Do ACH withdraw/transfer limits set by individual bank applies to initiating from that bank i.e 'Push' or does it apply to a 'Pull' from another bank or a Government agency?
Answers
I currently have about 9 online banks, including Chase which is my hub bank for instant liquid cash. I have found that Chase and some of the banks stop me from PUSHING cash out of my account even if I'm within their 200K daily limit. Banks have flagged my account and froze me out as if I was a security hack even after my test deposits were successfully completed to open the external bank accnt with them. If you read the feedback on some banks, (like Marcus for example), you DO NOT want to risk having these kinds of problems, because the customer service is poor and you could be locked out for days or weeks. I have been locked out of Cit, Live Oak, and Purepoint also for minor technical glitches. Chase did NOT lock me out of my account, but denied me pushing their stated $200K daily limit to my new Cit account that I had established as an external account with them. Chase told me over the phone that for supposed security reasons they intended to make me jump through hoops to do it! These other banks I mentioned that froze my accounts did let me back in with a phone call, or two, or 3. Other then PurePoint which pays abysmal APY, I still keep Cit & Live Oak open because they are secure, pay well, & have decent service reps. TO AVOID TRANSFER PROBLEMS, I HAVE LEARNED TO ACTIVATE ACH PULLS OUT OF BANKS, instead of trying to get a bank to push my funds out and into the other bank. Yes, it takes longer, but it always works for me without the risk of my being locked out of my account.
But with the external banks I have set up, I do an ACH using a PULL out of Chase to take out much higher dollar amounts from my account at Chase to get the cash to the external bank. Chase & other banks often just don't want you to push funds out. It seems "security" is always the excuse used to halt the PUSH transfer.
Am.Ex went up from 1.65 to 1.75% yesterday. And as you know, LiveOak went up to 2% from 1.75% two days ago. I have a whole lot of cash in each of these banks, with the most in LiveOak. I just finished putting heap more in Am.Ex today. I intend on putting more in Cit in the coming days, which will pretty much tap out these 3 banks, as I don't like putting all my eggs in one basket. It took me a few weeks to move it all doing pulls exclusively.(not pushes) When I initiate pulling my cash out of Chase I'm waiting for the "Pending" notice at Chase to appear in my account the next day, and then disappear the following day. So then, I start it say on a Monday, and Tuesday it says "Pending", and by Wednesday AM it's completed. And then I start the 3 day sequence all over again for another pull. It's very time consuming with weekends interrupting everything too, that you try to normally avoid because you don't collect interest. But this pulling has been the only way I can move my cash out of Chase (and some other banks too) without them stopping me. I have not tried pulling cash out of Am.Ex. But because my cash at Chase collects nothing at .00000001% APY I'm simply in a hurry to just get it pulled out of Chase and deposited into decent APY banks like Am.Ex that I FEEL IS SAFE. I'd be really surprised if Sebrina at Am.Ex lied to me when she said that I can freely push any amount of cash out. The thing I like most about Amex too, is that they are the only bank of about 9 online banks I have, that will show my $50K pull out of Chase as an instant balance in my Am.Ex, account as soon as I click on the "Transfer funds" key. This way I am accruing interest from that moment on. But for example, NASB with the currently high 2.53% account I have, is the worst in this regard and requires a total of 3 dead days of receiving no interest. They finally post your incoming transferring balance on the 4th day. (Never mind if you get stuck with a weekend in between. You could have 5 days of no interest!!) Plus NASB reps told me they limit withdrawals to $20K. I have not had a chance to see if I can go beyond that limit by initiating pulls from another bank to get my cash out of NASB. I haven't the time, nor do I want to make waves and get my account there locked experimenting. I'm also suspicious that small $200- $1,000 test amounts I might try are not the same as trying to do $25K+. For that reason I will NOT invest larger sums of cash with them, which is their loss of about another $75K I would have deposited otherwise!! To me, Cit is the next best bet after Live Oak and Am.Ex., but their 40 to 60 minute phone waits or more make me nervous. When I have a question or a problem with any bank, I want to know I can get through! Can you imagine if Cit has to pass you around their switchboard for a really difficult problem with each rep making you hold an hour..... and then after 3 hours of passing you around they might say "Can we catch you tomorrow? Because there's nobody here to help you with your problem right now." LOL. I'm NOT saying Cit will do that. In fact I've had good luck waiting 40 minutes and getting right back into my account. (I was locked out for entering wrong password) But, I wouldn't want to test them with more difficult problems with these kinds of CSR waits. There are other high APY paying banks, some with big names too, but their feedbacks are atrocious. Anyway, I know you asked about Am.Ex of me on another thread, and thought I'd address it for you, as well as provide other possibly useful info for you and others..
AmEx is great with their transfer limit, but not so great when it comes to the amount of external accounts one can link. Additionally, it's disappointing that AmEx has not hit 2.0%APY or higher by now.
The best thing is that there is no hold on money I move into my Alliant account. So I can move $250K into Alliant and as soon as it is posted I can move it out to a different FI. Alliant initiated ACH is limited to $25K outbound and $100K inbound but you can always get around these limitations by pulling the funds from an external account. I have been a member for many years, so I'd check with Alliant whether there's some tighter controls on new accounts.
I've been using Dominion Energy Reliability Investment (unsecured demand notes from Dominion Energy which is a highly regulated utility company). It isn't FDIC insured but it pays 2.5% APY on balances over $50K and you can link up to 10 external accounts. You can push or pull very large amounts of money. The problem is that there's a hold on funds you move into this account (about a week). I am satisfied with the safety of this account since Dominion Energy has a long history of financial stability. Check it out at https://investors.dominionenergy.com/fixed-income/dominion-energy-reliability-investment/default.aspx.
I used to use Alliant as a hub when it was $100K ACH limit both in and out. But then they lowered the out to just $25K, and I switched to Hub banks that offer much more outbound amounts. So, I would say Alliant is a terrible Hub for people like me that need to be able to ACH out more than $25K. Yes, one could always pull more than $25K out when initiated from an outside bank, but this often is not good as there are outside banks that delay the posting of incoming ACH money for 2 to 3 business days. That means there might be some days of lost interest.