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Molly White

did you know if you open a HYSA at american express, you cannot transfer funds from a business checking account linked to that HYSA?

the only way to do it would be AMEX checking -> some other account -> AMEX HYSA

and this has apparently been an issue for YEARS

AMEX also cannot conceive of a person having a different residential address from their mailing address

in twenty twenty four

@molly0xfff this would make me feel like I'm going to accidentally get arrested for money laundering every time I do it

@tj @molly0xfff I was gonna say...this will probably land your transactions in some kind of manual review queue 😅

@molly0xfff Why do they even need more than one address? Ridiculous.

@molly0xfff

not at all a surprise.

old school financial institutions can't conceive of people doing anything differently from 50 years ago, and have no idea why upstart online only banks are taking more and more of their business.

my former business bank would lock me out of my account for "suspicious logins" because it couldn't deal with my accounting software using the bank's own mechanisms to reconcile my books daily. 🙄

@maya_b @molly0xfff

The USPS does NOT deliver to all residential addresses. Not even to all single family homes on paved streets, in incorporated cities, with all the usual services. And that was also true 50 years ago.

I have relatives with PO boxes, but no home postal mail delivery.

@JeffGrigg @molly0xfff

CanadaPost started using "Super Boxes" decades ago - basically one large POBox style box at the end of the street for 30 or so homes per SuperBox at once. Usually within short walking distance. But from the 90s onwards it was rare for new built homes to have actual to the home delivery anymore.

@JeffGrigg @maya_b @molly0xfff in exactly this situation where we live “too close” to the PO for delivery… so required to have a box (which is at least free). They return any mail that comes to our street address rather than cross-reference it. Makes me nuts when I buy things since I often can’t determine the shipper anymore to figure out what address to use. Also means I often hit forms that check the USPS address database and then tell me my physical address doesn’t exist. Infuriating.

@molly0xfff When I lived overseas, AMEX was the only company that would give me a credit card where I could pay in USD with an address on another continent.

For that reason, I would defend them as probably better than the alternatives.

@molly0xfff Works for me. I live inside a PO box, like an Anzellan mechanic

@molly0xfff I guess they'd believe people live inside P.O. Boxes...

@molly0xfff my favourite Amex feature is how it isn’t accepted outside the US

@molly0xfff

Why does anyone use Amex? I constantly see 'all cards accepted except Amex'.

Why is Amex so especially limited, and who still needs that?

@Phosphenes retailers often refuse them because they apparently charge pretty high fees compared to other CC companies

@Phosphenes @molly0xfff

It's very good for Catbert types who are managing platoons of pimply-faced consultants - airline tickets, rental cars, etc.

@molly0xfff

AMEX and Discover Card. Where revolving credit goes to die.

@molly0xfff I had something to resolve at Wells Fargo in the not too distant past, which could only be done via FAX. So, yeah, I hear ya.

@molly0xfff my company used to have corporate amexes for paying travel expenses. They weren't accepted anywhere at our destinations, so everyone paid with their own personal cards anyway.

@molly0xfff
We have PO Boxes here in the far northwest of USA. My problem is, when I need to enter a street address in a web form, it does not recognize my street address - throws an error so I can not complete the damned form.

@molly0xfff at the risk of sharing something you already know: the patriot act (remember that shit?) requires banks have your physical address, which I’ve found universally interpreted as your physical address must be your primary address. Some banks allow a secondary address which they will sometimes use depending on the phase of the moon.

@gaelicWizard I'm not mad about having to provide both, but if they ask for my physical address and also expect to send mail to it we're going to have a bad time

@molly0xfff I have been trying to get my bank to do exactly that for decades. 😭

@molly0xfff I currently use 3 addresses:
-My physical address
-My PO Box
-My post office's address with the secondary line being the PO Box number.

That third address has to be used anytime I can't determine which delivery service will be used. Some UPS services hand over a package to the USPS for the actual delivery, but because our USPS doesn't deliver to my physical address, the package gets returned as undeliverable!

@molly0xfff

not that it makes any sense, but the back-end systems between personal and business accounts are probably different. I'm surprised you could even link a business checking to the HYSA in the first place. What is the point of linking then? /rhetorical

@MagentaRocks they are and aren't linked. they're linked in the sense that i access them all through the same log-in, but they're not linked in the sense that i can't transfer funds between them

@molly0xfff

Got it. Its really stupid. Any account should be able to send/receive money from other accounts at the same financial institution. Its just a book transfer.

@molly0xfff

I had a thought. Do you have checks? You could write a check drawn on one account payable to the other account and deposit it to the other using their mobile check deposit feature on their app. I know that seems archaic but it might work.

@molly0xfff I think that’s part of the issue. When I first opened a HYSE there it was still a separate login.

@molly0xfff Amex Savings also prohibits an ACH transfer to an external account that is not in your name. Can't make a purchase without transferring the funds to another account first.

@molly0xfff I always got the impression that after a night of partying, Amex woke up with a hangover and noticed it had an FDIC shield tattooed on its thigh and said "oh, I guess I'm a bank now, may as well do some bank-like things".

@molly0xfff "falsehoods programmers believe about addresses" was one of those lists that made the rounds ten years ago. Some things apparently never change...

@molly0xfff “I will need to confirm this transaction with your husband”

@molly0xfff Yes, it's way harder and slower to transfer money than it should be. I'm just trying to transfer money to my kids! I suppose some of this is due to regulation and the safety/convenience tradeoff.

@molly0xfff If they offered direct transfer, you could keep your money in the HYSA until the due date of your Amex balance, then pay the balance. Where's the profit in that for Amex? They make money when you pay late.

@newstik you can do that with their standard savings, why not the HYSA?

@molly0xfff I dunno. Probably because the HYSA pays higher interest, so they'd lose more money?

@molly0xfff bad experience with AE 30 years ago. Haven't gone near them since, plenty of reasonable alternatives.

Edit to correct to AE

@molly0xfff egads…am thankful I just have personal accounts w them.