God, banks are a pain in the ass.
So, my roommate gives me a check to cover two months-worth of his rent. Says I can go ahead and cash it today.
So, hoping to avoid more transactions than necessary (I need $3.00 in quarters for laundry and I also hate depositing a check in my bank, because - as noted above - my bank is a pain in the ass. Figure I’ll cash the check and get a roll of quarters while I’m at it), I make the hike to his bank to cash the check there.
Nope. Ain’t gonna happen. First I’m asked for two more pieces of ID apart from my DL. (Huh? How does my DL not establish my identity, considering I had to provide my old DL, my birth certificate, my SSN card, and a utility bill to even get the damn thing). Ooooookay…
Then they wouldn’t cash the check until they could call my roommate. (???)
WTF?
So, I just take the check back (because my roommate is a FT student and isn’t home during the day. And they won’t cash it without his verbal approval), walk all the way back to my bank, and deposit it there.
Of course, I understand that all this bullshit is supposedly to protect the customer -when it reality it’s about protecting the bank. And I also understand that the teller has no power over policy…
But, just so I’m clear:
I cannot, in fact, present a check to the bank on which it’s drawn and cash it. Even though the teller can verify the balance in the account. And even though it has the endorser’s signature on it, which they can verify. But I can cash it by directly depositing it at my bank. With no such verification nor approval.
I can follow the rules as long as I know what the rules are.
Which seem to be:
You may access your money if you have ID. Unless we don’t need your ID. Or by establishing your identity, but only if you have two other items with your name on them, and don’t really establish your identity (because if your DL is fake, probably your SSN is, too). Further, you may transfer cash to the endorsee, approved by you via your signature. Unless your signature isn’t good enough. We will also honor your check unless we won’t. Your signature is binding, unless it isn’t, as long as we can talk to someone who can easily claim he is you, even though we can’t verify that, because if some man just calls us back, we’ll accept that. We will also not give your money to someone with a valid ID, unless we don’t have any way to verify that, in which case we will.
Oh, and cashing a check for three bucks in quarters? We know you signed that check and presented us with valid ID, but we still need you to endorse it on the back…