I am simply beside myself dealing with idiots. Short summary...

Disclaimer: I worked for a large super regional bank for many years, so banking is a known commodity to me.

1 - Got a personal check from someone for several thousand dollars.
2 - Took the check to the bank the check was drawn on (BofA). Was concerned the check might be returned for lack of funds if I deposited it at my bank.
3 - Cashed the check out, but because I couldn't get to my bank same day, I had the bank I was at (BofA) cut me a cashier's check for the total.
4 - Deposited the BofA cashier's check the following day in my bank.
5 - My 'newish' bank put a week long hold on the check proceeds, noting them as suspicious.

I called customer service and all they can tell me is that the check was reviewed and found to be suspicious, hence the hold. Can't tell me if that occurred programmatically or if a human being reviewed it, or what was suspicious about it, and won't consider removing the hold. Wow, that makes doing business just sooooooooo easy when funds are held up.

Now add this to the equation....

1 - I've had sterling credit forever.
2 - I carry triple the amount of the check in my combined bank accounts on an ongoing monthly basis.
3 - I have my mortgage loan through this bank.
4 - This same bank allowed two similar amount personal checks to clear next day without issue to my account over the last 90 days.

So personal checks, you know, the one's most susceptible to bouncing pass through their system with no issues, but bank issued cashier's checks, those far less likely to bounce receive holds. Really!

These were a couple of new business accounts I opened about six months ago, and they will be closed next week when I get the time and moved to another bank because this bank's incompetence and lack of customer service is simply too enormous to deal with on a repeat basis.

If this is what we have to look forward to in retail banking, I'm going to start depositing my cash in a mattress.

Are cashier's checks more likely to be counterfeited? Maybe that's the reason?

quote:

Originally posted by Angus the Kid:
Are cashier's checks more likely to be counterfeited? Maybe that's the reason?

Than personal checks? No way. And if this bank has an ounce of customer service, one phone call to BofA would have cured the issue. When I banked at SunTrust and would deposit similar cashiers checks, every once in a while they'd call the payee bank to verify a check. Took about five minutes, and then they cleared the cashier's check to my account. Apparently as technology has increased, the IQ of those working at these banks has declined.

Couldn't you have had the funds wire transferred from BoA to your bank?

every bank I use charges for wires. sometimes silly amounts.

quote:

Originally posted by hrcjon:
every bank I use charges for wires. sometimes silly amounts.

They usually charge for cashiers checks too.

quote:

Originally posted by bigwagon:
Couldn't you have had the funds wire transferred from BoA to your bank?

Since I do not bank with BofA, that wire would have cost me something like $50. I'm not paying a $50 surcharge to accomodate my current bank's moronic behavior, when a simple phone call on their part could have resolved this issue real time.

quote:

Originally posted by bigwagon:

quote:

Originally posted by hrcjon:
every bank I use charges for wires. sometimes silly amounts.

They usually charge for cashiers checks too.

The teller I dealt with at BofA goes to my church and was nice enough to waive the cashier's check fee for me.

I got a better one. My wife got a bonus check from her Fortune 500 employer for about twice her normal paycheck. It was drawn on the JP Morgan bank, and we were depositing it at Chase. We usually have at least one paycheck worth of money in that checking account. They put a week hold on that check! Who exactly did the bank think was not good for that check?? To top it all off, we were closing on a house that week and were planning on using those funds for the close. We had to scramble and transfer funds from our savings account. We couldn't get an answer other than "it was more than you normally deposit". So we gave you too much money. Morons.

I agree...asinine...

Some of the bigger banks won't allow cash deposits if it's not your own account, also.

But one would think, in almost 2020, that they would be able to instantly verify funds. Oh, wait...they can...just too damn lazy to do it.

I manually deposit child support to my ex-wife. Manually, bc our bank where we had a joint account finally pissed me off over this stuff (which I had been banking with since I was 14) so I dumped them.

I've been trying to get her to open a joint account for the kids at my credit union for a while so I can just transfer online without any fees. Big banks can suck my balls.


I've got family that work for both Wells Fargo and BOA. I hear horror stories. They don't even do loans through their own employers...they use their credit union because of how ridiculous the big banks are.

quote:

Originally posted by chongosuerte:
I've been trying to get her to open a joint account for the kids at my credit union for a while so I can just transfer online without any fees. Big banks can suck my balls.

