Greece Bans Cash Transactions Over 1,500 Euros | Hacker News Reader

Greece Bans Cash Transactions Over 1,500 Euros

economicpolicyjournal.com

11 pointscwan14 comments

Of note, you aren't supposed to carry more than 10K USD in cash across the US border. Transactions over 10K have to be reported via an IRS-8300 (http://www.irs.gov/pub/irs-pdf/f8300.pdf), which requires the SSN of the person making the transaction, and I think there's some other entity that you might have to report them to now.

This is done (primarily) to stop money laundering and illegal activity such as drug and arms dealing, although I'm not really sure if its effectiveness has ever been proven.

You may carry as much cash as you like across the United States border (in either direction), but, as you correctly say, amounts over a specified dollar limit are supposed to be reported to the federal government. It is indeed unclear how the government could know how many persons comply with this regulation. Regulations like this usually have the effect of giving law enforcement officials something to charge a person with if the cash is discover during a search prompted by probable cause to suspect some other illegal activity.

A thin post with no useful detail.

It links to a Reuters post : http://www.reuters.com/article/idUSLDE61824V20100209

I wish we could ban cash altogether and go digital.

It's a useless inventory management exercise that we all have to go through every day.

I respectfully disagree for a few reasons

- Everyone privately buys and sells a lot of small things in the harbor where I live (fishinghooks, rope, etc.) and a digital transaction would be extremely cumbersome, if possible at all. Instead I can just hand a guy a buck and get a few fishinghooks.

- Not every business accepts creditcards or bank transfers. Believe it or not.

- There's a psychological difference between paying cash and swiping your card. When you pull 10 $100 bills out of your pocket and pay someone you instantly know that you're shelling out real money. If you swipe your credit card you don't. Paying in cash is a moneysaver, this has been experimentally tested by psychologists.

- And most importantly, I don't like my bank and other authorities knowing exactly what I'm spending my money on. Not that I'm doing anything illegal I just guard my privacy. When I go shopping for groceries I always pay in cash.

I agree. I heard about the money saving by using cash, too. But it seems to work differently for me. With cash I have no audit trail (which can be a good thing). But paying with electronic money, I get to see all the money I spent everytime I check my bank's statement. Cash just vanishes.

Ah, but for those of us very aware of the permanent trail we leave, cash has a lovely peace-of-mind of knowing that it's anonymous. I love going to the cash machine, pulling out $800 (the max), and making that my budget for the month for all purchases. Empty credit card bill at the end of the month, except for a few online charges. Something refreshing about that.

Right.

And what's with all this "we" and "ban" talk I hear so often? What's the fascination with controlling the lives of others and looking up their skirts? How about freedom, live and let live, to each his own, and mind your own business? I think "we" should "ban" treating other people as property.

It would make black (that is, "free") markets impossible. You'd have to pay prostitutes with crack, which you'd have to pay for with antique silver dollars.

Or just foreign currency.

I'm sure every credit and debit card company---who get to charge several percent of each transaction in fees---agrees with you.

Cash is already close to optional so the "useless inventory management exercise" is a choice that you've made.

Given that cash already optional, wanting to ban cash means that you're objecting to someone else using cash. Why do you care?

Physical cash, digital cash -- it's all good. See https://loom.cc/faq

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