is what you want then you will need to build a good relationship with someone who can help you. You will have to trust them, but more importantly they have to trust you!
Unfortunately the days of walking into a bank in Panama and opening an anonymous account after tipping the banker are over. Things are different now. The real line in the sand is here. Do you want to be private or would you like to join the matrix?
In Greece right now as we speak the few people that actually have money can’t get it. The bank is just closed! You can’t get your money in a bad crisis if the bank is closed. It is up to you how much money you feel safe about having under the mattress but remember Greece when you lay down on that mattress at night.
