Tell them you were gambling at WinStar. Lots of small wins. Then you took out cash to gamble. If they discriminate that you gamble, you can take legal action.

I haven't been in this hobby long, but I have never given nor received a bill of sale for any machine I have bought/sold. I could tell them exactly what I paid/received for every game. If that was not sufficient, I would go to a different bank. If this was my own bank, I would transfer my balances.

I like telling the bank teller that I'm going to party like a rockstar when I withdraw large amounts for games.

Just tell them you were buying coke.

One of these days they're going to try and outlaw cash. Can't track your every move when you spend it.

most of my pin money never sees the bank

We bought a new house in February and had a similar situation with selling a game or two.

What's funny is that they said "we are not going to use this in the calculation since you qualify without it", but they still wanted the documentation.

Luckily I sold the pin to a friend who was willing to sign a bill of sale.

My wife and I also have a few side businesses that periodically spin off cash, so we had to document those deposits into our main account too.

I'm going to be buying a house within 6-8 months, I do appreciate the advice

Not sure why so many of you are surprised or think this is odd behavior of a bank. There is a reason why any good real-estate agent will tell you to be careful with large bank transactions close to closing. Withdraws aren't as bad as deposits though. With large deposits the bank is having to make sure you aren't getting loans/borrowing money in order to qualify.

Flame away if you want but with what we just went through (and are still fighting to get out of) in the housing market I'm glad banks are being more careful. And, yes I know. Some of you with big bank rolls don't have as much to worry about with these things but for the average person this is a good reminder for people to see.

P.S. - No, I don't work for a bank so no prejudice there

haha. My lender had questions about a $120 deposit that was two years before I secured the loan.

I had some stock options vest shortly before my recent house purchase, you'd think it was the most novel thing on the planet based on the lender's questions. Taxes were already paid and everything. Provided all kinds of documentation going back to when I received the options several years prior and they were still saying "so, you just got this conveniently just now before you tried to buy a house" and me responding with "well yeah, wouldn't you think about arranging a very large purchase to fall shortly after you expected to get a big chunk of cash?"

We ended up establishing that those funds didn't need to be allocated towards the downpayment so they could just ignore them.

Funds needed to be seasoned at least 6 months for a home loan I took out 2 years ago. Depending on the institution or credit history, more or less than 6 months. Mine was a loan for a second home so they scrutinized my finances all the more.

Good luck getting a bill of sale from a fellow pinhead. I sure as shit and asking for or giving one. I got pissed off having to explain a $7k withdraw for a pin purchase so now, all my pin money stays out of the banking system. The older I get the more I feel like a crazy prepper.

You don't borrow money for pinball machines so why borrow for your house? Cash is king!

cash cannot be used for a down payment so you better have the house paid in full with cash if you want to use that. And with that i would think it would throw up huge red flags with the government if you bought a 400k house without showing where the funds came from.

I had the same questions about money entering (and leaving) my bank account when I refinanced my house a few years ago. I had to show where every dime came from. Bill of sale, not a bad idea...

That's why you deposit it in chunks at a minimum of 6 months before you plan on trying to obtain a mortgage. The funds have to be seasoned. There are whole pages on the web dedicated to mattress money and how to make it usable in a real estate transaction.

Last time I bought a house (21 years ago) the bank could not have cared less. That was during the good old days, when money was flowing.

Also, Every week, at least 3 or 4 credit card pre-approved offers came in the mailbox for $5-15k apiece. How did that work out for the greed-crazed banks?

Pretty good for most of them since we paid for the bailout.

Damn they waited till 2 days before closing to inquire about these. Not saying much for the lenders. But maybe that's how things are done now.

I just closed this week on a refinance. I bought a few in the past year and it never came up once.

On the actual day my refi loan was going to close the bank contacted my HR department to make sure I was still employed there. Absolutely not like the good old days...

I just bought a house. They didn't care so much about the previous game purchases (-5k, -5k, +5k ect.)
What I wasn't allowed to do was deposit 5k from a game I sold until after we closed. This was the one time I sold to a Canadian and he wrote up a bill of sale, so I had that.

