Rant of the Day: Banks

AirBaker

AirBaker

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AirBaker
Recently, I bought out my partner in the Bonanza. I wrote him the check last week and the funds left my bank on the 27th. I'm getting calls from Washington Mutual asking to verify that the funds are 'gone'. Once they're gone, they can credit the $$ to my partner's account.

I understand there's the float, but why do they need ME to tell them it's not there? They've got computers and banking systems. No one is waiting for a stagecoach delivery of gold.

Who do they think they're kidding? :) It's no longer MY money but the bank's.
 
Chris:
Haven't you figured out yet that it's very easy to put money 'in' the bank :yes:
Getting it out; that's a completely different story; I could fill up the entire board with posts 'bout what I've had to go through to withdraw funds :yes:

Sorry. Only thing I can think of is a glitch where your bank is saying they sent the funds and your partner's bank doesn't have (can't find) them. I've had that occur a few times. Funds went to wrong account or incorrect institution. They may be verifying the funds went out; then have your bank track where they were sent etc.

BTW, they will first do what's easiest to do for them 'not you'. Your time doesn't cost them anything. Had something like that happen recently on tracking a transaction from 2001. They called and told us we had to do it; changed their mind when my accountant told them the files were archived and he'd have to bill at this normal rate to retrieve them and do the research---he said it very politely. They haven't asked again. :D

Dave
 
It's not really a problem to me. However my partner's wife wrote a large check against the amount and doesn't want her check to bounce. I tried to be nice, but there's nothing I can do. :)
 
Ask for the money in cash, regardless of how much it is. Give em 2-3 day notice.
 
For similar BS with fees, I therefore won't do business at all with WM for the last 5 years.
 
N2212R said:
Ask for the money in cash, regardless of how much it is. Give em 2-3 day notice.
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federal regulations require anything 10k or over in cash moved in either direction over the bank counter to be reported. they would make you fill out and sign a form that gets sent to the feds. if you decide you don't want to, then they could fill out a suspicious activity report and send it anyway. no big deal i suppose when everything is legit, but a cashier's check would be better. much safer too.

the bank shouldn't be calling the check writer to ask if the check has cleared. that is stupid. they should be calling the bank the check was drawn on to verify that it has gone through.

they verify non-official checks because the branch who accepts the check and releases the funds is ultimately responsible if the check comes back. if large checks come back and joe blow has already transfered the released funds to another bank, then someone's gonna get fired. when i worked in the industry, even cashier's checks would get called on to make sure there were no stop payments on them.

washington mutual is a great bank imo. free checking, free business checking, branches everywhere. one crappy person at one branch can taint your view of any bank, so just deal with someone else when that happens.
 
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Chris, I had the very same thing happen to me (same bank too) except I missed the call from the bank but shortly thereafter got a call from the seller saying there were problems in the transfer. Very embarrassing.

I called my bank, they could not provide a straight answer so I took time out of my day to high tail it to the nearest branch (I had never been in before) and got a cashier's check which I presented to the seller. Whole process shot my day but he did buy lunch.

Several follow ups revealed the bank could not answer my simple questions so I closed my accounts with them. Left hand didn't know what the right hand was doing, depending upon who I reached or even what time of day talking to the same person their screens would show contrary information. And they even used the "computer's down" excuse multiple times. When I say it's my money what part of that do you not understand?

WM, BoA, WF, all same. Learned my lesson, all my accounts are with pvt local bank. I have a free VISA money card with them. Recognized by all vendors, works like an ATM card, no points or fees, min balance $1,000.
 
Richard said:
Left hand didn't know what the right hand was doing, depending upon who I reached or even what time of day talking to the same person their screens would show contrary information. .
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My point exactly. Why trouble my bank because YOU don't know where the $$ is? Either the money is there or it isn't. Would WaMu really trust someone's word that the money has left the building??

Again, it was really of no matter to me, but who do they think they're kidding?
 
10k on monday, 10k on tuesday, 10k on.... :D
 
AirBaker said:
Why trouble my bank because YOU don't know where the $$ is?
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huh? verification of check clearance or funds is not trouble to a bank, it is standard procedure, especially for large transactions. (calling the check-writer themself is not procedure.)

how often does your partner do transactions of this size? what is his average balance? how long has he been a customer of that bank? who is responsible if this check gets returned? non sufficient funds aren't the only reason checks get returned, it could be missing a field (no signature, date, or written amount), have a stop payment, or be deemed as fraud. managing risk is part of the bank's job. getting upset over this is like people who get upset when people ask to look at your ID if your credit card isn't signed.
 
