AP Chase Bank May 19, 2009
Updated- Darcy Wilmot the Media Relations Representative for the Pacific North West has since returned the call made to CHASE requesting comment. She is looking into the matter
A funny thing happened at the bank on Wednesday (June 8th). CHASE bank in Newberg Oregon refused to honor two corporate checks totaling over 6 thousand dollars. Despite the fact that the funds were available from the account holder in question, CHASE refused to honor the checks and cash them. Upon demanding that Chase honor the checks written on its bank, I was told that if I wanted the funds, that I would have to open a business account with them in which case they would hold the checks until they cleared the account they were written on, in the same bank, which “would not happen immediately”.
This reporter was told that CHASE had a policy which stated they would not cash checks written on their bank, but they could not hand me anything in writing at all. They could not give a date as to when this policy began. In fact, less than a week earlier, I cashed a business check for over 2 thousand dollars with no problems at all. CHASE appears to be following an arbitrary banking policy which they cannot back in writing.
For anyone in the financial world, this says one thing. CHASE isn’t honoring its checks.
I was told that because it was a corporation to corporation transaction ( I am the owner of the second corporation and had everything including the Assumed Business name Registration, the State Corporate documentation, the Tax Id number, the Tax Payment coupon booklet, as well as my personal Passport, credit card and Oregon Drivers license) they would not cash a business to business check.
This is not good folks.
Interestingly enough, they were completely uninterested in a business documentation I had, but did require my index fingerprint on the checks they then refused to cash. I asked for Bank checks, or a cashier’s checks for the amounts of the checks I was attempting to cash, I was again told by Jessica Young, the Assistant Financial Center Manager in the Newberg Oregon Branch, that if I wanted bank checks I had to open a CHASE account, and that the funds would not be available immediately, and that they would not give a Cashier’s check until the funds had cleared from the originating account. Which if it is at all necessary to reiterate, was an account of their own, they could see that the funds were available. So once again, CHASE refused to honor checks written on its bank. I was then given the name of the Media relations person for CHASE, along with a booklet titled “Account Rules and Regulations”, which makes no mention whatsoever of any policy of not cashing checks on its bank. So quite literally, if you are a small business owner, and get a check from a client or customer written on CHASE bank, don’t expect to be able to go to CHASE bank and cash the check written to your business.
CHASE isn’t honoring and cashing them.
This should be a wakeup call to all small Business owners, and to anyone in the financial world, it is not a good thing when banks start refusing to cash checks on their banks. It is more or less stating that they don’t have the money to cash them. That is a serious issue, and one that all Americans should start taking heed of. The first step in widespread banking failures is the banks refusing to cash checks written on their accounts. CHASE bank is now doing just that, and with no written policy for doing so, no statement of when this policy began, and it should be a red flag to everyone.
JPMorgan CHASE & Co. Reported on June 17th that it had repaid the 25 Billion in Preferred Stock Investment it accepted and received in TARP funds. It is astonishing that CHASE isn't honoring simple small Business Checks for just a few thousand dollars.
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Update 2- (7-9-2009 12:54 PM)
In the interest of fairness and accuracy in reporting, I am including JP Morgan Chase's point of view:
Sondra Matthews from JP Morgan has responded to this article with the following information. JP Morgan Chase follows an internal policy which is based on preventing fraud and is specifically geared to protecting their account holders and the bank itself. Ms. Matthews explains that there is an upwards dollar limit on the checks it will cash for non-customers in its branches and this amount is completely risk based, and designed to protect its account holders.
Comments
Too bad the reporter didn't ask about the amounts being the reason the bank was doing this. The prior check the guy cashed was $2000. These checks totalled about $12,000. You know there are certain reporting they do if amounts are over $10,000, and in some cases, lower amounts.
Sam what does reporting had to do with unable to cash a check !. Come on now the reporting pretrains to money launderying and tracking of money - these banks are scums they just want to leverage their positions have you open a bank account and then chage you fees .
The tracking can be done with having you fillout a form and having your present with 2 forms of ID's
there's no excuse for chase not to immediately issue a cashiers check for each amount...this amounts to outright theft...ALL checks clear the FEDERAL RESERVE in hours via digital clearing..there is no such thing as check holds anymore, except for off the wall non-National Banks ...all checks clear before midnight, the bank makes interest on the money and holds your funds based on pre 9-11 technology.
