I have millions in my checking account (don’t ask). I also have about ten days to live (don’t ask). My plan is to head to Tijuana and blow as much as I can on whores and coke until the Grim Reaper comes calling. Don’t worry - whores (and coke dealers) in TJ are quite happy to take dollars over pesos.
What’s the most I can expect to withdraw in cash from my friendly neighborhood branch before their drawers/vaults are empty?
*None of what I have said in the first two sentences of this post is true.
If I take you literally, and you’re actually planning on really withdrawing a lot of currency, you’ll want to call ahead for any amount over $2,000 to avoid making life difficult for all involved.
They can arrange to have any amount you need to withdrawal brought in with the next armored car.
If you’re wanting an answer for the larger question of ‘How much does an average branch have’ then I can’t help you.
I don’t know the answer to your question, but don’t forget to declare that money to U.S. Customs, and possibly also to Mexican Customs, as you cross the border. Otherwise, it can be confiscated.
I know that the number exceeds $8K.
The problem is that some banks have 7 tellers running full-tilt, while others have two tellers who spend most of their time bored and waiting for customers.
I don’t know what ‘average’ is.
I guess we might also want to clarify if money in an ATM inside of the bank counts for the OP’s purpose.
That sounds ever so slightly higher than the number I had in mind for US banks.
FTR, that works out to maybe $410K in USD if I’m doing the math right.
I could be way off, though, because a lot of these little tiny mini-branches popping up in grocery store and Wal-Mart lobbies have the potential to wreak havoc on the averages.
You would probably want to go for a larger branch.
I worked at a HQ branch for approximately 30 smaller branches about 10 years ago. They had about 8-10 tellers and it was 4 floors in total. I was once in the vault when one of the tellers or personnel were locking up several metal drawers at the end of the day. I asked her how much was in each one. She said something like “there is about $150K in this one and about $200K in that one…” There were quite a few drawers, but I don’t know how much was in each. If forced to give a guess, I would have said there was between $800K to $2,000K in the bank. There could have easily been more.
Bank robbers usually get what’s in the teller drawers, which will vary throughout the day. The majority of the cash in a branch bank is in…
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.
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.wait for it…
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.yes, you guessed it…the vault.
The amount of cash your normal branch bank will have in the entire branch will vary depending upon how busy it is. Some branches carry more, some less. My experience has been that the average branch keeps anywhere from $25,000 to $50,000 on the premises.
In a previous life I used to audit banks.
One of our local morning show types told the story of when he decided to cash a check for maybe $800 at a bank branch located in a supermarket. They didn’t have enough cash to cover it. They apolgized, saying that they mostly handled loan applications and stuff like that, since most people just got cash from an ATM.
Banks usually set limitations on how much you can withdraw without notice, typically in the 5k range. If your plan is really to take all your money out of the Bank and never return it to them they aren’t going to be very motivated to bend policy to give you more money that day so it doesn’t much matter how much money they have on hand, your limitation is their ‘without notification maximum’
With notice of 1 or 2 days you can withdraw pretty much any amount. If you are in NY city it’s a day, but a smaller bank in the country might be 2 for a Federal Reserve delivery). The Federal Reserves have billions in cash on hand.
At the 10k mark they are required to notify the Feds of the transaction.
If your bank is Well’s Fargo you’re pretty much screwed as they have some of the stupidest policies ever. You’d be limited to taking 5k out per week till the end of time. A friend of mine had them for his business accounts. He did millions in transactions with them. He needed to take out 30k in cash for an event over a week away and they basically told him they couldn’t help him, 5k in cash even was the maximum even with notice. The bank chain with their own armored cars couldn’t un-ass themselves to get money from the NY Federal reserve just down the street. It was certainly an exceptional lack of customer service.
They end result was him writing me a check and me withdrawing the cash at my bank, a local non-national bank. I called them up and explained what I needed they told me come down with a check and pick up the cash at noon the next day. They didn’t even require the check clear.
cash-in-vault is a primary reserve which is supposed to handle that branch’s everyday contingencies. in my country, CIV (includes money in the teller boxes) ranges from $68,000 for an obscure branch to as much as 12 million in the main office. the trick is to keep it low enough (since it’s money that does not earn) to minimize insurance but enough to last for one or even just a few hours of a bank run about to blow over.