Ron.
Tell you what. Both of you sign the back of the check, mail it to me, and I’ll overnight you the cash back.
Some of it anyway. Maybe just the coins.
You want a good bank complaint? I’ve got one for you.
My sister and her husband just sold their house and moved to another state. They opened a bank account in the new state and deposited what they had in their account back home. So far, so good. Then their house sale completed, and they deposited a rather hefty check from that. They were told that there would be a hold on those funds until the check cleared. Of course, no problem at all, completely understandable.
Well, that weekend, they got a letter from the bank stating that they had insufficient funds. My BIL called and discovered that his account now registered as $80,000 in the red!! He was, understandably, mildly perturbed. It took him hours and hours on the phone over most of the rest of the weekend to get it fixed, and he never did get a straight answer as to why this happened. The bank people all seemed a little surprised that he thought there was a problem - there was a hold on his deposit, so of course that counts as a debit. Why, of COURSE when you give us a very large sum of money, we’re going to deny you access to not only that money, but the other money you’ve given us in the past! Oh, and there was also a mystery $30,000 that showed up in his account one day and then disappeared the next.
They’re looking for a good credit union now.
My credit union allowed me to deposit a check made out to my wife and me into an account that was in my name only with only my signature on it, no questions asked. Which was good, because she had died several months earlier.
Early this year, having retired and moved out of state, and thus no longer having convenient access to the account, I wrote to them and asked them to close the account and send me a check for the current balance, which they did promptly. Last month I got a statement from them showing an automatic deposit in June labeled “federal salary” (which turned out to be an award for services performed before I retired). I can only assume that they actually kept the account open wih a zero balance for six months.
How do the rates from credit unions compare to the rates from banks?
I had just the opposite problem with the bank my ex had just after my divorce.
We both had the same first initial.
A check made out to me, in my FULL name, went to her current/our old place, even though I not only filed a P.O. change of address, but one with this company, as well.
Her damn bank let her cash the check using just her first initial and her former last name.
I scolded and threatened legal action ,and they paid the amount of the check to me. They obviously didn’t have to resort to the County Attorney to get her to give back the money, or I’d have had extra visitation with the kids while their Mom was in jail. County attorneys are badass about check fraud here–regardless of the amount. The $75 would have definitely gotten her at least 3 days and a few hundred bucks’ fine ,if she’d called the bank’s bluff.
If I hadn’t hard-assed her bank about a mere $75, she’d have been emboldened to take checks for much larger sums, if any, that were mistakenly sent to her. This was the only one destined to be mis-sent, but how was I to know at the time?
Once again, proof that those fucking illegals are making life harder for the rest of us!
Vinyl, if it happened as you say – that the bank would not accept the endorsement of one of the parties unless that person was present with photo I.D. in hand – then that is, indeed, somewhat fucked up. I’ve not heard of any bank with that as a set-in-stone policy, and were I that branch manager, I’d ignore the hell out of it. Is it possible you just ran into a teller who, for whatever reason, felt like giving you a hard time? Either way, I don’t suppose I’d be happy about that either; there’s nothing in banking regulations that requires them to do that. Still, I think it’s ambiguous whether the OP’s case was the same as yours; it still reads to me as if the OP was the only one who signed the check. Perhaps Ron can clarify.
Sorry for targeting you with that portion of my rant. Believe me, there are plenty of folks truly worthy of being on the receiving end of it; I’ve had someone threaten me with death because I wouldn’t wire money from his account in Georgia to Beijing on the basis of an unverified phone message. You, at least, seem to understand why the bank might want to know who you are before releasing your money. If it seems like there’s more security then necessary, just remember that the majority of these rules were made reactively…somebody actually pulled the shit in question, a customer got scammed, and the bank had to eat it and lost money. The bank is concerned with covering its own ass, sure, but keep in mind that the bank’s ass isn’t in trouble unless the asses of its customers are left uncovered by its doings. Easiest way to cover all those asses is with one giant one-size-fits-all pair o’ pants, which in this case ends up being a security rule that everyone has to follow. Of course, there are exceptions to everything, and some security procedures truly are bullshit – requiring managers to check the same damned ID the teller just checked in order to approve a transaction, for example – but verification usually comes with a real purpose attached.
zenith, your story is a good example of what I’m talking about; the same security measures that might’ve pissed you (the generic “you”) off a hundred times before might’ve also saved you some heartache if properly applied the one time it counted.