Yes, certain reporting they do for amounts over $10,000 that have nothing to do with this case.
As long as it's the same banking company, any branch anywhere in the World can verify the signature on the check digitally; they can pull the signature card from the home branch and verify it. They can also offer to call the customer if the check amount is larger than normal. I live in Costa Rica..any branch can cash any check I write regardless of the amount - they simply call me if the check is over $1,000 USD. Simple.
We live in the USA..nothing is hard if we apply common sense and good business practices. Chase is probably very broke, similar to State Farm Insurance right after Hurricane Andrew, State Farm was cleaned out by initial claism, they had to raid their offshore bank accounts to pay claims...
This is nothing new. Fifteen years ago I had the same problem with several banks who would not cash a check that was from an account not only at that bank but from that very branch unless I had an account with them. All of these checks were for just a couple hundred dollars. When I protested they gave in, but wanted to charge me a fee which I refused to pay.
I do hope the reporter rushed to another nearby bank and opened an account with a check totaling whatever funds were in his Chase checking a/c plus the two checks drawn on Chase. I hope all of them clear before Chase closes its doors and the reporter has to wait in line to retrieve his funds through the FDIC.
Sounds like the reporter was a victim of bad communication (on BOTH parts) rather than unethical banking... Calm down and get the real story.
No - she has it exactly right - my husband has had this happen to him many times at Chase Bank, and he HAS a Chase bank account! The last time it happened (yesterday) the check was for only $800 and they put a 5 day hold on it. The check was written on a Chase account to someone with a Chase account - so what is their excuse this time?
Dear Reporter:
***"...because it was a corporation to corporation transaction..."***
A bank may not cash a check for funds made out to a corporation and "give" the funds to an individual. A corporation is a legal entity.
She is not the owner of the corporation, but the owner of the shares of the corporation.
Sam, she said they totaled over 6 thousand dollars, not 12.
In 1997 I tried to use a chase ATM to draw on my checking account with them which I had opened a year earilier with about 8 thousand in it. I had never used the account before.
I also had 8 thousand in a savings account with them I opened at the same time. I was told I had to go to the central office. Upon arrival at the central office I was told I was not allowed to have an account with Chase because I had bad credit. Wowee.
Chase/JPMorgan/Rockefellers are absolute slime.
I had a similar experience with US BANK. One of my customers stuck me with a hot check, written on US Bank. After my bank sent the bad check back to me I carried it back to US Bank. The cashier determined that there was enough money in that customer's account to cash the bad check, but they refused to give it to me. They said I wasn't a customer and it needed to go through my bank. Well I explained and showed them that indeed, it already went through my bank, but bounced. I certainly felt entitled to that money. I still want to know why they would stand behind and protect one of their customers who writes bad checks. I call that stealing.
There's always Wal-Mart. They will cash your check for 3 bucks. Screw the stingey banks.
They only care that you deposit money, and leave it there and use your debit card for everything.
I use Chase and have been told recently I can't cash my paycheck, at least for any amount over what is already in the account. That's ludicrous. I'm a preferred account holder and have been a customer with no bounced checks or any issues at all for several years. I managed to get the manager to sign off after threatening to leave the bank, but why should I have to? They should be happy to cash my paycheck, even if I don't always want to deposit anything. I'm using Chase as little as possible now, and that goes for all banks.
My former employer went from an ESOP (employee owned) to a public company owned by a private equity firm.
Anyhow, my stock in the company came to $5,000 and I went to Chase to cash the check. The teller said they were out of money. This is crazy, because $5,000 is not that much money. So, I had them call the downtown branch, located across the street from Caterpillar headquarters. They should have $5,000 on-hand there, right?
The teller had the manager come to window, asked that I thumbprint the check, then they said Chase Manhatten check was not compatible with Chase IL system. What BS!
Folks, this was over 2 years ago. Long before the "The Banker Left Behind" bailout.
