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Comment by SnowHill9902 | Hacker News Reader

How do you withdraw $500,000 from a virtual bank with no branches?

Check, ACH, wire transfer...

I mean, yeah, you're not going to be able to get $500,000 in cash, but that would be a very rare thing anyway.

Edit: and if you show up at your local bank branch and ask for $500,000 in cash on the spot, they probably will not be able to give it to you anyway. You'll have to give them a couple of day's notice, at least.

I think the person asking for $500k in unmarked bills probably doesn't want an electronic record of where they are sending the money.

Except that $500k withdrawal is definitely going to draw some attention all on its own.

Suspicious Activity Report. The bank is going to file paperwork which in the US goes to a Federal agency responsible for figuring out what people are doing, some of it might be innocent (e.g. withdrawing $500 000 and putting it in a safe under your bed is a bad idea but not illegal) but much is not.

There is zero chance a normal bank branch will give someone $500k in physical cash with no notice. Even with advance notice I suspect many branches would simply refuse. Most bank locations don't keep all that much cash on hand and don't really want to deal with it more than they have to.

I see not being able to withdraw $500k cash as a feature

Have you ever tried to withdraw more than 10k from a bank? You have to call ahead and schedule it to the minute. Banks really don’t like to have a lot of cash on hand. I suspect you don’t actually want to have that much cash on hand either. It should go straight from one bank to another.

Cashier's check, bank transfer, or wire.

Is that the use case you should optimize for?

If you must use other bank to cash your money, then your virtual bank is not enough and stands on others. Your dollar is worth slightly less if deposited in such a virtual bank.

you wire the money. I have done it many times.

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