The other day I went into a local bank in Beverly hills. It was a bank that I do not have an account at, but I was going there to direct deposit money into two separate accounts of people that I am doing business with. I was depositing a $100,000 check for an investment and because it was time sensitive I wasn’t going to be able to mail the check to the business manager who was facilitating this opportunity. You see, I had just come back from a extended trip to South Africa with my family and the window for this particular investment was closing so he suggested I simply go directly to the bank and deposit the check into the LLC account to save everyone time. The process for this deposit went rather smoothly.
Earlier that day, an old high school friend of mine who had been down on her lucky recently had reached out in need of $100 which I agreed to loan her, so while I was at the bank I decided I would save myself an additional stop and get cash to deposit for her so that her account wouldn’t have an overnight hold. It was then that I was informed by the teller that since I didn’t have an account there the cash would not be accepted. Since it was such a small amount and I had just done a much larger, successful transaction, I asked that the manager of the bank be called to ask for a one time exception. It was not granted. The teller then suggested that I go to a post office to purchase a money order and deposit that, I resisted, so finally she mentioned that they could sell me a cashiers check. She immediately noticed my distaste for that suggestion, knowing that I realized that without an account a charge of at least 10% of the deposit was going to be charged. Eventually after much discourse the teller said she would waive the fee. What kind of game are banks playing these days? Are they so desperate for their additional fees that they refuse to do simple, small transactions? And if so, what does that mean for the future of banking? Will there be an influx of consumers switching over to more friendly credit unions? Let’s discuss.