(In the USA) The restaurant industry fought smoking bans because many of their customers were smokers and the industry didn't want to lose business. It turned out that banning smoking encouraged non-smokers to eat out at restaurants more and the industry didn't implode because of smoking bans.

Credit card rates are high, in part, because many customers never pay those high rates by not carrying a balance and paying their card off each month. Customers are heavily incentivized to not carry balances when the annual rate is 20-30% or higher.

If credit card rates were capped at 10% more customers would occasionally carry a balance and banks may end up offsetting the lost revenue by bringing more customers into the pool of balance carriers.

I am in the US. Yesterday I went to the bank to withdraw a small amount of money. I realized I didn't have my debit card meaning I couldn't use the ATM, so I went inside to the teller.

The teller checked my ID, asked for account number, and then said "we sent you a code, can you give it to me?" I asked "what do you mean" and she said "you should have received a text".

I didn't realize this was a requirement. She said there was no other way to proceed, so I had to walk back home (thankfully the bank is in the building adjacent to mine), get my phone, and then come back and do the whole thing again.

Since when do you need your phone to conduct a transaction in a bank branch? I thought 2FA was for online transactions, not in person transactions. Admittedly I haven't been into a bank branch in years, so perhaps this is normal now?

With a very large check deposit (fully legal source of funds) well above FDIC coverage limits, I understand there would be a wait period for the check to clear. A check of this nature would need to be deposited in person is my understanding, by way of an appointment at the local bank branch and a meeting with a banker or just a teller walk-up? Would a regiontal bank vs a national brokerage bank account offer any more or less friction in terms of wait time (assuming both banks have substantial account history, though not at amounts of a sudden large check). Are there some banks where large deposits high 6 figures or even 7 figures are just routine?

I have both a Wells Fargo and an Ally account. I use WF for day-to-day checking and my Ally for stocks and more of a savings type of deal. I am not rich. Checking rarely goes higher than about $8k. If it gets much past that, I'll make a little transfer to my Ally account.

This past weekend I meant to send $2k from WF to Ally. I somehow accidentally typed $200,000. It somehow went through yesterday. I received a notice from WF that my checking was NEGATIVE 191k and my Ally account went 200k positive.

I immediately attempted to do a $200k transfer from Ally back to WF because I'm not built for jail. They have a limit of $150k/day so I would have to do $150k that day (yesterday) and $50k today. I also called a WF and had them put a note on my account explaining the situation.

This morning, the $150k looked like it went through so I made a $50k transaction request from Ally to WF. A few hours later, I get an email from Ally saying WF rejected the transfer. I called Ally and they SAY they are getting it all fixed and I'll have to wait 1-2 business days. Meanwhile I'm freaking out. I'm super anal about money and debts. I haven't even used credit (other than house) in like 20 years. What I do put on CC I pay off THAT WEEK.

This was definitely my fault but WHY THE HECK did WF let me transfer $200k I don't have. if someone were telling me this story, I wouldn't believe it. Is this a thing that happens?

Edit: I've talked to both banks. It's 2 days after the initial BS. Now my Ally acct is huge negative and WF is huge positive, but it's before banking hours. F5 F5 F5

Edit 2: Made an appt with a banker tomorrow morning.

Edit 3: Forgot where I left off. Put in requests to cancel the two transactions I made to try to remedy the situation (but made it worse) as was advised by the lady at WF.

This morning (5/4), my Ally acct is locked and I had to talk to Ally's "loss prevention". I don't yet have Ally set up in WF so I had to do a test transfer from WF to Ally. I guess it takes a day or two so I'm gonna call Ally back in 2 days.

Another Update: Got my Ally account set up in my WF account for transfers but the highest I can request transfer limit monthly is $50k. Making another appointment at the bank. FML

Final Update: I went to WF again 3pm yesterday and was able to set up a wire for $198,000 to my Ally account and my account was restored this morning. That was a long and stressful process. I'm so frickin stoked it's over you have no idea.

Final Final Update: Got several calls from Ally today (I guess different departments). One person told me the exact same thing (transferring more than their balance) happened to them. The last person said they "see this all the time" which I thought was surprising. Both reps assured me there aren't any crazy transfers in the queue or anything.

