Bank Has Me 3rd Degree POed

[2Old2RE]

Ok folks tell me what you think, about to have a total meltdown. Time to buy a different car old one had 243K we have scrimped and saved got the money. Found one we liked on an online car sales place, bought it online going to go pick it up. They wanted a cashier check. Ok fine I'll run to the bank and get a cashiers check. Its a little north of 20K we can easily take a 20K hit to our account and the car will last us 10 + years so no face punching. Of course the bank lobby is closed so go to the drive through. Small town, I've banked there 19 years. Gave them a piece of paper with the exact amount and the name of the well known car company to make it out to as well as my card that shows my bank account number. First question "Do you want me to take it all out of here?" (That account has about 50K in it) Um yea (think to myself where the hell else would you want to take it from) 10 minute or so wait. Next question "I googled the company name and they have CO after that name can I put the CO on the check? Um yes thats what they told me to make it out to but whatever you got to do. (think to myself if I drive all the way over there and they don't like it because of the CO you had to put after it I'll be back to come unglued on you) Another 10 minute or so wait. "I have to talk to someone at the main branch before I make it out" I see the check in her hand. Main branch is about 1/4 mile away in our small town. Another long wait. "can you move over to the parking lot and we will bring it over to you when the main branch gets it straightened out" Move out of the drive through. Sat there. Comes out with the check in her hand. "where will you be sending this to?" Me: NOTSENDINGITANYWHEREGOINGTOGOPICKUPANFBOMBINGCAR yea my patience is shot by now "oh so in {name of state and city that has the closest dealership for this company} yeeessss. "we just need to be sure this doesn't have anything to do with a terrorist organization" She actually said that.............

Is that normal to go through that much horseshit to get a cashiers check with your own money made out to a nationally known company from a bank in a small midwestern town of 5000 people where you have banked for the last 19 years? Not sure my accounts are going to be there come next week. What would you do?

[marty998]

Chill out dude. You sound like you might have been acting like an impatient terrorist to that poor bank teller.

[YttriumNitrate]

Just wait till you try to do a wire transfer and they make you double pinky swear that you're not sending money to a Nigerian Prince.

[rantk81]

So you left there with the check you sought to have made?  I wouldn't let a 10-min delay and a couple of questions (especially for a transaction involving a few tens of thousands of dollars) ruin my day....  Life's too short to get angry over and sweat the small stuff....

[BikeFanatic]

My wife is in finance, when she asks for a large check from the bank she always explains to them up front what it is for, like a pre-emptive strike, that way the suspition is low. There are banking rules "know thy customer" and others where they banks have to protect against terrorist and money laundering and such. You should take it up with the federal goverment not some teller doing Her or his Job.

example I cashed a large check,  needed to add my name to spouses account becasue the check was to both of us. Just sat there relaxed and talked about how we sold at the right time and bought the other house early so we lucked out both ways. Then buyng a car for 25K, explained before they asked getting a car from enterprise rental, got a good deal on the car, hoping it lasts 12 years, etc, they definately take your picture and check with someone else to make sure everything is on the up and up.
And anyway I understand losing patience but it is a Pandemic and everyone is working short, I think we are lucky anyone will work in these conditions.

[wageslave23]

I agree all of the verification, red tape bs is annoying.  Had to try and cash some checks with both mine and my new wife's name on them, even though we don't have a joint account.  OMG.  But yeah probably not the person making $12/hr fault.

[Metalcat]

Yep, I just expect anything over 10K to be a bit of a shit show. I wouldn't get bent out of shape about it though if the worst thing that happened was some inconvenience and time spent waiting.

[Paul der Krake]

Large transactions take time, it's by design. It would have been roughly the same experience at any US bank.

Moral of the story: buy cheap cars.

[Jack0Life]

I would sympathize with the OP.
Cashier check to a car company for ~$20K. That's a relatively simple transaction.
It's not like he was pulling $20k cash out. Plus he's been banking there for 19 yrs.
My patience would have been running thin too for a simple transaction like that.
I did get a Cashier check for $25k in 2016 from Chase for a car too and no questions was asked.

[ChickenStash]

I don't see what there is to worked up about. With any large-ish amount the bank is going to double check all the info for a consumer transaction. Particularly with a cashiers check where the money is withdrawn from the account immediately.

I had to wait around when I did a cashiers check for my house down payment, too. I just happened to need it done on the day when they had some regional manager retreat and they had trouble hunting down the on-call manager to do the approval. Oh well.

[Cranky]

This is not a transaction to do from the drive through, IMO.

We bought a house in another state this summer, and there were several rounds of moving very large sums around. It was actually much easier than I expected, but we made appointments and went inside. Good news- we ended up with a lot of pens because nobody wants that pen back these days!

The funniest part was the time the young teller squeaked “We don’t have that much in cash! We’ll have to order it!” LOL I winked and said “It’s quarters or nothing!” (But really, I wanted a check.)

I was pleasantly surprised at how smoothly it all went.

