Also see: 7 More Secrets from Your Bank
1. Just because you deposited a check today doesn't mean you can start living it up tomorrow. It takes us three days on average to post the money to your account. (And why should we hurry? If you bounce a check, we collect around $30.)
2. Yes, we know the line is long and only one teller window is open, but no, the guy in the cubicle can't come over to help out. He may not be allowed to do a teller's job.
3. Call or visit in person to resolve a problem. Filling out online forms will usually get you the by-the-book reply, but a rep will often forgive a fee over the phone so we can all just get on with our lives.
4. Unless you're Wolfgang Puck, our loan officers have pretty much decided before you walk in that you're not getting a loan for your dream bistro. But they'll let you apply for one anyway. We're not crazy about lending to nonprofits and houses of worship either. We don't want the bad publicity when we go after them.
5. Our tellers routinely press you into opening new accounts because their jobs depend on it. Banks hire “mystery” customers who secretly test whether a teller is cross-selling services.
6. Don't blame us -- it's not our fault you can't control your spending. "The bank didn't make you swipe your card or write a check that you didn't have money for," says one teller in Akron, Ohio.
7. Postdating a check rarely works. With stacks of deposits to process, we look at account names, not dates. If the check bounces, you're liable.
8. Please don't haul in plastic bags of loose change. We really don't have the time or manpower to count it. Ask for free wrappers and bring in rolled coins next time.
9. Keep receipts for every ATM transaction -- and please don't feed cash directly into the machine without first putting it into an envelope (yes, people actually do this).
10. A consumer's brain registers an immediate "Ouch!" whenever he's hit with an itemized penalty, such as a bounced-check fee, so most people keep a much higher balance in their checking accounts than necessary, says personal-finance writer Jason Zweig. "Banks make a ton of money off this mental quirk since they would have to pay interest on the money if we left it in our savings accounts, where it belongs."
11. Banks don't always promote their checking accounts with the highest interest rate. Why tell you about those when you're already willing to sign up for an account that pays less?
12. A bank has the right to pay itself back out of your next deposit for any fees or overdraft loans that you owe.
13. Sorry, we can't afford to give out free toasters anymore to new customers. Business is brutal.
Interviews by Neena Samuel
Sources: David Bach, author of Fight for Your Money (spring 2009); Jason Zweig, author of Your Money & Your Brain (2007); Jean Ann Fox, director of financial services, Consumer Federation of America; anonymous bank employees in New York, Ohio, and Texas
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13 Things Your Bank Won't Tell You
Get smarter about banking with tips from the financial services industry.
From Reader's Digest
When you bring in your change. Please for the love of all that is good and holy remove trash, cigarrette butts, toenail clippings and other nasty items that I dont even want to mention in mixed company!
First , the coin machines break all the time and smart banks won't invest money in a machine that always breaks! Roll you coin, you;ll have to wait even longer in line if you don't. Some ATMs require that you put cash directly into the machine. Those machines, you put an envelope in&you will break the machine. Yes, the reason the guy in the cubicle can't help on the teller line is that people at the desks are not trained to be a teller, Do you want someone to touch your money who isn't trained?
The comment about change is wrong (for good banks). Your local bank should have a change counting machine that is free to use for customers (similar to Coinstar but they don't take 10% of your money). You just wasted your time if you sat there and rolled all your pennies.
I used to work at a bank and if you bring in rolled coin we would have to unroll it to put it in our counter. It's time consuming and pointless. Bring in your change unrolled. Some banks won't accept rolled coin because you could've made a mistake rolling it (ehich happened alot!) and then the tellers are liable for your mistake.
Miranda, it's their job. Bankers handle money - even if it's in the form of change. If they don't like it, they are more than welcome to find another job. And I've yet to see a bank that doesn't have a change counter. If your particular bank does not, you might want to ask yourself what they're doing wrong that they couldn''t afford to buy one a couple years ago when banks were flushing money down the toilet.