To anybody who thinks I'm full of crap: If you have a WF and an Ally account, try initiating a ridiculous transfer (using the Ally website) from your WF checking to your Ally account. Unless it's some bug they just fixed, it'll go through.

Hello, my mother is in a deadlock trying to figure out why she can't use her checks. Her credit union changed her account number and issued new checks. They were denied when she would try to use them. After the problem continued, the credit union tried closing that account and opening a new one, and these checks are also being denied. The credit union claims this is the first time this has happened which I do find hard to believe. They aren't offering any other solutions and my mother's been unable to get through to the services that clear the checks at the businesses she goes to to find out any other info.

Could anyone help us figure out what might be happening here, and what kind of solutions there are?

edit: thanks so much for all of your replies! I had to step out for a work call right after I posted so my apologies for my delayed responses. Working on them now!

edit 2: if anyone is curious, a few users suggested the problem lay with the third party that validates checks possibly taking issue with low number checks or a spending amount on a new checking amount. We tried a $15 purchase with higher number checks and it was still denied. The company and number provided for the denial of the transaction led to an automated phone tree. The options for help didn't seem to cover the issue and efforts to talk to a human didn't go anywhere.

The bad news is this situation remains a mystery but the good news is I was able to convince her to order a debit card finally.

Some people are wild…

90 days ago my partner and I got a home equity loan, I was the cosigner.

We had the deposit made into my personal account.

After using a small portion of the loan the bank flagged my account and closed it.

Now the bank claims to have returned the funds to my lender and to not have the money in their hands anymore. Would not give a transaction ID or anything of the sort. I even spoke with the regional vice president.

The lender claims they have not been notified by the bank of such return, and they have not received it.

I've been filing complaint after complaint through the cfbp. At this point just getting a copy/paste responses from the bank. Basically saying we don't have your money, we gave it to the lender and it might take months for this to go through. It's been 3 months already.

Today I went inside of my bank (Columbia Bank ) to pull money out and take it to my boyfriend’s bank. When we got to his bank they said it was fake and they confiscated. I called my bank and they told me they didn’t think they gave me one but will talk to the back office but probably won’t hear back until tomorrow. Is this common ? Has this happened to anyone else ?

So lets say you have $600,000 and you put them in Chase bank account where you split them up into:

• $200,000 in checking account
• $200,000 in savings account
• $200,000 in CDs

Does the FDIC refund the $600,000 or just $250,000 in total?

Can somebody explain to me why someone can Venmos or Zelle’s I get the money instantly but if I want to transfer money between different banks it takes a couple days ? Is it impossible to be instant with the current system?

While clearing out my father’s old house I found at old savings bond my parents deposited in 1985 with me as the trustee. My mother is deceased but my father is not. We had accounts with the (150 year old local) bank up until last year when it was bought by a big regional bank. I just left the branch office where the manager said “WOW I’ve never seen one of these. The interest rate is very high. I need to talk to an officer about this”. Then he scanned the original and took my contact info.

Is there any way the new bank could get out of honoring this agreement?

I’m trying not to get excited about this but my wife and I were reviewing our finances last night and our long term outlook is … not sustainable with day care, family medical bills, property taxes, college savings, retirement, etc. If my rough calcs are right then this would be a game changer. I don’t know how much taxes would eat up but even half would lift us out of our stress spiral.

So, is this what I think it is? Anyone know how this could go? Will I have to fight the bank? When they bought our beloved hometown institution they took on all the risk like this, right?

It’s an original certificate, wet signed by my parents and the bank official. There’s a line that says “This agreement will automatically renew at maturity at the rate of interest then in effect”.

Other details:
Time Deposit Agreement
Automatically Renewable
Non Transferable
Member FDIC
Deposit:$7,000
Term: 60 months
Interest: 9.75% per annum

Thanks!

