Going bankless

I'd scruff this up to a steep learning curve, find a nice, small local bank and move your accounts there. I'd also open one at the same bank for your dad, so he doesn't have to rely on you for those checks. And I'd take Cyngbaeld's suggestions and have your mom make your dad the payee.

And, if possible, I'd start having my paychecks direct deposited, if you can --- or cash them and deposit the cash.

The bank actually did right by refusing to deposit that check --- they showed fairly honorable intentions, given (like Dave and others noted) just how much fraud goes on with those kinds of checks.

That isn't to say banks don't mess up --- they do, especially the larger ones. But if you can find a good, small, local one where they actually KNOW your name, you really are at less risk.

I keep two separate accounts in two different banks --- one, an interest bearing checking and another, an interest bearing savings account. If I know I might run a bit too close to the edge on the checking, meaning I MIGHT lose my free checking and interest, I immediately transfer a bit from the savings to the checking, all by the internet. Then, when payday comes, I transfer the same amount right back into the savings, plus some. So far, so good.

I also agree that it sounds like you're living pretty close to the edge. I'd start socking some away, a bit at a time, so you can start building up a cushion. Once you have that cushion, you won't be so reliant on paychecks and such being deposited immediately.

Good luck! Bank stuff is ICKY! Which is why I am determinedly local about who I do my banking with.

Agree with the above.Bof A and Wells Fargo are both overgrown monstrosities,and both had mixed my accts with someone elses.Got myself a small local credit union and get real service.The only charges I pay for are my checks printing(I dont use money orders),everything else is free...checking 2 accts,savings 2 accts,free online bill pay to anyone,free computer banking and I can see on my screen exactly what they see on theirs when I pull my acct. up,I can transfer funds online,got a large loan and had the money in my acct in 5 days!
Shop around,there are surely better options than the big banks,people who WANT your business and will treat you well.Not all banks are evil,but the biggies are BAD BAD BAD BAD BAD!!!!!
BooBoo

HA! They bent over bakwards when we had a fire and had $94,000 from the ins. in their bank. It was the only time anyone called me by name. I have never overdrawn this acct, but it's only been open a year.

There are no small banks around here anymore. I have been with my bank 9 years and they have been bought 3 times, now it's M&T bank. To make matters worse they rotate tellers, so you can't even get to know anyone. I would not be nearly as upset about this if they had just called me to tell me. I do have a savings acct htere too and could have easily transfered money to cover what I wrote out. But you can't do that if you don't know. I dunno, I just think it was crappy and I'm tired of big companies not caring about their customers.

Carla

Hey Carla
1. same local bank?? check routeing ( sp?) numbers or bank numbers (it looks like 7-61/520 Is this a goverment or company disabilty check??

2. point this out to the manager

4. take all docs to the manager (set up any appointment to make sure she will be there) and ask for a better explantion

5. when in doubt contact the Banking Commissioner.

Yes since the new Federal regulations a few years ago small banks are a thing of the past. Mercantile Safe Deposit and Trust is still pretty good. M & T........I personally would avoid at all cost.

WOW!! I though I had my fill of banks.. HEHE.. I hate taking care of a check book. I messed up a few times and gave up..

I direct deposit my paycheck into a savings account. When I need cash I get it from an ATM machine that is owned by my bank so I don't get charged to use it. The usual limit to an ATM is $200 but I increased the withdrawl limit to $500 so I can grab at least that amount at anytime needed.. (in a 24hr. period)

Credit card users beware.. I have 1 card that I use when needed. The limit on it is 2k but I have been offered to increase the limit to 20k if I chose to. Trying to use some "savy", I figured if I kept the limit low, and in the event that I needed to pay it off, I could and not be tempted to go off the deep end and get a BIG balance. I made a purchase with it (around $1600) and was going to pay it off within the next two weeks. During the time the "balance" of the card would show up on my credit report, I purchased a truck. When my credit report came back to the dealer that I was buying the truck from, it said that I had a "high balance" on a credit card and it hurt my rating. That would cause me to pay a higher interest rate on the loan! Go figure.. I thought I was being smart about my finances!

I don't do checking at all. If I need to send money through the mail, I buy a money order. They are as good as cash and you don't have to be an "accountant" to keep up on things. I'll pay the price for the money orders so I don't have to mess around with the headache of a check book. Beyond that, I'm a cash man.. (or I'll barter)

I deposited a large check into my savings account. I couldn't touch any of the money in that check for a week! My bank waited for it to clear the bank it was written from.

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Diogenes' Philosophy..
"The gods gave man an easy life, but man has complicated it by itching for luxuries."

