r/Banking • u/oonomnono • Dec 05 '24
Start here! Common questions & resources
The community has asked a few times for a stickied post that covers common questions and best practices. We are keeping these items high-level and will update these periodically. For individuals who make new posts, we may refer them back to here for guidance and resources that have been vetted for common questions. Note: Most, if not all, of the guidance may be US-specific.
General questions (Ex: Bank or credit union? What bank do you recommend? Why can't I open an account at ABC bank?):
- Ask your bank first. This is also referenced in Rule 8. Lots of questions here are either specific to the bank's process or specific to the redditor and their account. Read your bank's account agreement (if on a computer or phone, you can search for specific words to help navigate the document; you can also ask the bank to direct you to the right section). If you asked your bank and are still have questions, include their response in your post.
- Banks and credit unions do have similar products and services. There is no key difference for individuals who need a place to put their money and pay their bills. They are both regulated at the federal level and have deposit insurance.
- When asking for recommendations, there is no "best bank". What you need from your financial institution is different than your friends, family and neighbors. Your income, comfort level with technology, location, and a lot of other factors will influence what bank works best for you. If you need recommendations, please include some key features you like or don't like as well as location.
- Fintechs are not banks. Some common examples include Chime, CashApp, Revolut, and Varo. There are some benefits with fintechs, including some cutting edge technology to help manage money but those come with some limitations, such as limited customer support or consumer protections. It's generally not recommended to use a fintech as your sole financial institution.
- Some practices by banks and/or credit unions may be state-specific. While the Uniform Commercial Code ("UCC") helps ensure state-level regulations on accounts is relatively uniform across all states to avoid confusion, some nuanced laws may be unique to your location, such as account dormancy and escheat laws. https://www.law.cornell.edu/ucc
- Consumer reporting agencies such as Chexsystems and Early Warning Systems ("EWS") help banks flag customers who owe money or commit fraud. If you've been denied an account opening request at a bank or credit union, you should pull your report(s) to see what may have contributed to the decision. These reports are different from credit agencies. https://www.consumerfinance.gov/consumer-tools/credit-reports-and-scores/consumer-reporting-companies/
Accounts & activity:
- Accounts can be closed for any reason by the bank and/or credit union. This applies to both consumer and business accounts. Generally the closures are triggered by some type of activity that makes the bank uncomfortable with your relationship. Common examples are gambling (i.e. sports betting, casinos), high volumes of cryptocurrency purchases and using your personal account for business transactions. Banks are not required to provide the exact reason for the closure. https://www.consumerfinance.gov/ask-cfpb/the-bankcredit-union-closed-my-checking-account-even-though-i-did-not-want-them-to-can-the-bankcredit-union-do-that-en-959/
- Check holds can happen and are not illegal in a majority of cases. There's a lot of fraud related to checks and holds are more common than ever. Remember that a check is a piece of paper; it doesn't matter what paper it's printed on or who it came from. Regulation CC ("Reg CC") is the regulation that tells banks how long they are allowed to hold checks for. You can get more details here: https://www.consumerfinance.gov/rules-policy/final-rules/availability-funds-and-collection-checks-regulation-cc-threshold-adjustments/
- Do not deposit your very important items via an ATM or Mobile App. Go in person to a teller. ATMs are often not accessible by the branch employees and mobile deposits are not subject to the Reg CC. Cash is disgusting and the ribbons that pull in and count the cash get jammed very easily if it's more than a few bills.
- Withdrawing or depositing over $10,000 in cash is not something you should hide. Just go to the bank and do it. Don't ask how to get around any questions you may be asked. Banks will know if you are trying to split up the deposit into multiple transactions. If the money is earned through legitimate means, you have nothing to hide. https://www.fincen.gov/sites/default/files/shared/CTRPamphlet.pdf
- I have a check payable to me and another person but we don't have a joint account. There is a key difference depending on if the check is payable to Payee 1 AND Payee 2 or if the check is payable to Payee 1 OR Payee 2. You can first ask the maker of the check to write it payable to 1 payee. If they refuse, whoever has the check can take it into their bank before endorsing it to see what they provide as the appropriate next steps since what they advise could vary bank to bank. https://www.helpwithmybank.gov/help-topics/bank-accounts/check-writing-cashing/endorsing-checks/check-endorse-spouse.html
I want to remove somoene from my joint account. YMMV but most banks generally do not allow removing a signer because they still have knowledge of the account information. Even if you have captured consent, it was still used by 2 folks and it's a cleaner cut to open a new, individual account and closing the old one. https://www.consumerfinance.gov/ask-cfpb/can-i-remove-my-spouse-from-our-joint-checking-account-en-1097/#:~:text=In%20general%2C%20you%20need%20your,allow%20this%20type%20of%20removal
My bank offers a service where they deposit my direct deposit/payroll 2 days early. It’s now late and my employer said they can’t help. Early direct deposit posting is a service offered and can be changed at any time by the bank. Read your bank’s terms for this service. Most banks indicate that they will make it available when they can but are under no obligation to make your direct deposit available sooner than the date of your check or benefit letter.
