It Takes the Teller 3 Minutes just to cash a check

[John Galt III]

Just curious if others have the same experience. Whenever I cash a check at my bank, the teller stares into the computer screen, clicks, types, clicks, types, stares and waits, clicks, etc, etc ..... Takes about 2 or 3 minutes.

 

[Sarah in SC]

What is this "cashing a check at the bank" experience you talk about?

Rewahoo, can you explain?
No, really...who goes in the bank anymore? They have these machines outside. And deposits by snapping a photo. And online. And...

 

[chilkoot]

If at all possible, I use the ATM. This seems to minimize those kinds of delays.

 

[target2019]

We are hooked on the deposit by mobile app. Log in, take a picture of front and back, and press the button.

 

[Meadbh]

On the (rare) occasions that I have a cheque to cash, I put it in the ATM if it is a small amount. If it is a larger cheque or if I need to access the funds without waiting for clearance, I take it to the teller. The few clicks that he or she needs to do involve accessing my account, visually inspecting the check to make sure it is not outdated or counterfeit and that I have signed it, verifying where I want to deposit the money, and printing a receipt. If i were the teller, I'm sure this would take me a few minutes too. Seems like a perfectly reasonable process and the staff are always friendly.

 

[aja8888]

I go into the bank because of the following:

1. I need the exercise,
2. I want to be sure that robots are not handling the transactions,
3. I need some interaction with another human being every once in a while,
4. I want to make sure it actually IS a bank.

 

[H2ODude]

I think the apps that take an image with the phone of the check for deposit are the coolest idea....ever. It was the one reason I had to go to bank/ATM. I use so little cash that a couple of trips to ATM a year is it for me.

 

[steelyman]

I agree with Meadbh. I've been banking with the same credit union since graduate school (mid 80s) and they've never messed up a transaction. They are careful, most are young, and I bet they are not paid much.

I also mostly use ATMs unless it's a large deposit.

 

[MDJO]

Sad to say, I would rather interact over the 'net or at an ATM than actually have to talk to someone at the bank.

 

[WhoDaresWins]

I am a fossil among you. My local bank is across the street from my office and I walk over at lunch to cash/deposit checks. I know the personnel and this relationship can come in handy. They will notarize documents for me and were very agreeable in providing me with a medallion signature guarantee on a couple of occasions. When I travel they get me foreign currency ahead of a trip in a couple of days time. I get free checking and free personal checks.

 

[veremchuka]

I just got a cash back check from my credit card company and went to the bank Monday to deposit it. You are right! I was ready to ask her what was taking so long, all I was asking for was it to be deposited into my checking account at that bank and I had a deposit slip made out for her.

 

[Sarah in SC]

We are hooked on the deposit by mobile app. Log in, take a picture of front and back, and press the button.

This is truly the best thing in the world. Schwab was one of the first to offer it, and I loved it from the first day! My God, what a wonderful invention.

 

[FIREd]

We are hooked on the deposit by mobile app. Log in, take a picture of front and back, and press the button.

+1

My bank has no brick and mortar branches anyways.

 

[Alan]

+1

My bank has no brick and mortar branches anyways.

+1

It has been years since I had a bricks and mortar bank.

Last week my daughter needed to send me some money so I expected to receive a check and then use my laptop or iPad to deposit it, but she send an email asking if I had Chase Quickpay. While I don't have an account I do have a Chase Cash Back credit card so I logged on and found a drop down where I can set up Chase Quickpay with my existing, non-Chase bank account. It took a couple of days after set-up for them to make 2 small deposits and a withdrawal for the same amount, then I had to verify by logging back onto Chase and entering the value of those 2 deposits (in this case it was 44 and 46 cents, with a corresponding withdrawal of 90 cents).

Same day I received an email from Chase saying a Quickpay deposit had been made to my {non-Chase} checking account by my daughter. Pretty simple, and from the payers end all you need to know is the email address of the recipient that you are sending money to.

I'm sure this old hat for many of you but it was all new to me, at least for the US. (In the UK I've used our bank for years to send and receive money from friends and relatives).

 

[ls99]

What is this "cashing a check at the bank" experience you talk about?

Rewahoo, can you explain?
No, really...who goes in the bank anymore? They have these machines outside. And deposits by snapping a photo. And online. And...

I go to the bank once a month to cash a pension check, a result af my defined benefit, which I receive from Columbia University every month for $29.43. This amount I will receive for the rest of my life.

It is always a pleasure to watch the befuddlement and pity expressed by the teller when I tell them it is my pension check. Hey, it covers coffe and tip a few times a week.

More of a joke, but I also insist that CU send me a paper check every month.

Long story behind it, some day I will eleborate.

Edit add: By the way the bank is along the route I take to the coffee shop.

 

[jflynn4]

Just curious if others have the same experience. Whenever I cash a check at my bank, the teller stares into the computer screen, clicks, types, clicks, types, stares and waits, clicks, etc, etc ..... Takes about 2 or 3 minutes.