N2212R said:
10k on monday, 10k on tuesday, 10k on.... :D
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lol, there's also another regulation that requires them to report when cash is used to purchase bank checks (money order, cashier's checks, travelers checks) for $3k- or more. if i recall, these aren't required for you to sign so you probably wouldn't know that this was reported.
 
mmilano said:
huh? verification of check clearance or funds is not trouble to a bank, it is standard procedure, especially for large transactions. (calling the check-writer themself is not procedure.)

getting upset over this is like people who get upset when people ask to look at your ID if your credit card isn't signed.
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I have no idea about my partners finances, so I can't answer those questions. I just find it hard to beleive that the bank will take a verbal 'yes' to the question of "Has the cash been transfered?".
 
hehe those were just questions the bank asks.. and yeah, you were most likely hearing from an inexperienced employee who was being asked to have a hold released on the account. lol sorry for my rants, too many years at a bank. one day i just decided to quit and never work at a bank again. i think it was getting licensed to sell life insurance ( annuities ) that made me look deeply at the career. ZZzzzzZzzz
 
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My accountant got turned away by my bank branch trying to make a withholding deposit. Drive up window. Passed the young teller the deposit and slip;
Hello Mr. Siciliano.
I'm not Mr. Siciliano, I'm his accountant.
Well Sir, we can't take deposits from anyone but the account holder.
Ah, young lady, I don't want anything from you, I just want to put money in.
Uhh, I'll have to talk to my manager.

BTW, I did authorize the bank to accept deposits from anyone!!

Dave
 
wow, usually they just can't give you a recept containing the balance. at least that is the policy with wamu and the banks i used to work at.
 
mmilano said:
wow, usually they just can't give you a recept containing the balance. at least that is the policy with wamu and the banks i used to work at.
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So if you mailed in a deposit, they would refuse to accept the mail? Sheesh!

One I can't figure out is why my bank limits the amount of any deposit via their own ATM's. If you try to put in more than $9999.99 it gets refused. I even tried breaking the deposit into smaller chunks, but once you hit $10k you're done for the day.
 
lancefisher said:
So if you mailed in a deposit, they would refuse to accept the mail? Sheesh!

One I can't figure out is why my bank limits the amount of any deposit via their own ATM's. If you try to put in more than $9999.99 it gets refused. I even tried breaking the deposit into smaller chunks, but once you hit $10k you're done for the day.
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Lance: You have permission to put the overage in my account :D

I'll have my secretary call your secretary and make the arrangements :rofl:

Dave
 
lancefisher said:
One I can't figure out is why my bank limits the amount of any deposit via their own ATM's. If you try to put in more than $9999.99 it gets refused. I even tried breaking the deposit into smaller chunks, but once you hit $10k you're done for the day.
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most likely it's because of the regulation i mentioned about about $10+ deposits. you can deposit cash in the atm, and by law you must sign the form if you deposit $10k+ in cash.
 
mmilano said:
most likely it's because of the regulation i mentioned about about $10+ deposits. you can deposit cash in the atm, and by law you must sign the form if you deposit $10k+ in cash.
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ATMs don't accept cash, at least not around here. This was just checks.
 
lancefisher said:
ATMs don't accept cash, at least not around here. This was just checks.
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Call me paranoid but I will never make a cash deposit toa machine. This is one of those times I want a paper trail.
 
Dave Siciliano said:
My accountant got turned away by my bank branch trying to make a withholding deposit. Drive up window. Passed the young teller the deposit and slip;
Hello Mr. Siciliano.
I'm not Mr. Siciliano, I'm his accountant.
Well Sir, we can't take deposits from anyone but the account holder.
Ah, young lady, I don't want anything from you, I just want to put money in.
Uhh, I'll have to talk to my manager.

BTW, I did authorize the bank to accept deposits from anyone!!

Dave
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The first tax refund we got as husband and wife, I endorsed the check and the husband deposited to his account. Bank wouldn't accept it because my name wasn't on the account. I personally went into the bank to deposit the check and they were still reluctant. Put my fingerprint on the back of the check before they reluctantly deposited the check.

What really frosted me was that you could call Customer Service and put my name on the account......no identification, no signature card, no nothing......but they made such a fuss about depositing the check when I'm there, in person with ID. Go figure......

Kaye
 
mmilano said:
but a cashier's check would be better. much safer too.
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HA! You would think so, but nooooooooo. I've had them take just as long to 'clear' an out of state cashiers check. Out of country? fuhgedaboudit. I'll tell ya, as a ships captain, this subject is the freaking baine of my existance. VISA/MasterCard or cash, preferably both. Since I got a merchant account set up, I can even pay myself with the clients card number. Now that you can get VISA/MC cards linked directly to Debit accounts, it makes transactions much easier, you set the account and hand them the card and it can be safely shipped and used world wide and individual account details don't need to be revealed. Receiving boxes full of cash via Fed Ex works for me just fine as well.

BTW, If we are voting for best all time bank, my vote is Bank Atlantic down in Florida. You wanna set up a business account at 11:00pm on a Sunday? Head on down, there's someone there to take care of you. Best service I have ever seen in a bank. But they liked to hold on to checks every day they could too. The manager usually cut me a bunch of slack on that though since I was nice and friendly through the entire 3 hr process of opening a new business account (this was due to a glitch in the software, took awhile to figure it out), but before that they were real strickt on keeping it all frozen for the exact time they legally could. They even tried to get me an overdraught on $15 when they had been sitting on $40,000 for the last 7 days. I know it doesn't take 7 days to clear the funds out of the other account, not unless it is some weird little third world bank and the electricity isn't working this week. It's all part of the money making scheme that is modern banking.
 
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