They also don't consider these assets. Which I bauked at.

Funny - I have purchased 5 pins in the past four months - and nary a word about any of it from the lender. My refi just went through last week - including the additional money to build out my basement for a pin-room.

I had a pretty substantial amount of equity in my home prior to the refi - perhaps that's why there was no inquiry.

Money going out is not nearly as big of a flag as money coming into an account. If you easily qualify then making some big purchases wont hurt unless that outflow is enough to put you below the approval threshold. Money coming in is what causes the flags..

Close to closing, sure. For some reason, I thought the O.P. meant the banks may go back years in the past.

I bought a $1500 laptop after I was approved for a home loan, but right before I went into contract. About 3 weeks into contract my phone blew up and with panicked voices on the other end.....it led to me having to buy points to get my interest back down to where it should have been. Whoops. So yea, the OP speaks truth. The money itself wasn't the issue apparently, but it messed up the pre-approval locked-in interest rate algorithm.

Last year i bought a house and a few months before I sold a pin and deposited the 1500 into my bank account. This actually almost caused my mortgage loan to fall through. I was asked if I could get a bill of sale showing where the money came from, since I could I was told that it would've been better to not have deposited the money at all. Luckily my mortgage guy was able to use the bank statements from the previous month and it all worked out. I just couldn't believe that having more money in my account could hurt me.

It's called Capital Controls.

A few years back the bank would have to fill out a form to the IRS without you knowing when you deposited more than $10,000 per day into you account.
The past year or 2 they have reduced that amount to only $3,000 and the IRS gets a notification.

Strange times we are living in....

This is true? Is it at least in teeny print somewhere in the middle of that fat packet of jibberish?!

What action would that be?

It's not for the general public to know about so no, it is not written in that packet of legalese.
It's supposed to be a behind the scenes thing between the banks and the internal revenue service.
And if you ask a bank teller about it at the branch, they are supposed to fill out a form about that too!
(All info from a bank teller friend of mine)

Makes you ponder if we still live in the good ole USA or 1980's Soviet Russia....

If you use any banking institution for any more transactions than absolutely necessary you are your own worst enemy IMO. I figured out a long time ago I didn't want anybody keeping track of my buying and spending habits. Those that make every small or large purchase with a debit card are the biggest fools of all.

Wow, getting a mortgage and the associated paper hell was bad as is but having to explain every deposit is just plain ridiculous. Go banks!

Then have some fun with them. Withdraw $6418 on Monday, then deposit $5286 back into the account on Thursday. The following Friday, withdraw $4622 and deposit $4960 first thing on Monday morning. Two days later, withdraw $6117. Wait a fortnight then deposit $9231. Keep the amounts and intervals irregular and let the IRS run around trying to figure out what the hell is going on.

Sounds like fun but you never ever EVER want to get on the IRS's radar for any reason! No matter who you are. It can be a living hell. I've always thought that Aussies are a little bit crazy though.

been there my friend

with BOA every paypal sale or game deposit was questioned

and I sold my Iron Man to pay for closing cost I COULDNT USE THAT MONEY !!! (was undetermined)

had to use some 401K funds as it was accounted for

LAME

Screw any bank that behaves this way. Find a local credit union. Banks suck.

I am a Realtor and I can tell you that the bigger the bank the bigger the PITA they are to deal with. I can almost guarantee that the OP was dealing with BOA, CHASE or WELLS FARGO. Find a local MORTGAGE company for you purchases. I know my local lender really only cares about the last two months (what shows up on the bank statements you provide) If its an unusual situation (self employed or recent job change) they might require six months but not usually. But Really if you are buying a home DO NOT BUY ANYTHING ELSE until AFTER you close, just to be safe.

Keeping tabs on purchases, lol. Sounds depressing.

I close next Wednesday and although they asked for enough paperwork to fill a filing cabinet, not once was any deposit or withdraw specifically questioned. Weird.

I have a standard Bill of Sale form that I keep around. I have had several buyers ask me for one. No big deal.