Several years ago we dealt at a local bank and had a savings account, a checking account, and our home financed through them. We wanted to get a lower interest rate on the house, but they wouldn't deal so we shopped around and found a better interest rate at a bank about 20 miles away. When that bank sent the money to the local bank to pay off the loan, somehow or other the amount they sent was a couple hundred dollars more than the pay off amount of the loan so we told them to put the money into the checking account. We thought everything would be fine since it was a check from one bank written to another bank. WRONG. Local bank held the excess money from new bank's check for two weeks before they agreed to release it to us, because they "had no way of knowing if the check was good" which of course translated into "they were mad because we took the house loan away from them". We got equally mad and wanted to close both the savings and checking, but had to wait until Bank #2's money had been released into the account. Then they wanted to just write a check to the credit union we were taking our business to and hubby told them "fine but make it a certified check because we have no way of knowing if YOUR check is good". They seemed to have no sense of humor about that comment---can't imagine why.
Incidently, when we deposited that check at the credit union the money was available to us immediately.

Well I got a Passbook Savings account at a LOCALLY owned bank(very rare)

and I keep from $500-$7000 in the account, I can cash checks all the time without paying the fee's.

I don't buy on credit, and the factory I'm working at is PUSHING Direct Deposit very vigorously, I'm not happy, I don't trust credit cards or electronic sh*t.

I'm a paper guy.

I don't get loans, I pay with cold hard cash. The State Farm Insurance office likes it when I pay my premium every 6 months.:haha: whip out those 100 dollar bills.

If I'm broke, I'm broke. I buy somthing If I need it, and I can afford it(which is easy, look in the billfold)

Credit unions seem to be better. When I moved here I found out a local big bank charged 75$ to bounce a check. Well they got me for 3 before they cleared my deposit check (10) day hold for a new customer.Didn't bother to tell me. Have never been back to that bank and just moved to the winter home and not going to bother with a change of address to them. All purchases will be made in cash from now on.

mikell

If you can find a small independent bank its better. Becoming a charter investor of a small independent bank is best. I have had excellent service from the small town independent bank that my family and I bought charter shares in way back in 1985. A charter block of 500 shares can often be aquired for under $3000. My preference has been to keep a portion of my long term savings invested in stock in my bank rather than low interest savings. Stock splits over the last 19 years have outperformed the prime based savings interest.



$75 per bounce? Sounds like that bank would be a good investment

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"I didn't have time to slay the dragon. It's on my To Do list!"

I have a safety deposit box at Wells Fargo since I bank with a credit union that does not have them.

I needed some type of official stamp from them to sell some stock and they were going to charge me since I did not have an account with them.

I pointed out that I did have a safety deposit box and they were not sure that would change anything.

They checked into it and agreed to no charge for the official stamp.

If they had not, I would have closed by box immediately.

I have had no problems with my credit union. They all know me and I can walk in and ask for cash and not even show identification.

I recently applied for a loan and found a car I wanted out of town. The credit union manager told me to go ahead and write a check for the amount and the funds would be in my account immediately. it all happened without a hitch and I siugned all the paperwork after the transaction.

Credit unions are the way to go in my opinion.

I don’t think banks are out to get anyone. It must be understood that they are a business (key word here being business) and must cover their own butt for their clients’ hastiness. I think an effort has to be made to actually bounce check. People who do either have no idea how to keep track of their money and/or no idea of how the banking system works.

Depending on your budget, keep a buffer in your checking. For some, this may be $100, for another, $5000. If not this, then never spend more than your last mailing quote from the bank. For many people, bouncing a check is quite simply an impossibility for if we overdraw, the bank will pull from our savings with no charges.

Assuming with banks is like playing Russian Roulette. If you needed that money in a few day, just ask for the cash or pay with a credit card.

Our bank also offers a funds transfer from savings to checking to cover insufficient fund draft coverage. Its free for up to 3 checks during a 3 month period and after the fee is $2 per check for them to tranfer funds and send the notice to the account statement.

As Ceder said, keep a cushion and you have no problems. I established a cushion equal to my normal bills about 6 months after I had my first checking account that my father opened for me when I was 12 and always increased the cushion as I added a new bill to be paid. In 31 years I have only had one bounce incident of 5 checks. That incident was due to my employer not routing my pay to my account even though payroll had issued me a direct deposit confirmation stub. I notified the bank and payroll dept at the plant and the bank put responsibility for the overdrafts on my employer and routed my backpay into my savings and charged my employer the equivelent of my lost interest to restore my savings to the amount it was a month before the deposit was missed and they began covering the IFW drafts

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"I didn't have time to slay the dragon. It's on my To Do list!"

I have a story about banks too. I bank with Wells Fargo here in montana, direct deposit of retirement funds and all that. Well we got a home equity loan this summer and the lender gave me a check for about 50K. took it to my bank to make deposit (from one bank to another) and was told that I would have to wait 13 days for funding. You bet i was ****ed! Called the lender (they have never had that happen before) Called the manager at my bank and he told me that it would clear by next tuesday. So next tuesday I paid a contractor or two and some bills etc. They hit me with 150.00 worth of bad check charges and took the needed money out of my credit reserve! I complained to the bank folks at the top of the line and was told that the bank i deal with had not erred as the big check had not cleared even if the bank manager said it would and no they would not refund the charges! As soon as I can I am getting way far away from that bank!

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www.MontanaSticksAndStones.com at Goshen Farm