I then travel a few blocks to speak with the Fortune 500 law firm who formulated the ESOP deal and he chewed out the manager at Chase. He reminded them that the account had $32 MILLION in it. So, someone like myself only needed to withdraw $5,000 of $32 million. Its as if I was asking to be paid in gold!
This is total bull and it happened to my wife with checks written to her last week. While Chase did cash the checks, she paid $6 per check for a check cashing fee. Jusst for the record, a check is a negotiable instrument and is due upon demand by bearer. This means that they must forward you all monies owed on the face amount of the check. They cannot charge a fee to cash the check. Right now this practice is making the banks millions if not billions of dollars while being illegal under common law, but the neither the FTC nor any other Federal agency is doing anything about it.
Another thing happening is that B of A just settled a lawsuit due to their software calculating which combination of bounced checks would give them the most NSF fees. In other words, if you had $100 in the bank and had written 5 checks, four of which totaled $90 together and one check totaling $100, the software would clear the one large check and bounce the others, instead of the other way around...
The same thing happened with Wells Fargo and they had to pay back over 26 million dollars in fees
Just received notice from our bank that our check from Chase for $3,100(escorow rebate)is not expected to be paid. We have never had a notice like this before. This is money we paid into Chase for taxes(mortgage). The check appears to have bounced! Fortunately, we have not written checks against the Chase check we deposited. CAUTION to anyone depositing a check paid by Chase.
South Beach Community Examiner found out today that a cash deposit is also now good!!!!
When my friend deposited $650 in cash for me so that I would have instant access to it- guess what? After the teller deposited it, he told her that it would not be available until the next business day, due to complications of the merger with WaMu. Made no sense to me. I called Chase, and they said that it was true- a one day hold on cash deposits.
I have a chase bank account. I deposited a 3K check into my account, which also was from a chase account. Yet they still refused to honor it...I am in Law School, and looked at the relevant statutory/case law and found that they seem to be getting through some of the loopholes in the law. My chase account is going to be closed soon as the check clears...
Sam, perhaps you can explain why every other bank, including the near-monolithic BofA and Wells Fargo institutions, are able to do this "certain reporting" without extorting a non-customer into creating accounts with them. Go on, now. I'm waiting.
This is a very interesting article, and the funny thing is that it gets worse. I just called my local Chase branch in Long Branch, NJ, regarding a business check I received from a business client that has an account with them. The check is for $560 and it's written out to my personal name, and no, I do not have an account with Chase. The rep asked me how much the check was for, and then proceeded to tell me that they could cash it, but there would be a $6 processing fee for cashing a Chase check to a non-customer. I aksed him when this policy took effect and he stated that it's always been in effect. Seems they can do whatever they want now-a-days.
Chase lied, pure and simple. I had an account prior to marriage the my wife was not on. While out of town, I sent her a check for $200 for some expenses, personal, not business - Chase refused to cash it for her using the same kind of BS reasoning, then agreed only if she agreed to a $25 'processing' fee.
An account I had for 35 years and through six bank mergers is now closed because Chase is a bunch of crooks.
I went to Chase to cash my check from Ford Motor company, which I work for and I was told that Ford is no longer allowing check cashing on its account. Ok fine, not sure if that's allowed but then I went to cash my NYS tax refund check I over paid my taxes and I was told the same thing. No one offered me a fee, I was just told that was the way it was. How can this me legal??
DanB, you're right...any bank can file a Currency Transaction Report, regardless of customer status. Answer this question for me though. A corporation is a separate legal entity, shares of a corporation are owned by X number of people, i.e.-X number of people own the corporation. Lets take, hmm, CHASE Bank for example here. Lets say I own some stock in CHASE...am I the owner? Technically, yes. If I have a check in my hand made to CHASE (say your credit card payment), could I go and cash it, acting in my capacity as an owner of CHASE Bank? Of course not. Now sure, CHASE has millions of stock holders, a privately held corporation may not, but the same common sense applies. In order for a bank to cash a check it must meet the requirements of the Patriot act, which dictate that the bank must know who they are dealing with based on evidence produced in accordance with CIP guidelines (have I lost you yet?). These guidelines for an individual equate to a government issued primary...
