Withdrawing a large amount of cash ($1,000+) in denominations greater than $20 bills. I went into a bank that was not mine with a bunch of $20s wanting to just trade it for a few hundreds, and they wouldn't do it because I wasn't a customer of theirs.
Here is the solution to this issue... I use Schwab Bank for online banking and I do not have a local brick and mortar bank and as you pointed out, one of the potential issues with not having a local bank is getting cash, and in particular getting large amounts of cash in denominations other than $20 from an ATM. Here is what I have learned in order to resolve these issues.
I can get a cash advance from the Schwab debit visa card (
not a credit card) by going inside a local bank (of which I am not a customer) and going to a teller and requesting a cash advance. Apparently the local bank does not know or care whether the cash advance is being advanced from a credit card or a debit card. The teller then transacts a cash advance using my debit card and the money is withdrawn directly out of my Schwab checking and hands me the cash in the denominations of my choice. The benefit to getting cash this way is 1) you avoid the ATM transaction limit (which is usually $400 - $500 depending on the ATM), and 2) you can get whatever combination of denomination bills you want, whereas most ATMs only give you $20 bills, and 3) you do not have to pay an ATM fee. To be clear, this is
not a credit card cash advance, this is a
debit card cash advance, so there are no interest charges. I was not aware that a debit card cash advance was an option until it was explained to me by a very helpful Schwab customer service rep.
I should also note, based on my research, that most U.S. banks do offer debit card cash advances, but a few don't, including Citibank and Suntrust (again, based on my research, not based on personal experience). I can only say from my personal experience that there is a Chase branch close to me that does provide the service.
As a Schwab customer, I do not pay a fee, either to the local bank or to Schwab. Regarding the cash advance fee, the local bank from which you draw money is still charging a fee through the visa cash advance system (although it is a debit card cash advance, it uses the visa cash advance system), and that fee is being paid by Schwab to the bank as a fee for using them to advance cash to you, but the difference is you as the customer do not see the fee and do not pay the fee, it is being paid behind the scenes between Schwab and the local bank. This is different from the situation where you use the ATM and you do have to pay a fee (usually $3) and then you get an entry on your statement for $303.00 when you withdrwaw $300 from an ATM, and then at the end of the month you get a $3 credit from Schwab for the fee. The benefit to using the card as a cash advance is for spreadsheet nerds like me, when you get a cash advance, you only see a $300 transaction on your statement and it is much cleaner from a bookkeeping perspective and there is no need to account for the $3 with another transaction to balance out your records.
Here is another tip: Some banks are now deploying newer more advanced ATMs that have higher cash limits, and allow the selection of different denominations of bills, not just $20s. For example, I recently went to a local Chase branch that has a newer free standing ATM inside the lobby next to the teller windows that disburses $100s and $20s and I think $10s. A teller inside the bank explained that the cash limit for the outside ATM was $500 whereas the cash limit for the newer machine inside the lobby was $3,000. I was able to use the inside ATM to withdraw cash over $500 and get different denominations, the only denomination that I wanted that it did not have was $50s, but I was able to go to the teller window after withdrawing my cash and exchanging some of the $20s for $50s.