Amsouth business practice
 

I recently went into AmSouth to cash a check drawn on their bank.

Although I do not bank there, They would charge ME $3 to cash their check!

Does your bank provide this sort of service?

This used to not be the case at AmSouth.. however a few months back I went into another bank, same situation, and they wanted to charge the $3.00 as well.

And then again here recently I went into an AmSouth branch with the same situation, and they charged the $3.00 as well. I was surprised, but it appears to be something all the banks either doing are going to start doing ?

I work downtown and know some folks at Amsouth. I will inquire as to the details of their policy on monday. I don't understand how they can charge for this, yet if you simply deposited the check into any account, there would be no charge. the key words here are "drawn on their bank". I have never heard of such a thing as charging to cash their own check, but I don't often cash checks, but I'll find out and post it. I do know they want a finger print in some cases, which I have somehow managed to avoid my entire life so far! :)

They call this a Non-Customer check cashing fee, or processing fee.

I say, $3 is a gallon of milk or gasoline. Well, it's MY $3 and AmSouth can't have it!

I bet other banks do this too. And if Amsouth calls itself "the relationship bank", it is in need of counseling.

But seriously, if your business has an Amsouth account, and you write a check for payroll... Your employee goes there and cashes his paycheck, Amsouth will charge your employee $3 to cash the check at their bank if your employee doesn't have an account at Amsouth.

LOL yea.. me and AmSouth Bank had a little falling out :) I'll leave it at that.

This is nothing! Has anyone ever tried using an ATM overseas? I have and they are a TOTAL RIPOFF!!! I may not be using proper terminology when I explain this, but apparently, the request for cash you make through an overseas ATM goes through several ATM systems before they reach one in the United States. Each one of those ATM systems will charge you anywhere between $3-$15 bucks for that one transaction. Just getting $20 from the ATM could cost you nearly $100 in fees in some places.

If you ever go on vacation to a foreign country, travelers checks are apparently the way to go. Stay away, STAY AWAY,from the ATMs.

Ok, I went and spoke with a teller and got some info. First, please don't shoot the messenger! ;)

Yes there is a $3 fee if you are not a bank customer, but it doesn't stop there. Did you know that you can no longer buy a money order with cash if you do not have an account? Some of these changes were brought on by the Patriot Act while others out of the desire to cover costs. Of course, if the check is not drawn from Amsouth, as a non-customer, they will not cash it at all for any price. Time to go to Thrifty's! LOL, they charge a percentage I think! That is probably how Fast Cash type outfits operate too.

But back to Amsouth. If you do not have an account, you must provide your finger print on the check in order to cash it. That right there is enough to scare me off. Nobody (that I know of) has my finger print on file! And I hope to keep it that way. But the 3 bucks is meant to cover the costs of waiting in line, getting your fingerprint taken, and also as "insurance" to help cover the cost of fraud arising from cashing checks, and so on.

IMHO, the moral of the story is just to deposit checks into an account which both insures that you will pay any applicable taxes, but also that you are not funneling money to a radical muslim terrorist organization, I suppose. :D Which is fine as long as you don't need the money right then and there. LOL, if I make a deposit after 2pm on a Friday, I don't see the money in my account until Tuesday. When I was a kid, that cutoff was 3pm. Go figure. So much for the advances of modern computers........

Good Luck to you Whois! OK, you can shoot me if you want. I don't mind since I don't work there. :p

Well, get this:

If I have a dividend check from Amsouth (Actually, this next one will be Regions) on stock I own in their bank....

THEY WON"T CASH IT WITHOUT CHARGING ME A FEE!!!!! Just because I am not a "customer" Pfft!

My dividend check, as an owner of stock in their bank, drawn on their bank, I don't have an account there, I get charged!!

Unbelievable.

Yes, but think about it another way. What if you were not a shareholder? Would you want to have to pay the fee to cash a check while the "more important guy" in front of you doesn't because he is a shareholder of the bank?

I don't like having to pay to get my cash. However, I find it honorable that a bank would treat its shareholders (and VIPs) to the same rules and regulations as any other patron.

I'm with Geo, though. I'd just either get an account with AmSouth or cash it at my bank.

LOL, too funny! You could write the Regions President and tell your story, or else just deposit the darn check in your favorite bank and move on with life. :D I wouldn't pay them the 3 bucks either

Just go beat up the punk-kid bank manager, that's what I did. :)

ROTFLMAO!

Aww, the Regions Prez won't ever read my saga or care. I did leave and go to my regular bank (where oddly enough, I do not own stock:o ) and cashed the check. It only wasted a few minutes of time.

I am glad I don't have an account there, I wouldn't want to write checks to people and have them penalized for cashing my check at my bank. That seems like extortion.

The fact that they charge it and someone pays it makes me feel rotten about being a shareholder.

I think there are more banks than just AmSouth charging this new fee.. I forget the bank, but when I first ran into this, it was another bank other than AmSouth.

Well, you could always toss out my name! Just say that geodood sent ya! then they would charge you $6 to cash it! ;) Or else they may call security!