Drawing money at banks

So maybe not everybody had the opportunity to see the program on television Sunday night, about people being robbed after drawing large amounts of money from a bank. Here is a quick overview of what happens.

The client goes into the bank and draws a large amount of cash, let’s say thirty thousand Rands. The client drives home, and at home he is confronted by gun – wielding thieves, demanding the exact amount of money he has just drawn.

Suspicion now falls on two places. To know the exact amount of money that the client had on him, the thief will have to have had a contact in the bank. This means either there is a spotter in the bank, or the thief is getting his information directly from the teller or someone else behind the counter. Now a spotter standing around idly in a bank is, in my opinion, highly unlikely. All banks that I have been in will kick such a person out in no time at all.

Of course the banks are denying anything of the sort, but the facts are clear and I don’t mean to get into an argument with them. Instead, I will rather tell people how to avoid the situation.

Avoiding the situation is easy. Simply do not ride around with such large amounts of money on you. I know some people have to pay wages, but the banks themselves have created cheap bank accounts for people who earn little or no money. Take your employees and create accounts for them, it will make life much safer for both you and your employees. You can then pay them over the Internet from the comfort of your own home, and they don’t have to walk around with a wad of cash and stand the chance to lose it.

Face it, our workers often have to ride on dangerous trains and taxis, walk in dangerous neighborhoods and sleep in dangerous places. Take the cash off them and give them a card, and you immediately take away some of the danger of losing a weeks wages.

And a last benefit. Find out from your bank how big the difference is between drawing large amounts of cash and using an Internet transfer, and you might find that you can save loads of money by using Internet banking.

All this from a person who, for years, did not use Internet banking because he thought it was unsafe. Well it’s not as unsafe as walking around with thirty thousand Rands worth of cash!

Stay safe.
LeonDude