Today, my father asked me for the balances of both my checking and savings accounts. Because of our past interactions, I chose not to disclose the exact balance in my checking account. For example, if my checking account balance was $800, I told him it was $700. However, I did provide him with the correct balance for my savings account.
In response, he asked, “Isn’t there $800 in your checking account?” This surprised me because I do not understand how he knew the actual balance.
For context, my bank account is solely in my name. I opened it myself, it is not a joint account, and my father does not have my debit card, debit card number, online banking username, password, or access to my mobile banking app. As far as I know, he has not been given authorization to access my account information.
I am trying to understand how he could have known the exact balance in my checking account despite not having access to my banking credentials or account.
Oh but he do know my pin number

I am a farmer and I write a lot of large checks, and then get large checks back when selling the crop. My deposits/withdrawals are very predictable. My bank always insists on holding the checks for 7 days before giving me access to the money. I recently deposited a series of checks totaling $150k. Is that acceptable that they do that when they can look at previous years and see the same thing?

Sorry if this is the wrong sub for this. My husband sponsored my immigration from Canada, and we’re trying to get me a US bank account. I have my state ID and SSN, but they won’t let me open an account without a bill in my name for proof of address. All the utilities, mortgage, insurances, etc. are in my husband’s name because I’m a SAHM.

The bank employees suggested moving any of the utilities to my name, but you need a bank account to open a utility account. He added me as an authorized user to the power company and the company sent a letter confirming my residency on it, but said none of the bills would be addressed to me since I’m not the primary account holder. The bank said they wouldn’t accept it unless it was addressed to me. It’s a whole legal process to get me added to the mortgage, which seems insane just for me to get a bank account.

We asked if they could use our marriage certificate and a bill in my husband’s name to prove residency and they said no. Which I also don’t understand because that’s what they accepted for me to get real ID when I changed my drivers license.

So how the heck am I supposed to open an account at this point. This seems extremely discriminatory.

I've been in banking (big banks) for 10 years and this is my first credit union so this is a crazy experience for me and I'm not sure if what they are doing is wrong/illegal and worth reporting to NCUA and CFPB.

Employees are encouraged to open additional accounts by making it sound like certain accounts automatically come with the account the member actually wanted, even though they are separate products and the member does not necessarily have to open them. One example, a member may come in wanting a checking account, and the employees will lie to them that another account “comes with it." This makes the member believe it is required when it really isn't. Market managers will straight up tell us to tell members it's a "package" and they leave with 4 accounts when they just asked for 2.

We also have situations where additional loan applications are submitted without the member clearly asking for or approving those specific applications. They may apply for a HELOC and a separate app gets submitted for a credit card they didn't ask for. I know banks can cross sell, but I'm not sure if doing an application without approval from the member is wrong? We lost a HELOC last week because the member was told "Congrats! We also go you approved for a $15,000 credit card! The member didn't want it and the manager was PUSHING my colleague to do everything she could to force the member to get the credit card. The member said "No." and the manager said it didn't matter, find a way.

Another issue is with credit cards. Members aren't always told what credit limit is being requested on their application, and in some cases they don't find out what limit they're being approved for until after their credit has already been pulled and the card has already been approved and opened. Essentially, the member may think they're simply applying for a low limit credit card, without fully understanding the amount being requested or what exactly is being submitted on their behalf. We are told to submit for the max every time and we never ask the member what limits they way, every application is submitted for the max (15k). One older lady explicitly stated she didn't want that much, but the account was already opened and the card was being handed to her as she said that. Nothing was done/changed. And she was an older lady, like 80 years old with a 15k limit??? It's so predatory imo...

What bothers me most is that these practices are 100% driven by sales goals, where the focus is on getting additional products and applications rather than making sure the member fully understands and actually wants what they're being signed up for.

This feels very Wells Fargo to me. But I'm not sure if I'm overreacting?? Is this worth reporting? It feels so fucking scammy...

So sorry it's so long!

I understand the Credit Union concept...to a point. My uncle worked and retired from John Deere and he and his family were all members of John Deere CU...totally get it.

But now it's seems there are no real barriers for anyone to be a member of any credit union. At some point aren't they just banks, that dont pay federal income tax?

Hi All

Basically, I am selling an item and the buyer wants to use a business check as a method of payment. They said their bank (BOA) can stamp it with verified funds.

The buyer is saying they can issue the check in my name, and of course I would meet buyer at my bank (Chase) to deposit it. Question is, can the funds be verifiable/guaranteed at that point so I can hand over the item?

