Bank of America check cashing ?

**hikerlt** · 12-20-2008, 07:06 AM

A bit of a rant......So my Wife took her Paycheck, which is on a Bank of America account, to the Bank of America to cash it.

Now, in addition to requiring her to put her Thumbprint on the check ( which makes absolutely NO sense), they told her they were going to charge her SIX DOLLARS to cash the check - which is on an account in their Bank !!!

She started to loudly ask ( so that other people in the Bank could hear) - "So...you're telling me that this check, which is a BANK of America check is NO GOOD.???....Us Taxpayers give you billions of dollars to bail you out and now you want to charge me for cashing a check YOU issued !!!"....The Clerk asked her is she wanted to talk to her supervisor ( who was quickly exiting the scene as fast as possible )....My Wife just loudly said "No...I'l just Never Ever do business with this Bank again..."....walked out, went to the DCU and cashed the check no problem...

I think they need to change their name to:

Bank of Amerika.....

**highlander** · 12-20-2008, 07:26 AM

Went through the near the same with Sovereign bank. Went in to pay off my cc,handed the teller the check and the card she looked at me like I had just grown a second head,then told me "We can't take cc payments here you have to wait for the bill". After a little search I found out that the bank had a bad habit of not getting the payments to the cc branch on time and people were getting hit with late fees. I still use the card but I've learned my lesson.

**namedpipes** · 12-20-2008, 07:27 AM

The $6 charge is a new one on me, but they've been invading privacy one finger at a time for a few months now. And the tellers actually seem SURPRISED that anyone would object.

I no longer cash checks written on BoA, I deposit them instead. Without a fingerprint on them.

I guess with the bailout, they no longer need to attract customers.

Hell, even the freakin "convenience" check cashing services in my town charge less than that!

**john m** · 12-20-2008, 07:38 AM

The company I work for changed banks because of the fee and thumb print. I went to walt disney wold last week. They take you finger print too. So no one else can use your pass?

But, I got to hug minie mouse!

**Old Glory** · 12-20-2008, 08:11 AM

I can't defend a $6.00 check cashing fee that is ridiculous.

However Banks are under a tremendous regulatory burden. Banking is the second most regulated industry in this Country. The first is Nuclear Power. Under the USA PATRIOT Act and the Bank Secrecy Act, Banks are required by the government to have a process in place to verify the ID of all "customers". They have to have a strong Customer Identification program that has very specific requirements. Failure to be in compliance with these requirements can result in millions of dollars in fines and closure of the bank. Look up Riggs Bank which was fined $25 million dollars.

Banks are forced to buy expensive monitoring software products to watch every transaction conducted by every customer. They have to pay teams of specialized people to review these transactions looking for Suspicious Activity. They must report them to FinCEN. They have to have an Annual Independent Audit of the function (which is what I do for a living).

Banks are becoming an investigatory arm of the government. While many of the Consumer Protection laws are designed to protect and inform the consumer, BSA/AML and USA PATRIOTAct laws are designed to curtail money laundering and stop the flow of cash to terrorists. Banks catch bad guys. Unfortunately it is very expensive to manage a BSA/AML Program and guess where that cost is passed along to?

**Martlet** · 12-20-2008, 08:13 AM

I raised a big enough stink once they waived it.

**vellnueve** · 12-21-2008, 02:14 AM

I'm a BOA customer, so I haven't had to deal with any of that crap.

**namedpipes** · 12-21-2008, 06:27 AM

Originally Posted by Old Glory

I can't defend a $6.00 check cashing fee that is ridiculous.

However Banks are under a tremendous regulatory burden. Banking is the second most regulated industry in this Country. The first is Nuclear Power. Under the USA PATRIOT Act and the Bank Secrecy Act, Banks are required by the government to have a process in place to verify the ID of all "customers". They have to have a strong Customer Identification program that has very specific requirements. Failure to be in compliance with these requirements can result in millions of dollars in fines and closure of the bank. Look up Riggs Bank which was fined $25 million dollars.

Banks are forced to buy expensive monitoring software products to watch every transaction conducted by every customer. They have to pay teams of specialized people to review these transactions looking for Suspicious Activity. They must report them to FinCEN. They have to have an Annual Independent Audit of the function (which is what I do for a living).

Banks are becoming an investigatory arm of the government. While many of the Consumer Protection laws are designed to protect and inform the consumer, BSA/AML and USA PATRIOTAct laws are designed to curtail money laundering and stop the flow of cash to terrorists. Banks catch bad guys. Unfortunately it is very expensive to manage a BSA/AML Program and guess where that cost is passed along to?

If a bank consistently requires a current and local driver's license or other state issued photo id, they've done their due.

If that is sufficient id for the police to accept when you are stopped for speeding, it's good enough for the banks. The very DAY the po po start printing at traffic stops, the revolution should start. (or charging $6 for the "overhead" of making sure you are you, should be in that vehicle, had business being on that street and so forth, for that matter)

The criminals, terrorists and politicians the banks are looking for will just go to "Crazy Moe's" check cashing service.

Banks have their compliance regs, so does healthcare. NStar has costs and so does Burger King, btw.

Its *their* cost of doing business, not mine.

**szaino** · 12-21-2008, 11:19 AM

Two Days ago, I went to a BOA and cashed a check from my Company (BOA account) made out to me. They did ask if I had an account there (which I also do.)

They cashed it no problems.

I am not a big fan of BOA. They are your typical large bureaucracy bank where it is difficult to resolve even the simplest of problems. I have had one major run in with them a few months ago that when I tell my so-called premier banking relationship manager the story he doesn't believe it.

**Glockaholic** · 12-21-2008, 11:24 AM

In Massachusetts your employer must by law provide a place for you to cash your check within a reasonable distance of where you work, for free

I don't know about NH though

I won't do business with Bank Of Amigo because they were trying to court the illegal immigrant population a while back by issuing CC's without a SS number.

So I have to bail BOA out when Jose runs the card to the max then jumps back home because the economy here has tanked? I think not.

Bank of America check cashing ?

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