[10068]

I just cashed a check in person at a local Chase bank branch; a check that was written from a https://www.wamu.com/personal/default.aspChase bank account (see EDIT below), and they charged me 6.00$ to cash the check.

EDIT: Details... check was from my father (same last name) and it may have said Washington Mutual on it since he's been with them for a long time. Check amount was for $1000.00 US.


Other banks refused to even cash it at all:
* I have been with Bank of America for about 3 years, and they flat-out refused to cash it for me when I brought it in. I gave them my ID and Bank-of-A debit card at the time of course so they could verify me.
* BECU (member there for about 6 months) also refused to cash it, and said they could deposit it but only $500 would be immediately available and the rest would take a week to come through.


What the hell?

 

[deltaydeltax]

I stopped using large banks a long time ago due to problems such as this. I now just use online banks, one in particular and have absolutely no problems. I get interest on all of my accounts, pay no maintenance fees and have access to thousands of free ATMs. BAC is absolutely horrid. Others may have different views.

 

[ericj]

$6 is higher than usual. Usually it's around $2. Not that they should charge you at all to cash a check drawn on their own bank.

Typically the only trouble-free way to cash a personal check is to have an account at the same bank it's drawn on.

It can take a few days for funds to clear, so most banks will let you deposit but not directly cash a check drawn from another bank.

Annoying but true.

 

[Gatto]

unless you have an account there that sounds about right, which is why I only cash checks at the bank I use

 

[10068]

Quote:

Originally Posted by deltaydeltax /img/forum/go_quote.gif I stopped using large banks a long time ago due to problems such as this. I now just use online banks, one in particular and have absolutely no problems. I get interest on all of my accounts, pay no maintenance fees and have access to thousands of free ATMs. BAC is absolutely horrid. Others may have different views.

BAC? Did you mean Chase or BOA or another one?

Where do you get free ATM access?!?!? Bank of America i'm cancelling after getting some refunds from them (long story) but to sum up one of 2 reasons for leaving; they charged me 4 dollars as a "non-Bank of America ATM fee". Wow. Just wow. And I thought the $2.75 fees from some of the ATMs themselves at supermalls and whatnot were high. Ridiculous. The even funnier thing is it was a BECU ATM, which is a really awesome Credit Union. Maybe they hate the competition, because IIRC that's only one of two times I actually got an ATM fee for using my BOA debit card @ an ATM anywhere. lol. Subversive tactics!

Does anyone remember the name of that bank that refunds all ATM charges assessed when using their debit card? If I added up the last 24 months or so i'd probably have at least 200 dollars of various types of ATM fees, if not more. I think it was called Granite Trust or something like that.

What do you mean by online banks? Info please

I am getting 6+% interest on the first $500.00 in each of my BECU Savings and Checking (seperate APR for each!) and would love if another bank had something like that. If you're worried about posting that info for any reason at all PM or Email me

Thanks


Quote:

Originally Posted by Gatto /img/forum/go_quote.gif unless you have an account there that sounds about right, which is why I only cash checks at the bank I use

Well like I said I tried that and they both refused.

 

[catachresis]

Banks are horrible in general, and they usually 'make up' for the cost of dealing with low deposit accounts by charging exorbitant fees whenever possible.

However, USAA Federal Reserve Bank is in general a very *good* bank. As it does not have physical branches (outside of Texas) it does refund all ATM and debit card fees. It also has superlative customer support. Unfortunately, it's hard to qualify for starting an account. Typically, one must be in the Service, or an immediate family member of a serviceman.

 

[Uncle Erik]

Just join a credit union. I did and I also use an online bank. They're much, much better.

Without getting political, I wish everyone would dump these big banks as payback for what they've done to us. They deserve to see their customers vanish.

 

[ecclesand]

I bank with a local bank here in Colorado and have been very happy with them. I know that they would cash a check drafted on another bank for $1000, but that's probably because I always keep over $1000 in my checking account with them. I can understand why they would only allow me to deposit the check if I didn't have enough to cover it in my account.

Considering Chase cashed it and the check was drafted from WAMU for $6 is pretty reasonable, I think.

 

[Moocher]

Ask your dad to send you money another way first. Ask your bank what form they would be willing to cash: cashier check, money order, etc. Your dad's bank will probably do any of these for him for free if he's been a long-term customer.

There are so many check scams out there, including cashier checks, that you can't really blame the banks.

 

[deltaydeltax]

Ah, sorry. BAC is Bank of America's ticker symbol on the New York Stock Exchange.

I have one account with ING. They are amazing. My intersted hasn't been near 5% in a long while due to our countries finances. When things were well, they paid out a little over 6%. It was awesome!