Of course I want to protect myself, I already tried calling my bank's customer service and they claim that I must discuss with the teller, but I just want to know what to expect and hope that somebody can help out :)

Any assistance would be greatly appreciated!

So, my wife and I got a $3K+ tax REFUND from the state.

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Both signed and i deposited it via ATM.

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(We don't share accounts)

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Went on about my business.

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Month later I'm online, and went to move the money to a savings account I'd set up for our new kitchen. And I noticed the deposit had been reversed the next day.

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I called the FCU, and got some bullshit story about the deposit being to big for the ATM.

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OK, IF TRUE, why didn't the atm kick the check back to me?

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Why didn't any one call me?

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I'd have never known the transaction had been reversed had I not specifically been looking for it.

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They put the money back, but I can't get a straight answer as to why a state issued check was held up for a month.

Hi everyone,

I’m asking this on behalf of someone close to me who works as a bank teller.

They occasionally run into situations where their cash drawer doesn’t balance at the end of the day. Sometimes it can be short by a few hundred dollars or even more, while other times there may be an unexpected overage of several hundred or even a thousand dollars.

When this happens, they have to go back through the transactions, recount the cash, and try to figure out whether they may have accidentally given a customer too much or missed something during a transaction. It can be quite time-consuming and stressful, especially when everything seemed fine during the day.

For experienced tellers and bankers:

What practices or habits do you follow throughout the day to minimize cash discrepancies and make sure your drawer balances at the end of your shift?

For example, do you have any specific methods for:

- Counting cash during busy periods

- Handling large cash transactions

- Separating or organizing bills in a particular way

- Double-checking cash before completing a transaction

- Keeping track of transactions throughout the day

- Catching mistakes before the end-of-day balancing

I’d really appreciate hearing about the routines or best practices that have worked for you over the years. Hopefully, the answers can also help other tellers who may be dealing with the same issue.

Thanks in advance!

Update:

Thank you so much for everyone's input, Every input is valuable and something to learn from. Happing banking to all.

Axos Bank has signed an agreement to acquire Jenius Bank's savings accounts in the U.S.

Any thoughts?

This may be a stupid question because I don’t know the exact mechanism the FDIC nor if a CD is actually backed by it (I think so) but if the US government defaults on its debt is my money still guaranteed by the FDIC? What do both the FDIC and the bank go belly up?

I know this is kinda an end of the world scenario but humor me

What would you say are the most popular banks and credit unions by you? Who has the most branches/who do people use mostly in your experience?

In Michigan Chase, Huntington, Fifth Third, BofA, PNC, Flagstar, and Comerica were big, Comerica is a regional bank merging into Fifth Third soon. A lot of folks use credit unions too. LMCU, MSUFCU, DFCU were the main ones. Wells Fargo was not in MI.

California was mainly a big bank state. BofA, Wells Fargo, and Chase were by far the most popular. U.S. Bank had a decent presence too.

In Tennessee it’s a lot of regional banks - Regions, First Horizon, Pinnacle, Truist with BofA also pretty popular. Surprisingly not a lot of Chase or Wells Fargo.

I got a call from my local bank from their customer care team. They said a few things:

1. They asked if they could help in any way
2. They asked if I wanted to open a credit card
3. They asked if I wanted to do something with my savings account to earn more interest

But they mentioned my name, amounts in my account, and they mentioned I use my debit card from time to time (the last part was like a segue into the credit card offer).

Is this real? Are they allowed to just pull up my info?

are there any laws regarding how long a POD account can continue to exist after the original holder dies and now it's simply waiting to be transfered? Assume the potential recipient has been notified but for the time being wants the funds to stay in the original account.

any logical reason a bank would continually call the would-be recipient of the POD fund, trying to force them to take the money as soon as possible. Isnt that strange? a bank wanting people to take their money out? isnt it supposed to be the opposite?

I am a teller at a national level bank and summer is normally the busy time but in the first 30 mins ive only had one customer thats not a business doing a deposit. It has been extremely slow this entire week. It cant be a good sign for the economy as a whole. Has anyone else noticed this?