[bmjohnson35]

Covid makes these types of transactions even worse, since you can't go inside and conduct business face-to-face.  Given the details you have provided, I agree that I would have been annoyed, but I know that things are different than the times before 9/11.  If this is the first significant incident in 19 yrs of banking with them, it may be a bit rash to change institutions.  Hopefully you got your check and eventually the car, you never clarified this. 

[use2betrix]

For one - they are required to by law to report withdrawals over $10k to the IRS, with a description of what the money is to be used for. That’s why they asked what it’s for.

Second - she may have asked if you “wanted to pull all the money from that account” because sometimes people may also show up with cash or another form of payment to combine for the cashiers check.

You honestly sound like you came off as a prick for someone who doesn’t understand some basic banking concepts.

You should find that teller and apologize.

[dividend]

That seems a little excessive.  I had to get a $96k cashier's check from the drive thru to close on our house in October and we had no issues.  But I would say this falls under better safe than sorry.  My SIL has been a bank teller for over a decade so I understand second hand the kinds of crazy things thanks I have to protect themselves and their customers from.

Sent from my Pixel 4 using Tapatalk

[Rhinodad]

I’m not sure you really understand the relationship you have with the bank if this got you mad. You voluntarily gave them your money for safe keeping, and then you got mad when they went through a procedure to make sure your money was safe? If you want instant access to your money, put it under your mattress.

[Sibley]

Yeah, it sounds like you're completely unaware of banking regulations. Doesn't matter how long you've been a customer or how small the bank is. Bank regs are strict. And a PITA to deal with at times. You may owe that teller an apology for your behavior if you were an ass or gave her attitude. In the future, patience.

[secondcor521]

For one - they are required to by law to report withdrawals over $10k to the IRS, with a description of what the money is to be used for. That’s why they asked what it’s for.

I believe those rules are only for cash withdrawals or deposits, not checks.

[Freedom2016]

For one - they are required to by law to report withdrawals over $10k to the IRS, with a description of what the money is to be used for. That’s why they asked what it’s for.

I believe those rules are only for cash withdrawals or deposits, not checks.

Isn't a cashier's check a cash equivalent?

[ChickenStash]

For one - they are required to by law to report withdrawals over $10k to the IRS, with a description of what the money is to be used for. That’s why they asked what it’s for.

I believe those rules are only for cash withdrawals or deposits, not checks.

Isn't a cashier's check a cash equivalent?

According to the IRS:

Cash Includes

Cash includes the coins and currency of the United States and a foreign country. Cash may also include cashier’s checks, bank drafts, traveler’s checks, and money orders with a face value of $10,000 or less,...
.....

Cash does not include:

• Personal checks drawn on the account of the writer.
• A cashier’s check, bank draft, traveler’s check or money order with a face value of more than $10,000.

When a customer uses currency of more than $10,000 to purchase a monetary instrument, the financial institution issuing the cashier’s check, bank draft, traveler’s check or money order is required to report the transaction by filing the FinCEN Currency Transaction Report (CTR).

To me, this sounds like a cashiers check >10,000 isn't reportable by the recipient because the bank had to report it when issued. If the cashiers check was <10,000 but part of a larger transaction >10,000 then it is probably reportable by the recipient since the issuer wasn't obligated to report it.

[Sugaree]

These kinds of situations make me realize how happy I am to have my own personal banker (i.e. my brother).  He can't actually do anything with my accounts, but I can usually text him and he can either tell me what to do or go ahead and ask a co-worker to get the process started. 

[By the River]

I had to do a large-ish wire to my IRA a month ago.  Luckily my credit union's lobby is open so went inside and did the work from the teller's window.  The only problem was that her terminal crapped out in the middle of the entry (it wanted to update the wire software before proceeding).  We had to move to another window and started again.   Definitely checked my IRA online to make sure the money arrived (and only one time). 

[tipster350]

I must say, congratulations on a very fortunate existence. In the face of all that is going on and that people are going through, for this to get you so wound up that you post about it, says you are living one heck of a charmed life. I hope you are aware and are filled with gratitude. And I hope you treated the bank employees who were just doing their job with respect.

[trygeek]

Just wait till you see all the  mail you get from them now for investing, and what not now that they know you have 20000 dollars that you took out of their bank. They want it back. That's what happened to me.

[Fomerly known as something]

As someone who gets to read the suspicious activity reports that are required to be made in situations like these, I actually had to help the postal worker with the one she filled out when making a large purchase of money orders for a car.  Sorry, the bank is just following regulation even if the “know you”

[Fomerly known as something]

For one - they are required to by law to report withdrawals over $10k to the IRS, with a description of what the money is to be used for. That’s why they asked what it’s for.

I believe those rules are only for cash withdrawals or deposits, not checks.

Isn't a cashier's check a cash equivalent?

According to the IRS:

Cash Includes

Cash includes the coins and currency of the United States and a foreign country. Cash may also include cashier’s checks, bank drafts, traveler’s checks, and money orders with a face value of $10,000 or less,...
.....