...identification and some secondary form. For a corporation, these requirements are that the bank verify the existence of the business with the Secretary of State in the state of registration (the customer cannot just produce the documentation, it must be produced by the granting authority). In some states, this alone could take the bank days and cost as much as $20 (the bank could just pass this cost onto you along with the cost associated with paying an employee to take the time to fill out the required form; lets say half an hour at $15 per hour...ok, so this transaction has now cost $27.50)...lets keep going. Once the name of the business is verified, the bank must obtain the Tax ID number, which can be produced by the person, but must be certified by an agent of the corp. who has been given the authority to conduct banking. But wait, how should the bank verify a person's authority...oh yea, the board of directors - of course. My point: get a brain and some common sense...
...its not the bank's fault that you have no idea what is going on or how to run a business legitimately. Its apparent that you don't really know what a corporation is at all...sure hope I never have to do business with you.
I do not know how old this article is or if any updated information exists, but I just had the exact same thing happen to me. I had proper identification, and a check on one of their customers, and they would not cash their own customers check. I have 7 years banking experience, and I use to work for the FDIC. There is no legitimate reason not to cash a check with proper ID. When I asked if the check had sufficient funds backing it, they said they had some sort of deal with the customer not to cash the check. I could however open an account and deposit the check. I plan to find out if this is legal tomorrow morning, but I am thinking it doesn't look good for Chase, and I wonder if they don't have enough money to cash the check. I WOULD NEVER OPEN AN ACCOUNT WITH THEM. There is no tellign how much tax payer money the have received, and the won't honor their own customers checks. Somethings up....
Nothing's up. Mike from 3 months ago is right. I used to work for Chase, I don't represent them. Everyone complaining up there about how "i'm a good account holder, never bounced a check, why won't they cash my check" etc. I listened to that nonsense for over a year as a teller. As a business owner, would YOU cash a $1500 check against some dude's account with 3 bucks in it? No way. Check fraud is RIDICULOUS right now. Chase (and almost EVERY other national bank) is *mitigating risk* on antiquated paper check transactions. If you don't like it GO FIND ANOTHER BANK that will cash your checks.
The REAL problem here that people (average consumers) don't realize is that the laws regarding banking MAY AS WELL HAVE BEEN WRITTEN BY THE BANKS. Of course they're all crooked - they're getting rich as hell from it! Why aren't they held accountable by regulations? OHHH, good question. We need to put people in office that represent US the consumers. Is this such a ridiculous notion? We need to get ourselves involved in the political process like we did over 200 years ago. 535ish people are making the decisions for the rest of the country. How hard is it to buy them off? How honest is YOUR local representative? It's insane the amount of trust we put into them, and at the same time we don't realize the collective power we hold over them. We shouldn't have opponents in seats of power, they're supposed to be our own voices. www.goooh.com
To the person who suggested "calm down and get the real story" I have been trying to do just that since yesterday afternoon.You are in denial, not the writer. There is more to this unwritten policy. I went into a Chase branch here in Manhattan, New York City to simply cash a check written out to me and drawn on a long-standing Chase account. The teller told me he would BUT "There is going to be a $6 fee to do that. Is that OK?" I was abhored at the mere suggestion of such absurdity. Banks are supposed to be institutions that take in and dispense funds on demand from their depositors. I presented a valid chec drawn on Chasek, legal I.D and expected a normal event to occur...they give me the money in full as it says "Pay to the order of....$.....) .I was clearly angry at such behavior and yet the teller smugly stood there without apology that he/Chase would make me pay them to give me the funds that they by law must pay from a demand account. The Mafia does this kind of thing also, it is called skimming. I thought the writer was far too generous, but she just presented the facts. Chase was willing to cash the check, but ONLY if I first agreed to their blackmail scheme and paid them a piece of the action. The teller told me it was Chase policy. I took my check and I.D. back and left. So folks, until the banks are broken down completely and the U.S. Treasury reclaims its Constitutionally mandated responsibility to manage the currency, I predict the arrogance is going to get unbearable. I am a positive person by nature, but I know a lie when I hear it and a crime when I am standing with a gun at my head, and Chase is the one behind both. The laws and lack of financial regulation in this country are behind it all. It's time to wake up from the pandemic of denial before it is too late. And if you are thinking of voting Republican this election forget it, because the same denial brought this all to a head under the last Republican regime. The bank collapse and TARP happened just months before the end of the Bush administration. Democrats have done little better to clean up the mess so far, but if you put Republicans back in you better be ready to live off the raw land because their written policy is to bring down the government and we the people with it. This whole fiasco has become an exercise in pure ignorance and insanity. Amazing how Americans can be so gullible.
