What you should know about making big cash withdrawals

When you need to make a big cash withdrawal, maybe for a rental deposit or paying a builder, you probably think that you’d be able to withdraw whatever you want – it’s your money after all. But this isn’t necessarily the case, as banks and account providers have limits and set procedures on customers withdrawing cash. To make sure you’re never caught out, we’re running you through the common challenges faced.

Limitations and the reasons

If you’re trying to withdraw cash quickly, it can be frustrating to be met with roadblocks along the way but the challenges you face will often vary from bank to bank. Each bank should make it clear how much you’ll be able to withdraw on a day-to-day basis. Most will simply say to inform your nearest branch ahead of time so that your needs can be catered to, they’ll have the money in that you need, and they should detail the ID you’ll need to do this.

It’s important to know that restrictions on your money aren’t designed just to be difficult – they’re there to protect you. Large cash withdrawals are a challenging issue for banks particularly because of the various scams that have conned people into handing over large amounts of money to fraudsters, the card courier scam being one of the most notable. Banks also have to follow certain regulations in regards to money laundering and financial crime, so they can prove that they’re being cautious with your money. After all, they don’t want to be challenged by the regulators for not handling your cash carefully.

thinkmoney Personal Account

You won’t have to worry about unclear withdrawal limits when it comes to the thinkmoney Personal Account. Due to the way the account is set up, you can only ever withdraw money from your Card Account – the account that holds your disposable spending money – and as long as you’ve got sufficient cleared funds in this account, you’ll be able to make daily cash withdrawals of up to £450. You can do this using your thinkmoney Prepaid Debit MasterCard® from any ATM that displays the MasterCard symbol and you won’t be charged for this, unless the individual ATM applies any extra fees.

In line with the Post Office changes, you have a daily cash withdrawal limit of £1,000 per day, split into two £500 withdrawals per day for Post Office branches. You’ll be able to start withdrawing cash from your local Post Office (you can find your nearest here) as soon as you receive your new thinkmoney Prepaid Debit MasterCard®, which you should receive from early November onwards.

If you ever want to withdraw a larger sum in cash from your Card Account, all you have to do is get in touch with us and let us know how much you’d like to withdraw. If you have the funds to do so, we should be able to arrange for you to pick this amount up from an RBS branch the very same day.