Instant bank account linking on new account. Yikes?

[JoeWras]

I haven't opened any bank account in at least 6 years. Recently, we opened an account at Marcus. The process took about 10 minutes for a joint account. Then we added a link to Ally. DW asked to go slow, so we chose "Manual - may take 7 days." I expected the typical small random amount deposits to be reported for a security interlock. Nope.

It didn't matter. The link was up instantly and I did a transfer within 1 minute. Overnight, the transfer posted on Ally.

On one hand, this was great! No muss, no fuss. Getting the savings rate right away. On the other hand, this seemed ripe for the nastiest kind of abuse.

My question is: are there behind the scenes extra security checks for this? Our registrations between the two accounts are exactly the same. Surely, this is checked? Someone please tell me it is.

We're going to try to link Vanguard later. I expect it to take longer, which is OK. I hope it takes longer!

 

[Alan]

We're going to try to link Vanguard later. I expect it to take longer, which is OK. I hope it takes longer!

We switched our Vanguard accounts to a new bank in 2016 and it seemed to take a very long time. A few days after the micro amounts had been passed back and forth I thought we were ready to go, but we weren't. I called Vanguard and the rep said that there were more security checks going on in the background and it would take another day or 2, which was fine by me.

 

[JoeWras]

Thanks Alan. I'm holding off a bit on Vanguard until I feel comfortable with Marcus. We'll see how it goes.

They have to have updated the procedure. I'm still thinking about how it went 15 years ago with the slow dance. For this latest link, everything matches, including our address and emails. Gotta be a factor, I hope.

 

[calmloki]

Just completed linking Vanguard with 1st Republic bank yesterday. The micro-deposits from Vanguard to 1st Republic were done and verified in 3 days or so but then Vanguard spent about a week doing "something" before showing 1st Republic as a bank we could transfer money to or from. Longer than expected, but maybe Vanguard is super secure?

 

[swakyaby]

Longer than expected, but maybe Vanguard is super secure?

I sure hope so. Half my life savings are with these guys.

 

[always_learning]

Two years ago, linking a bank to Vanguard took three days for a college kid for a brand new account.

I wonder if it depends on the amount of money one has in their VG account? Kind of like a tiered timeline?