As an ex-banker ..... I can tell you that the process for depositing an item through the teller varies widely from bank to bank. Some are extremely automated while others are still running work the same way they did 10 years ago.

In general, when you're cashing a check that is not written on your bank, the teller is having to pull your account, ensure that there are funds available to cash it against, and then will be placing a hold against those funds for several days (the length of time is dependent on where the check has originated). If you're cashing a check against your own bank, then the process is the same as above except that the hold will be placed against the check writer's funds.

Depending on the bank, and this is fairly prevalent especially in the mid and large size banks, the teller is likely also paging through "sales suggestion" screens instructing her that you may be best approached for a savings account, a mortgage, a credit card, or some combination of products.

Most banks today are more like retail stores that are looking for additional "sales" than they are like the financial institutions they used to be. In fact, some banks (I believe TD and Wells Fargo) actually have stopped referring to their locations as "branches" and now openly call them "stores."

 

[LOL!]

The teller is training folks who cash checks in person to not do that. The screen has the following on it:

In our effort to reduce expenses, we need to get customers to not cash checks in person. Therefore, please follow these instructions:
Please enter the name of the Payee:
Please enter the check's ABA number:
Please enter the check's Account number:
Now please wait while we determine if the Payee and/or account has had any bounced checks in the past few months:
Now please wait while we determine if the Payee and/or account has sufficient funds to pay cash out:
....

If one simply deposits the check and drives away, then these checks (pun intended) are done by back office staff.

 

[Sue J]

I go inside the bank once a month to get our monthly cash which is for groceries, eating out and other shopping done with cash. I could do without the chit chat about the weather and the weekend and the offers for credit cards, balance transfers and refinance of the mortgage we don't have.

 

[scrabbler1]

I have to deposit a check every month so I use the teller at my local bank. I go in there around 11 AM on a weekday so it is usually empty in the bank. At my bank, to speed up the deposit, I swipe my bank card and enter my PIN at a keypad on my side of the teller's station. It takes maybe 2 minutes tops for the transaction to complete.

I try to align the deposit to when I get cash from the ATM but if I can't it is not a big deal. The bank is nearby, near the pizza joint I sometimes have lunch at, also saving me a trip.

 

[meekie]

I'm having a huge problem using the mobile deposit app for checks. I take the photos, upload to the bank, then 20 minutes later (maybe shorter, but long enough for me to move on to doing something else) they tell me there was a problem and it wasn't deposited. And if I try to go back and look at the history of deposits to check what deposited, I only get a day or two of transactions, so I can't even reconcile the deposits at the end of the week.

So now I have all these checks laying around my house and I don't know if I've deposited them.

Any ideas?

 

[Dawg52]

Here's what one 67 year old man did when he had problems with a transaction at the drive thru.

Angry Bank Customer Urinates In Drive-Through Tube - YouTube

Actually my lab would be chapped if I didn't go to the bank drive thru every now and then. They always give him dog biscuits.

 

[Al in Ohio]

I don't cash checks too often anymore, but a few times per month I get one. For some odd reason my employer has direct deposit for salary, but still issues checks for our monthly expense reimbursement.

The tellers at my bank know me by name and are very nice. Cute too.

Only takes them less than a minute to deposit and/or cash my check. Rarely a line either as most transactions are now happening elsewhere other than by teller.

 

[Koolau]

I am a dinosaur. You know, one of those animals who was crawling across the land on his belly 65 years ago. I think I have adapted reasonably well, but I still like going to the brick and mortar bank to cash the occasional check (overpayment of an insured medical claim, refund of stuff purchased for the church or club, rebates, etc.). I'll occasionally use an ATM for a withdrawal, but not if there is a teller at hand. It gives me a chance to have a "presence" with the bank - just in case, some day there is an issue I need to talk to a "human" about. Maybe they don't know me by name when I walk in, but they know I "belong". So any questions I have might well be treated with more urgency than a first-time visitor who's lost a $5,000 check within the bowels of their ATM system or in the "ether" when they "texted" a check or whatever humans do now of days. Also, it gives me an excuse to check my balance - with a human being who can figure out why we don't match up if there is a significant discrepancy.

Those of you who have gained experience (and more importantly, confidence IN) the modern forms of banking - please pat yourselves on the back. My claws don't reach back there like a human's do.

Oh, and by the way, it usually takes less than a minute to cash or deposit a check at my local branch or my Mainland CU - if you don't count the occasional waiting-line time. YMMV

 

[Walt34]

I go inside the local bank oh, maybe once a year if that. Everything else is either ATM or online. And the credit union we do the bulk of our banking with is 75 miles away. I haven't been there for over 12 years.

 

[Sarah in SC]

Meekie, you need to contact tech support for your bank and maybe clean the camera in your phone.
I have never had this problem and I use my iPhone for deposits to Schwab, Bank of America, and I think on occasion suntrust for my dad in law.
Damn it is a good thing you folks are retired if you are spending all day hanging around a bank branch.