You 'should' be able to go through your CU's online banking app and send her whatever money you want without incurring any fees. I sent my college age son money every month that way for three years while he was in Charleston. And since I sent him the same amount each time, I automated the transaction to occur on the same day each month.

Big banks = Evil, Inc.

My small "local" bank and my credit union are trouble-free, and I will always value that.

I don't know what the magic number is, but my bank also puts automatic holds on checks over a certain amount until they clear.

One day I'm up there making a deposit, and the teller notifies me one of the checks will be held. Which one I ask. This one here she says (while holding up a check drawn on the Bank's operating expense account for work my company did for them).

Yeah, the guy who wrote that one is pretty shady. Who knows if it will clear or not.

Few years ago I entered the bank that handles my business account. I asked for $3000 cash. The teller advised me that they had a policy of only giving out $1000 a day in cash. I said "Ok, either you give me the cash amount I asked for, or I close the entire account and take it somewhere else. YOU make the decision."

She called a manager over and gave me the amount I requested.

Banks are a necessary evil, but don't take their crap. Take your money elsewhere of they don't serve your needs. Simple.

I have a question about such transactions as above.
Have Fed banking regulators contributed to this problem with regulations designed to foil money laundering and drug transactions?
We have a mortgage with Chase, and the amount of info needed seemed an order of magnitude greater than we needed in the past. I was told it was due to new regulations clamping down on mortgage loan practices that contributed to the 2008 crisis.

quote:

I have a question about such transactions as above.
Have Fed banking regulators contributed to this problem with regulations designed to foil money laundering and drug transactions?

I suspect it has more to do with banks simply not keeping that much cash on hand.

Your bank is being ridiculous. A cashier's check "should" clear within 24 hours as they should be a solid check and not apt to be insufficient funds or anything like that, that could occur with a private persons check.

quote:

Originally posted by vthoky:

Big banks = Evil, Inc.

My small "local" bank and my credit union are trouble-free, and I will always value that.

You can find morons anywhere you look in the banking industry. Big banks, small hometown banks, credit unions.

Credit union where I do business, for example: I once asked a manager, "If I have a straight deposit, no cash back, no splits, no problem solving, no discussion, do I need a deposit slip or is the endorsement on the check sufficient?"

"Just an endorsement is fine, if it shows the account where you want it deposited."

Couple weeks ago I had two checks to be deposited, one in each of two accounts. i endorsed one, "for deposit only, to account abc," and the other, "for deposit only, to account xyz."

Dumb-ass teller at drive-up must have failed first-grade reading, deposited both to account abc. I went inside, had a "discussion" with the manager who had previously told me that endorsement was fine, but now denied that and insisted that deposit slips are necessary.

I asked when the policy that HE had told me about had changed, and why I had not been notified, the response was a vacant stare.

Next time, I will send the deposits for ONE account through the drive-up mechanism, wait for the receipt to come back, then send the other account deposits.

It will occupy the drive-up lane for a longer time, but whatever it takes.

To the OP. So you’re pissed at bank A and will be moving to bank B. Someone at bank B is pissed at their bank and are moving to bank A. At the end of the day, both banks got a new account.

There is so much fraud in the banking world today that banks need to do whatever they can to protect themselves. Bank tellers used to have more authority to make simple decisions but now your average teller is inexperienced and the computers are programmed to place holds. Every time I go into my bank, (about twice a year) there is a whole batch of new tellers.

All the new rules and policies are not limited to the tellers, the personal, mortgage and commercial world have changed too.

Much of this is driven by gov’t rules, fraud and changes in the bankers themselves. Look at the average age/experience of those in the bank/branch.

Things aren’t gonna improve.

quote:

I suspect it has more to do with banks simply not keeping that much cash on hand.

You might be surprised at just how much money is kept in a bank/branch. I speak from experience.

quote:

You might be surprised at just how much money is kept in a bank/branch. I speak from experience.

I see it every day.

If you wanted to jump into a time machine, you would find that banks used to keep a chunk of their assets in the vault. Today they can simply place an order and have it delivered on demand.

I have seen more cash in ATMs on weekends than I have seen inside the branch itself.

I'd say a typical branch keeps $50 to $250. If 100 people want $3 in cash, that would be a problem. It's usually not like you see in the movies. Banks typically keep all of their cash on hand inside a relatively small compartment. It's not stacked on pallets in the vault.