Smeghead, sounds like a double hold got put on the deposit. If that’s what happened, and the customer service folks couldn’t figure that out, fix it, return your money and fees, send you a letter of bank error and give you a few bucks for your troubles in about ten minutes – especially when multiple calls are involved, lessening the chances that you’re just dealing with the office dipshit (hey, every company has a few) – then yeah, you need a new bank. One mistake might be understandable, shit happens…but when it does, shit then needs to get fixed.
LunaV, thanks! I was never a teller manager – in fact, I usually didn’t set foot in the branches if I could help it – but running the show in the call center, I got a pretty good idea of how it went sometimes…kinda like the worst calls I ever took combined with the face-to-face unpleasantness of a pissed-off customer at the restaurant I used to manage. Well, except I’m guessing nobody ever started hurling billiard balls at you for taking away their beer at 2:00 AM…but only because the banks close early and don’t keep hard throwable objects handy. Keep fighting the good fight. 
What, wait wait – what about the toasters? :eek:
I believe that was Evil Captor’s point.
Well, the teller in the OP didn’t know the OP personally, so if that was EC’s point, it didn’t apply to anything that had been said…unless of course you expand “individual judgement” to include “randomly deciding that certain people you don’t know are probably okay”.
I, too, had a problem once with a check that was made out to my husband and me. We both signed it. I put it in the ATM.
I got a call a few days later from someone saying that the check couldn’t be deposited into my account. In order for it to go into my account, my husband had to go to the bank with ID and confirm that he wanted it in my account, or they could send the check back to me.
I said we’d try to make it in.
A couple of days later, I get another call from the same person. This time, she says that though she can’t deposit it into my checking account, she can deposit it into my savings account, and then I can transfer the money from savings to checking. I say, “Okey!” and she put it in my savings account.
If that makes any sense to anyone, congratulations, you’re insane!
My bank has just pissed me off royally.
My wife and I opened CDs for our three oldest children a while back, when we came into a decent sum of one-shot money. We haven’t touched it, we figure that’s what a CD is for - just let it sit there and collect interest.
Today I get a letter from the bank that because there was no activity on the accounts, these CDs are considered dormant accounts, and if I don’t do something by October 31, the money is considered abandoned, and they will turn it over to the state!
WHAT THE FUCKETY-FUCK DO THEY THINK THEY’RE DOING WITH OUR KIDS’ MONEY??? Abandoned? If I knew that money left in your care was going to be thought of as abandoned just because I haven’t added to or subtracted from it, I wouldn’t ever have trusted you with it, assholes! You’re a SAVINGS institution - hold onto the G-d damned money I give you, benefit from being allowed to lend it to others at higher interest rates, it’s not your G-d damned business if I do any activity on the accounts!
Obviously, I’ll do something to save the money before October 31, but hell’s freezing over before Assholia Federal Savings ever gets my business again.
Um, that’s really weird… CDs aren’t supposed to be messed with for the term of the deposit! And the standard dormancy rules for savings accounts shouldn’t apply. I would double-check with a manager.
The branch of my bank I usually use if I have to bank in person is closed on Saturdays. One Saturday hubby and I wanted to deposit his paycheck into my account (in my name only). His was physically present with his valid ID and the branch I had to use that day would not allow us to deposit it. We weren’t asking for any money back, either.
On Monday, we went to my regular branch and they allowed the deposit.
By the way, this bank (Regions) will mail back undeposited checks put in through the ATM if they are not specifically for the person on the account.
Luckily I do not have to bank in person very often.
Why are you complaining about this?!
-FrL-
Even if the manager says it was a big mistake I would still pull my business.
Yeah, but any more it seems that one bank is as good or bad as another, and a longer relationship can help when mistakes are made on the bank’s part.
YMMV, of course.
And the measure of the reliability of persons you don’t know can, of course, be properly gauged by their attractiveness. Just like cute girls never have STDs.
I’m in the U.S. I deposited a check drawn on a Canadian bank on July 3. I found out today that it cleared the Canadian bank on July 24. Hasn’t shown up in my account yet and the fucking bank is closed so I couldn’t talk to the person that is supposedly monitoring this.
Goat felching motherfuckers. As soon as that money hits, I’m closing that motherfucking account.
Deposit holds are set for X number of days, regardless of whether the check actually clears in that timeframe. If the check has cleared the Canadian bank, as soon as you can get ahold of your bank’s customer service, ask the rep to call the Canadian bank, confirm that the check cleared, and release the deposit hold. If the rep won’t/can’t do it, talk to a supervisor. The only way they shouldn’t be able to do this is if the Canadian bank is one of the few pain-in-the-ass banks that won’t verify check clearings for non-depositors.