I guess I’ll see what happens today since I do the deposits for work and am not on the account (we bank with Chase). I feel like they would have told me though if that were the case because Chase did give plenty of advance warning when they started requiring that ID be shown when making a cash deposit. Maybe something else was going on or the bank manager was interpreting their policy incorrectly?
I’ve never encountered this at TD Bank where I also bank, but on the other hand I haven’t had to make a deposit into someone else’s account there in almost five years so their rules may have changed by now.
Chase does seem to have a lot of new rules and restrictions though. Apparently they have been closing the accounts of customers who work in the porn industry.
Twenty or more years ago I saw a man being interviewed on 60 Minutes who said something along the lines of “Americans have to let go of the mistaken notion that banks are service organizations.” That always stuck with me.
If Chase has adopted a new policy it’s to make Chase more money, or to protect Chase, not for the good of its customers.
This makes absolutely no sense to me, but money laundering is so far from my reality it didn’t cross my mind. If I’m not mistaken Chase was the bank that in the 90s started charging extra for rolled change. As in, a roll of fifty pennies cost 65 cents to obtain from them. I could be misremembering and the charge was to deposit rolled change.
I worked at a bank and had frequently heard of other banks refusing deposits into another person’s account. Many of them would accept cash only. Checks/money orders could be fraudulent and are often required to be endorsed by the account owner as a way to accept ownership/responsibility if the check is “bad”. But refusing cash? I don’t understand the reasoning for that at all.
“Hi, I’d like to deposit into this account number.” Me: “Okay.”
“Hi, this is my friend’s account number. I’d like to put $75 in.” Me: “Okay.”
“Hi, I’d like to give my friend $75. I don’t have his account number.” Me: “No.” Them: “Just look him up in your computer. His name is John Smith!” Me: (347 entries in this city alone) “No.”
Which is it? #3 is understandable because the customer will put it in the wrong account. Sometimes they barely know the person’s last name but expect you to figure it out. But the point with #1 is that I wouldn’t ask.
Chase is by far my least favorite bank, especially on the credit side of things.
I bank with Chase and I’ve seen signs up in the lobbies to this effect.
Does anyone know why this rule? I can understand not accepting checks and money orders from a third party, or not accepting deposits if there’s a question about which account, precisely. Color me baffled too.
ETA, from Duckster’s link:
It still doesn’t make sense to me though. Fear of counterfeit cash somehow greater than risk of bad checks or money orders or cashiers’ checks?
you’re looking at this from the side of an actual ‘friend’ being helpful -
my thoughts -
It confirms that the person has an account and thier account number - and has no trail back to the depositor.
Therefore it can come down as (atleast) 2 very viable concerns for the ‘friend’ -
a) Privacy - you just confirmed something that I may not have wanted known - you may have just confirmed for a debt collector things they are not yet privileged to know
b) Security - Now the depositor has a name and an account number - not a stretch they have an address - would not be hard at all to order/print checks and go to town.
From the banks side - by limiting that - they have not only protected thier clients - but they have also reduced their own liability in such cases.
This must not apply to business accounts then, correct? I just did my deposit as usual and nothing happened (as I said above, my name is not on the account).
Huh. OK, I can see those reasons being valid.
But why are they restricting cash deposits, but not deposits made with a check, or some other non-cash instrument? That’s the rub, right there.
Several years ago a client wrote me a (fairly large) bad check, and was nice enough to call me sa soon as he found out and then offer to go cover it with cash, plus extra to cover any fees or inconvenience to me. Which he actually didn’t need to do, but I gave him the relevant information, and he took care of it.
But from what I understand, the same scenario today - he could still deposit another check, or a money order or cashiers check, to my Chase account. But not cash? That’s just weird.
With cash - there is no paper trail - with a check or other instrument, the teller can (rightfully) ask for ID, etc - there is something to follow. If the person getting the funds questions where they came from, then the bank has ‘something’ to show them other than a ‘cash receipt’.
Suppose I sold drugs and had $75 in cash. I don’t want to put it in my bank account because then the Feds have a paper trail. So instead, I try to give it to my friend and if anyone asks, I know nothing about it. Then I’ll hit him up for a check or money order and it’ll all look legit.
That’s called money laundering, and banks have 1.9 billion reasons to want to stop it.
OK, that’s money laundering. But if I read your story correctly, nobody deposited cash into another person’s account. So Chase’s policy wouldn’t stop it. I’m not getting the money laundering bit.
I get cash illegally.
I deposit it into someone’s account who is not me.
When I read about a company having a policy that makes no practical sense from the customers’ point of view, I suspect it’s there to deal with internal problems.
In this case, I think Chase has been having a problem with their own employees abetting money laundering. Either to get a share of the drug profits or by being intimidated. Employees involved in large cash transactions might not be following all the rules so this is a way to cut down on one of the avenues. Especially since it would tend to tie one employee to one launderer. But clearly won’t really stop determined crooks and their insiders.
New York Community Bank. As of May 2013, I was allowed to walk in and deposit oh, $100-$400.00 into my adult daughter’s account. No need to show my ID.,