ING Direct: Find an ATM

If you check Bankrate.com they have tons and tons of ways to search for banks.

I agree with Uncle Erik.

 

[NightOwl]

I worked for a bank for 3 years almost 35 years ago. When I went through the initial training course one instructor's reply to a question stuck in my mind.

"The bank is not a charitable organization. We try to make money on everything we do."

That's when I realized that no business model is better set up to be profitable than a bank. It's only through greed and gross incompetence that a bank can fail. Since then I have kept myself educated on bank fees. I avoid any transactions where I consider the fees unnecessary or excessive. I used to comparison shop and negotiate (and still do in business), but now my wife works for a bank and gets employee rates on our accounts.

Things have changed because of the economy and it's not so now, but a lot of fees and rules used to be discretionary and anyone in a management/supervisory position in a branch could waive them.

Since Washington Mutual is part of Chase, the OP was probably charged a fee for the cheque to be certified and the funds instantly withdrawn from the issuing account. Otherwise the actual withdrawal would have taken place overnight and there's a chance that the issuing account could have had funds withdrawn for other transactions in the meantime. This fee varies depending on the amount of the cheque.

If the OP had taken the cheque to the actual branch of the bank that the cheque was drawn on and had proper i.d., he should have been able to cash it with no transaction fee (although this may be changing due to the times).

If he had taken it to the branch of the bank where he had his personal account, he should have been able to cash it with no fee as long as he had a balance in his account of at least the same amount as the cheque. Be aware that the bank can put a "hold" on the funds in your account until the cheque clears and any cheques or withdrawals on your account during those few days may or may not go through, or may be delayed depending on management's discretion.

Your branch may also cash the cheque even if you don't have enough funds in your account to cover it. This is also at management's discretion and depends a lot on how long you have banked with them and the person's inclination. They will usually check to see if there are sufficient funds in the issuing account, but can't put a "hold" on the funds in that account since it's at a different bank.

 

[ka-boom]

We're talking a fee of 0.6% to cash a $1000 check. Think about it, this is small change.

Did you ask what the fee was before the transaction?

 

[10068]

Quote:

Originally Posted by ecclesand /img/forum/go_quote.gif Considering Chase cashed it and the check was drafted from WAMU for $6 is pretty reasonable, I think.

It's the same company now

It's really dumb because it costs them next-to-nothing to cash a check:
* About 30-60 seconds of the teller's time
* A bit of computing power to log the transaction and all that
* A bit of paper for the receipt it makes (for the teller, not the person cashing the check)


Jerks... agreed with Uncle Erik on this one for sure.


Quote:

Originally Posted by ka-boom /img/forum/go_quote.gif We're talking a fee of 0.6% to cash a $1000 check. Think about it, this is small change. Did you ask what the fee was before the transaction?

No.


@NightOwl -- great post and definitely enlightening. Thank you for the information!

 

[Nebby]

Quote:

Originally Posted by catachresis /img/forum/go_quote.gif Banks are horrible in general, and they usually 'make up' for the cost of dealing with low deposit accounts by charging exorbitant fees whenever possible. However, USAA Federal Reserve Bank is in general a very *good* bank. As it does not have physical branches (outside of Texas) it does refund all ATM and debit card fees. It also has superlative customer support. Unfortunately, it's hard to qualify for starting an account. Typically, one must be in the Service, or an immediate family member of a serviceman.

I must say USAA is an outstanding bank, I like the atm and debit card fee refunds (they don't charge you anything on first 10 withdrawls, and they will refund up to $15 a month in other banks' fees). I have also heard good things about their scan-a-check program where you can scan in a check to deposit it to your account.

 

[NightOwl]

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sduibek /img/forum/go_quote.gif It's the same company now It's really dumb because it costs them next-to-nothing to cash a check: * About 30-60 seconds of the teller's time * A bit of computing power to log the transaction and all that * A bit of paper for the receipt it makes (for the teller, not the person cashing the check) Jerks... agreed with Uncle Erik on this one for sure. No. @NightOwl -- great post and definitely enlightening. Thank you for the information!

You're welcome. To further clarify, only the branch that issues the cheque or the bank's central clearing house (later that night when in physical possession of the signed document) are authorized to withdraw funds from the issuing branch's account. Other branches are not. This is a security measure to make internal theft more difficult and easier to trace. You were paying the fee as a form of insurance against forgery/fraud and for the extra step in having the branch you cashed the cheque at contact the issuing branch and get their authorization for an immediate withdrawal.

In this particular instance, the bank was fair.

Yes, big banks are jerks. Not only are they sharks and completely heartless in how they deal with clients, but they treat their employees just as badly.