Kittie- Those coin counters cost thousands of dollars each (not for the little personal ones, the ones banks actually use). Not to mention the money banks have to pay to hire extra tellers because if every bank had a coin counting machine EVERYONE would bring in their change. It's a bad economy and people are saving their pennies. And just because it's a machine doesn't it make it super fast to count. It's a huge waste of time. Roll your own coins.
"8. Please don't haul in plastic bags of loose change. We really don't have the time or manpower to count it. Ask for free wrappers and bring in rolled coins next time." Gee, I could swear this is what banks were built to do: process money. Where else are you supposed to take change? And what stone-age bank doesn't have a coin counter?
PS - change your bank, I would!
For an explanation of the rules for claiming insured deposits at banks that have closed, and a list of failed banks and those that they have acquired over the years - go to www.failedbankreporter.com
There are specific time limits within which an insured deposit or safe deposit box must be claimed, after which the funds or property are forfeited.
Want the real scoop? Find it at "The Bottom Line: How do I contest bank overdraft charges?" (http://www.gather.com/searchResultsArticles.jsp?keywords=meacham+overdraft&submit=Search&contentType=Articles). And though free toasters have gone the way of eight-tracks, there are still giveaways to be had. I believe it's Key Bank that's offering free in-car navigational systems now for new accounts. Other incentives can be found at http://www.gather.com/viewArticle.action?articleId=281474976889662.
I work in an ATM department at a bank. We are in the process of rolling out new ATM machines that will no longer have envelopes to hold the contents of a person's deposit. Cash machines will count the money (as many as 25 bills may be inserted at one time) and an image machine will transmit the information on checks which are being deposited. This means no more manual envelope opening. It also eliminates the fraud of people who deposit nothing in an empty envelope and say it is something.
My local branch of Bank of America has a coin counting machine behind the tellers. They welcom jars of pennies (plasic not glass) and don't charge a fee. Remember the early days of ATMs. They told us the convenience would save them money because they wouldn't need so many tellers. So why do we have exhorbitant ATM fees? There are a lot of fee scams, like an overdraft charge for each check transaction in the same day. Or account fees 10x the interest on interest bearing checking.
I have a problem with number 8 .. each time I roll my coins up nice and pretty they unroll them and send them through the counter-machine. Why waste my time? I use my rolled coins instead as my "eat out fund." Restaurants love getting change on weekends when the banks are closed. and number 9, at my bank its the ONLY way to deposit checks or cash is withOUT an envelope. I'll use the machine for checks but don't feel comfortable depositing cash that way.
As a bank teller, I see it everyday: People dont keep their debits and deposits in their check registers and they always think they have more money than they really do until they start bouncing checks. Then they expect US to fix their mistakes.
Oh, the things I could start listing! *When there is a sign that says "Please wait here for the next available window", that doesn't mean run to the next open window you see. It means don't move your feet until you hear a "May I help you?" *Just because you have banked with us for the past 100 years doesn't mean the new tellers coming in know you so please go easy when you are asked for your identification! *And no, we won't cash your check with an expired license.
Please don't roll your change before bringing it to us! We have to UNroll it to put it in the machine. Call your bank to see if they provide change counting as a service as most locally owned banks do. It takes us MORE time to unroll it and drives us crazy!
Bank of America is rolling out a bunch of new ATMs that DO accept cash and checks without envelopes. It saves paper and the machine can count the cash and "read" the amount off of the checks, but over all, I think it's a lot slower. In addition, the potential interest on excess money in a checking account usually won't be near the same amount as an overdraft or bounce fee. Probably not yearly and certainly not monthly.
Take the time to count change? My bank has a *machine* that they just dump the change in... it takes less time than most other transactions. If you go to a bank that doesn't have change counting machines and expects you to do it yourself, find a new bank!
Okay, some of the tips/secrets are dead on, but they don't all apply to all banks and now we're going to have "confused" customers thinking bad about us! My bank doesn't push high fee accounts. We are not forced to sell banking products. We want you to bring your coin in loose-no rolled coins. The last item about no free toasters...banks are FOR PROFIT businesses...we are here to make money, so please don't be upset when we choose to forgo the $9.99 free toaster.