"My bank doesn't want my money?" Topic

When I was a little Gungnir, half a century ago, give or take a few years, our local savings bank handed out nice nickle plated savings banks, with ferocious teeth at the top and an actual child proof lock at the bottom.

I got 10 cents per week to put in there, and a few times per year I went to the local youth club, where a bank official would be in session. He or she would open the bank, count the cash, by hand, and wrote, again by hand, the amount deposited in my bank book.

I grew into a big Gungnir, and the bank into a bigger bank.

I happen to still have three accounts at that bank.

Last week I wanted to deposit some cash into one of my accounts.
To my surprise, the counter was gone. A lady saw my puzzled look and came from behind her desk to attempt to dewonder me. I told her that I wanted to deposit some cash into my account.
"Oh," she said cheerfully, "we don't handle cash here anymore."
And handed me a flyer.

The flyer explained how I could download and print a form, fill out the amount to be deposited, seal form plus cash in an envelope and send it per registered mail to them.
My costs: €12,- per deposit. Of which they would reimburse me €2,25.

Candy was with me, we looked at each other, and I said; "Time to look for another bank."

So we walked down the block to the bank where our Foundation has an account, and explained.
Yes, they had to cut back on staff too, but they had installed an ATM that not only handed out money but also accepted deposits. Same for coins: one machine to count, sort and accept them, another for handing our rolls of change.
If I wanted anything beyond that, just call ahead, and it would be fixed.

They now have two new accounts, and from what I understood from the lady who helped us transfer our automatic monthly payments, several more.

Funny how some banks, and other companies, don't want to see that there are also modern ways of providing a service.

Oh, and yes, I did write my old bank a mail, and got one in return, that they were only listening to customers' demands. I answered how the other bank really did that. No answer to that one.

I kinda wonder how long my old bank will last.

…with ferocious teeth at the top…

I guess that should have been a warning!

In the US it seems the closer to hanbdling cash the more you are watched and the less you are paid. One bank I know had nearly all tellers as 20 hour part time, at just over minimum wage.

I always go through the ATM, it is just so much easier than dealing with a person. My bank doesn't even need envelopes to deposit checks.

When I stand in line at the local BofA branch, someone will often come by and ask if I just want to make a deposit, would I like to use the ATM outside? And I politely decline.

I like to hand my deposit to a live human being, especially when it's Maria, because we always have a chat. At Easter for example, when everyone else was assuming the entire world would be celebrating Easter the coming weekend, we compared notes on how Passover had already passed over, her (her) Orthodox Easter had a couple of weeks to come still. And Maria is very efficient.

I asked the branch manager the other day why they had stopped taking deposits in the lobby. It used to be that if a line was long, one of the senior staff would ask you if you just had a non-cash deposit, and would write you out a deposit slip then and there.

The manager explained that the bank had stopped doing that because of some deposits that had gone missing. That didn't make sense to me, as when I had done it, particularly at other branches in the Victor Valley, it was the branch manager or an assistant that was taking up the slack that way--hardly the folks you'd expect to make mistakes.

So as I was being let out--it was at closing, and they'd already locked the doors--I asked that again of one fellow I knew had previously been at one of the other branches. I mentioned that I'd been helped that way by at least one of the branch managers--who, when I identified him, turned out to have hired this fellow.

Having made that connection (I don't know why I schmooze so easily, but it happens), he explained how in at least two cases in Victorville, in the branches that I was holding up as exemplary, there had been two instances that he knew of where senior tellers had taken cash deposits in the lobby (which they were forbidden to do), and the cash had gone missing: one $1500, one $1,000. USD And that's why they stopped doing it.

That's a helluva note.

Allen

I transfer money to our joint account. The money leaves my account on the 1st, and arrives 3 -5 working days later (different banks). To stop the account going overdrawn I have to transfer some more by cash, which means going down on payday. That's my lunch break lost.

I use a credit union – and have ever since Bank of America and Wells Fargo kept chasing me by eating every bank I set up an account at (fees would necessarily go up each time as they had to pay for those mergers).

There are 2-3 tellers manning walk-up video "windows" as well as the drive-up windows. Money is transferred via pneumatic tubes. If you have coins, you throw them into a counting machine which gives you a paper receipt which you deposit along with checks and paper bills. I rarely see a line (pay days or the Friday before a long weekend) but they move faster than those at other banks in any case. The staff is all quite personable and they all know me by name so I make a point of doing my banking in person.

Wyatt

local savings bank handed out nice nickle plated savings banks, with ferocious teeth at the top and an actual child proof lock at the bottom

My wife has one of those from the bank in her grandparent's hometown. Last time she checked, the bank still could open the lock.

I guess we'll have to go visit to see if there is still a bank…

"I always go through the ATM, it is just so much easier than dealing with a person."

But oh so much less pleasant! God, but I hate the "never deal with humans" attitude that is becoming so prevalent in out techno-sucky age.

Our local bank (err, I think it's Chase now – like Wyatt, our banks keep on getting eaten by other banks.) still has real humans that are happy to take your cash and give you a reciept, *and* smile and chat while doing it.

We're in a small town, and the next closest branch is down in Fresno, 45 miles away. On the other hand, there are a couple other banks in town, should the need arise…

God, but I hate the "never deal with humans" attitude that is becoming so prevalent in out techno-sucky age.

That's not a new idea. Twenty-five years or so ago Citibank tried to get people to use the ATMs instead of the tellers. There was talk of being charged for using a human teller. Never ended up happening that I know of.

I belong to a Credit Union and I use the ATMs for many things but NOT for making a deposit. A deposit with a teller is immediately posted and available for withdrawal, but the ATM deposits can take several days to show up on the balance sheet.

Streitax, a deposit in banknotes is available immediately at my new bank, coins take a day.

Checks went the way of the dodo several years ago over here, most transactions are now by Internet banking or direct debit, or in stores via your bank card.

Hmmmm, how progressive. We use debit cards as well and most large businesses have electronic bill paying options but for some things the old check is what you get or give.

Banks stopped being a place to protect your savings and earn interest when they started handing depositers' money over to their stockholders and paying .1 percent interest.

When I was in grade school about the time gungir was, our passbook was in a small heavy-duty envelope, the type with the string that you wound around two round disks in figure-eight fashion to close.

Once a week, we'd turn it in at school and our deposits would be turned into the bank and returned to us within a couple days.

JW