brosnan6

So here's an interesting situation/scenario I'd like to get input on

I just got back from the UK on Friday and was supposed to be sent out to travel again on Sunday. Naturally, I wanted to get rid of my leftover British pounds as soon as possible before I forgot. I wasn't able to make it to the bank on Saturday during their open hours so I decided to just deposit the pounds through the ATM as a standard deposit. I wrote on the back of my business card to just deposit at the current market rate. For the deposit amount on-screen, I just did a rough conversion of what the pounds are equal to.

I'm curious if this will work....has anybody done anything like this before? If it matters, my bank is Bank of America.

IMStill4Travel

Are you insane??

soitgoes

They're likely going to do an ATM deposit reversal on Monday morning, which will result in a fee for you. And then they will have to deal with the currency, either by depositing it or calling you to come pick it up.

This is not the way you should deposit currency.

What you could have done is put the currency in an envelope and left it in the night depository with a request for deposit, but the ATM should not have been used.

njm

banc depozit... Ur doin it wrong.

KNRG

That's completely nuts. I hope there are some serious repurcussions for such an action.

TamCaP

[sarcasm on]Yes, public flogging followed by a long, also public, execution. And disown the family too.[sarcasm off]

Even if what the OP did is not the wisest, demanding serious repercussions is not really OK in my opinion. And I believe that such thing is something that's wrong with a banking system as whole. OP did not commit a fraud, just tried to do something out-of-the box... A decent company in a free-market environment should learn from it, and if demand is there, allow such deposits anyway, e.g. at the ATMs at the airports... just an idea, you know.

KNRG

Sorry, but if you do something wrong (I think this qualifies) and there aren't repercussions then one doesn't learn not to do it again (see, you pointed out that i cant spell and publicly shamed me, thus i spellz good now!)

I don't think there is any demand for this service either. Or shall i start sticking my coins from the UK into random ATM card slots and see how that works out? I'm thinking outside the box you know.

Aldoman

I believe that if they reverse the deposit, charge you some weird-... fee and then call you to pick up your envelope, you should be more than thankful.

TamCaP

Hmm, I can't completely agree with you. Sticking coins into slots not made for it, might eventually (who knows) damage the slots. I am not sure, but I believe that all the deposits made in ATMs are processed manually (can someone who knows correct me here?) unless it's one of those fancy ATMs where you put the bills directly (obviously not the case here). Thus even though the OP might have created an extra-hassle for the bank (and yea, charge him processing fee for that) I don't think it should be in form of repercussions (understood by me as a fine)...

And about the demand - I am sorry, but I don't think neither you, KNRG, nor me can be experts at judging that. At least one person wanted to do it , the question is - would more?

Oh, and I was nowhere close willing to ashame you. I leave personal attacks to situations when I really have a reason not to like somebody, or during intoxication

brosnan6

Who's to say I did something wrong? Please point me out the section in the Bank of America checking account agreement that says what I can and cannot deposit at an ATM.

Also, fyi, I know that most banks do not accept foreign coins of any kind. For that matter, no ATM accepts coins for a deposit either (at least that I know of). Putting coins (American or not) into an ATM just sounds stupid. It's not too unreasonable to think that putting a bill into the machine (as I did) would be fine.

I'll admit it probably wasn't the wisest idea, but like you said - it's an out-of-the-box thing. I had pounds, I know B of A accepts pounds for deposit, why can they not accept a bill through the ATM? I'll be sure to update as to what happens

brosnan6

Indeed they are, at least with Bank of America (I have family that used to work there). That was my rationale behind doing this

KNRG

The fatal flaw in your logic is that the ATM only accepts currency in American dollars, as noted by your inability to type in the amount of the deposit.

IMStill4Travel

Why didn't you just hold onto the bills and cash them out upon your return? Or, assuming you're traveling domestically, deposit them at your destination. BOFA has branches in most states. You can use LaSalle as well.

Aldoman

Mmm... when you go to the bank to deposit pounds, isn't it that before you deposit, unless your account is in GBP, they buy dollars with your pounds and then deposit that? if you don't have an account in pounds you're requesting a service that it's not available.

What I believe everyone is saying is that they more likely than not will scr*w you anyway they can, not that what you bona fide tried to do was wrong; therefore every transaction they may do with their banks they do it with that in mind.

If BoA does its deposits manually, then maybe, maybe, the guy processing it is in a good mood to buy the dollars for you and change the deposit accordingly. If he applies SOP, then he most likely will do what I said before, reverse the deposit, charge you a weird fee and call you to pick up the envelope.

soitgoes

Well, they're manual in a sense. ATM deposits are opened by two employees who verify that the envelope contains what it was said to contain and then the checks/cash are deposited by the ATM-owning bank (which may be different than the depositor bank).

If there is a discrepancy between the ATM deposit entry and the envelope contents, that then has to be corrected.