For a corporate to corporate transfer who can blame Chase. For checks to indivduals, Chase charges a fee to cash without an account. It may be worth discussing that with a local DA and see if the DA would be willing to charge the Bank with writing bad checks.
I tried to cash a check at Chase today from my uncle (he uses Chase I do not) and they refused to cash it?? (It was for 9500) what a waste of a bank! The money is in his account and they simply told me no with no explanation at all.
Let me clarify something. Most bank BRANCHES don't keep all that much cash on hand, and what they do have is generally reserved for their normal expected activities, i.e., clients who routinely have specific cash demands. If someone randomly waltzes in and wants 9 grand in cash, they may not be able to do it without risking not having enough cash later on for a regular client. The reason for this?
The more cash they have on hand, the more that can be taken if they get ROBBED.
This has nothing to do with the notion that they are about to "close their doors" or anything at all.
I had the same thing happen me today for a fairly large check. Teller told me he couldn't discuss why, but I had to go back and talk to the people that gave me the check. That is all he would tell me. What a joke.
Douggie, dude...it is ILLEGAL and against any bank's privacy policy to share specific information about a client's account. If they couldn't cash it, it probably meant either they didn't have the funds, or there was suspicion of fraud (either the check you had was fraud, or there had been other fraud and the account had to be blocked). They can't tell you the reason, as it would violate the aforementioned privacy issues. However, the account holder is free to tell you if they choose to do so.
This a letter to a branch manager who refused to cash a small check ($440) with an abundance of ID and paperwork offered but did not even consider because I was from out of state!
"I was in your KeyBank branch Friday late afternoon. Since you would not honor the check I presented drawn on KeyBank, you might want to become familiar with the Uniform Commercial Code that governs banks, especially the section which addresses how to determine who qualifies to receive the payment of a check.
"Here is the link to the sections: http://www.law.cornell.edu/ucc/3/3-110.html. The parts which cover why you should have honored the check I presented for payment are U.C.C. - ARTICLE 3 PART 1. § 3-110.(a) and (c). (These sections also cover the "commercial to commercial" aspect which favors the person attempting to cash the check)
"After you have time to review these sections please let me know if I may come in and receive the funds represented by this check.
"Also I am not sure what I said or did that caused the threat of calling the police, but if you felt that it was real to you and I apologize. (When I asked if he had ever read this portion of the UCC then the threat came from nowhere. I guess referring to the law to expect compliance is a crime?)
Sincerely"
It is not worth the cost to sue since my losses were minimal.
The banks have all of us in their grips to bleed us of our money.
BANKS ARE NOT YOUR FRIEND
I went to Chase to cash two checks drawn on their bankl They cashed both but charged me a 2% fee on the total of both checks. Most of the large banks got bail outs and we got screwed.
CHase is dishonest, and they tried to do that to me because our payroll was late and I needed extra cash for car tuneups. I got it waived when Texas law was pointed out as well as law in general.
First off my empoyer uses chase. Checks are deposited digital. I deposit checks nightly with their scanner right to chase, so they get their money right away. Yet they won't give out their money right away willingly.
Chase Bank charged me 6.00 to cash a check drawn off their bank because I was told it was drawn off another branch. Banking laws are written by the banks and our elected officials simply sign off on them. Anyone ever see how much money the banks and financial institutions donate to get people elected. Banks make it increasingly difficult to be able to do anything without having an account. I have not had an account in about 7 years and it has become more difficult to cash my checks - paychecks! I used to cash them at my neighborhood pharmacy and the banks changed the laws so my pharmacy could no longer cash them there. A person wrote me a check for 16.00 drawn off Key Bank and they wanted to charge me 10.00 to cash it.
Banks are evil and I will reisist getting an account for as long as possible. Credit Unions are no better.
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