Cash does not include:

• Personal checks drawn on the account of the writer.
• A cashier’s check, bank draft, traveler’s check or money order with a face value of more than $10,000.

When a customer uses currency of more than $10,000 to purchase a monetary instrument, the financial institution issuing the cashier’s check, bank draft, traveler’s check or money order is required to report the transaction by filing the FinCEN Currency Transaction Report (CTR).

To me, this sounds like a cashiers check >10,000 isn't reportable by the recipient because the bank had to report it when issued. If the cashiers check was <10,000 but part of a larger transaction >10,000 then it is probably reportable by the recipient since the issuer wasn't obligated to report it.

There are CTA, cash transactions and SAR suspicious transactions.  SAR’s can be any kind of transaction.  Also they could be asked to make sure they don’t have to file a SAR.

[Metalcat]

I must say, congratulations on a very fortunate existence. In the face of all that is going on and that people are going through, for this to get you so wound up that you post about it, says you are living one heck of a charmed life. I hope you are aware and are filled with gratitude. And I hope you treated the bank employees who were just doing their job with respect.

To be fair, people tend to flip out over small things more when their lives are more stressful, not when everything is lovely.

We don't know OP's life*, the only info we have is that they got excessively pissed off about being mildly inconvenienced and came here to vent, and being a new member, probably wasn't prepared for the pile on they were likely to get.

OP isn't responding, but I hope the responses they've received here gives them pause and cause to reflect on their feelings and reactions as opposed to just feeling attacked.

ETA: Okay, I checked OP's early posts and they are at the end of their rope due to work burnout, which can very much predispose people to being highly reactive in relatively benign situations. Makes sense to me.

[Sugaree]

As someone who gets to read the suspicious activity reports that are required to be made in situations like these, I actually had to help the postal worker with the one she filled out when making a large purchase of money orders for a car.  Sorry, the bank is just following regulation even if the “know you”

The last couple of times I had to have really big cashier's checks, they were very obviously being used to buy a car (one to a dealership and the other to Carmax).  In both cases, the most the cashier asked was what kind of car was I buying.  I wonder if that's their way of asking without really asking.

[Fishindude]

Chill out dude. You sound like you might have been acting like an impatient terrorist to that poor bank teller.

+1
If you are not someone that routinely makes large transactions, bank employees are trained to go slow, ask all the questions, dot the I's and cross the T's.
It's for your protection and theirs.

[solon]

I must say, congratulations on a very fortunate existence. In the face of all that is going on and that people are going through, for this to get you so wound up that you post about it, says you are living one heck of a charmed life. I hope you are aware and are filled with gratitude. And I hope you treated the bank employees who were just doing their job with respect.

To be fair, people tend to flip out over small things more when their lives are more stressful, not when everything is lovely.

We don't know OP's life*, the only info we have is that they got excessively pissed off about being mildly inconvenienced and came here to vent, and being a new member, probably wasn't prepared for the pile on they were likely to get.

OP isn't responding, but I hope the responses they've received here gives them pause and cause to reflect on their feelings and reactions as opposed to just feeling attacked.

ETA: Okay, I checked OP's early posts and they are at the end of their rope due to work burnout, which can very much predispose people to being highly reactive in relatively benign situations. Makes sense to me.

Also, OP is venting here, and not IRL. I think that is to be commended, not scolded. We all have thoughts we think, but would never say out loud. This forum is a place where we can give vent to those thoughts. And the real world is hopefully a little bit nicer place because of it.

[iluvzbeach]

No CTR is required for a cashier’s check purchase using funds on deposit. That would only apply if actual cash was involved.

To OP, should your account ever be hit with fraud, you’ll suddenly have a much greater appreciation of the bank’s cautious nature for this withdrawal.

[guitar_stitch]

Also, OP is venting here, and not IRL. I think that is to be commended, not scolded. We all have thoughts we think, but would never say out loud. This forum is a place where we can give vent to those thoughts. And the real world is hopefully a little bit nicer place because of it.

"Me: NOTSENDINGITANYWHEREGOINGTOGOPICKUPANFBOMBINGCAR"

Sounds like it may have spilled over.

IMHO, it seems like a bit of misdirected frustration.  The teller certainly didn't deserve to be treated like a subservient, regardless of OP's feelings on the bank policies. 

These are trying times for everyone who is attempting to conduct business in a normal fashion.  Car buying is typically stressful, and the added frustration of having to travel to a bank drive through and dealing with the delays can certainly push someone over the edge.  However, we have to be aware of our emotional state and check our sense of entitlement. 

[honeybbq]

Last time I bought a car I just pulled up my bank account and showed them the balance and the routing number on my phone screen. The manager confirmed with my check book routing number and they let me write a check for the car.

I would rather a bank be careful and cautious with my financial accounts and make me jump through hoops than giving all my money away to the first bozo that asked.