Banking should be about relationships
As a small business owner, from time to time the business needs to borrow money. Because we have worked wit the same business focused bank for 5 years, and they know us well, and maintain our accounts in good standing with them, when it comes time to borrow money, it doesn’t take them too long to say yes. This is called having a relationship with a bank.
Similarly, with my present bank, a smaller bank that prides itself on service, I know the people in the branch I bank at and have very little trouble getting things done.
Now compare those experiences with this one:
Chase gives me the straw that breaks the camel’s back.
Went into a branch this afternoon to cash a birthday check (yay HB to me)!They say it exceeds my current balance (payday is today friday…) and they can’t cash it for an amount that exceeds my existing balance.
HURR.
WaMu didn’t do that to me (member since ’95, so i know this). His reasoning: “you could write a check to yourself, cash it for more than you have, then bounce it and we are out the money.”
Uhm dude. yeah. That can happen. But this is a birthday check from my mother. WTF Make the policy you can’t write checks to yourself…? Thanks for calling me a potential criminal TO MY FACE.
So I said never mind, took my check back, and walked over to FirstTech where I recently reopened a new account and she was nice, friendly, and cashed it without question. I left some money in the account for fun, but honestly: starting this week I’m moving all my accounts totally over to the CU. I’m so done with banks.
See the difference? Chase could have easily looked at the customers history with the bank and seen that they are a good risk. They could have run the check and verified that the account it was coming from had sufficient funds. Instead, they simply played by a hard rule and relationship didn’t figure into the picture at all.
Even the new credit union the customer recently opened was willing to accommodate the customers request. Chase isn’t a customer service organization, it is a fee generating machine. That’s it.
Customer service | admin June 19, 2010
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By coakl, January 11, 2011 @ 1:20 pm
re: “They could have run the check and verified that the account it was coming from had sufficient funds.”
If it wasn’t a check from Chase, there’s no way for the teller to verify funds. No bank can do that. For that to happen, Chase would have to have direct access to Bank of America systems, and vice-versa.
Even calling on the phone doesn’t work. By the time the check makes its way back to the drawer bank, other transactions could have drained the account and cause the check to bounce. The check may be OK at the time of the phone call but a lot can happen during the rest of the business day.
The computer system used by the tellers simply blocks check-cashing if the check is more than the account’s available balance. There’s no override for the teller to use. WaMu’s computer system would allow an override; Chase does not.
By coakl, January 11, 2011 @ 1:27 pm
This begs another question: If the “relationship” is so good, why doesn’t this guy have enough in his account to back up the check?
Let’s say the birthday check is for $100. A checking account with not even $100 in it, is not a high-value relationship. And certainly not a good risk.
By admin, January 11, 2011 @ 1:35 pm
I a customer always has enough in their account to cover any check that might be deposited or cashed, there is never any risk and no need for a relationship. The point is that if this has been a good customer who has had a long standing relationship with the bank, not been late, not over-drafted their account, etc. the bank should have trusted them if they were interested in continuing a good relationship. If the customer is considered a good risk, they should be willing to risk.
The bank across the street had only a short-term relationship with the customer and yet they were willing to trust. This is how you build relationships.
I don’t see how a good relationship implies that the customer always has a lot of money in their account. They may not currently be a high value customer, but good business people understand that today’s small fish may become tomorrows big whale.