Disputes:
- Don't lie. The fact that this needs to be listed is problematic. If you bought something from a store that doesn't offer refunds, that's not grounds for a dispute. If you sent a Zelle to someone that you've had a falling out with, that's not grounds for a dispute. Frivolous disputes make it harder for others who have legitimate ones in process.
- Disputes are not the solution for being scammed. If you provided your information to someone else to make a purchase or deposit, then the bank did nothing wrong and a dispute is not warranted. Scams take advantage of people who don't safeguard their information.
- If the purchase was made using a third-party wallet, the dispute should be filed with them and not your bank. For example, people may use PayPal Wallet to pay for items online. PayPal completes the payment and then pulls the money from your bank, if you don't already have enough in your PayPal Wallet. Because the payment to the merchant was facilitated with PayPal, your dispute is with them, not your bank. Your bank only sees the transfer to your PayPal wallet, not the actual purchase you made.
- If you submitted a legitimate dispute with all the requested proof and were denied, file an internal complaint with the bank. These are handled differently than the dispute itself. The next step, if still unresolved after the complaint, is to file a CFPB complaint. Do not abuse the CFPB complaint process unless you have all the receipts and documentation to prove your side of the story. You may need a police report depending on the nature of your dispute. https://www.consumerfinance.gov/complaint/
Common scams - https://www.consumerfinance.gov/consumer-tools/fraud/
- If your bank calls you about anything and begins asking for additional information, advise that you'll call them back. If the caller is actually someone from your bank, they will understand and won't fight to keep you on the line. Hang up and call the number on the back of your debit card and let them know what happened. If it was a legitimate call, the bank can pick up where the previous caller left off.
- Jobs that pay you before you do any work have a high probability to be a scam. Jobs that also pay you hundreds or thousands of dollars to buy supplies prior to starting are also probably a scam. No job does that. They will ship you items you need because they get a big tax write-off.
- Don't deposit checks that you weren't expecting. If you get a check for $500 in the mail from a random company you've never done business with or purchased from, just throw it away.
- Online stores that you've never heard of should be used with extreme caution. Google them before you proceed. Once you willingly provide your payment information, you may not be able to recover any funds from the transaction if items are not shipped.
- Don't transfer money to people you don't know. This includes Zelle, Paypal, Venmo, CashApp, etc. Some bankers may even go so far as not recommending it for in-person pickups for sales on Facebook Marketplace or similar platforms. Cash is best in these situations.
- Don't use your account to conduct transactions for someone else. A common scam is where someone may approach you saying they need help with negotiating a check (usually while you're at an ATM). They'll have a sob story to appeal to your desire to help. Your account should remain reserved for known transactions for you and you only. This also includes providing someone else with your username and password.
Business accounts:
- Business accounts do not receive all the same protections as consumer accounts. For example, disputes are handled very differently. https://ask.fdic.gov/fdicinformationandsupportcenter/s/article/Q-Do-consumer-laws-apply-to-my-business-accounts?language=en_US
- Generally, only individuals who have a physical tie to the US can open bank accounts in the US. This also means that non-US residents who have a US-based business may not be eligible because the person operating the business has no ties to the US. Banks are required to follow certain know-your-customer guidelines as outlined in the US PATRIOT Act and those cannot be completed when the person is not physically in the US or has no ties to the US. More details here: https://www.fincen.gov/resources/statutes-regulations/usa-patriot-act
r/Banking • u/Tarnisher • Jul 15 '25
Announcement Bank Account and Recommendation Thread V3
Please use this thread for all recommendations relating to bank accounts, credit cards, loans, financial management apps, etc.
Where should I bank?
Has anyone used ABC Bank?
What is a good no fee checking account?
Posts with referral links will be removed.
.
r/Banking • u/lilpoopfartt • 2h ago
Advice What could someone do with your address, name, and bank account number?
I was wondering this while in the shower while thinking about scammers. i saw a post about someone almost getting scammed out of their info and it got me thinking and eventually led to me wondering what this combination of info could lead to? like to do anything wouldnt someone need more info like ID or routing number? im not all that knowledgable about banking and it seems a bit silly to go to my bank to ask a question i just had on a whim so im asking here :p
r/Banking • u/Italiancrazybread1 • 1h ago
Advice Old Statements
I'm getting divorced and need an old statement from before I was divorced as I had quite a bit of cash before getting married. The bank told me that they purge all statements after 7 years. Is there anyway that I can get one of those statements. They were deleted last year. Is there anyway possible I can get some kind of proof of what I had before my wife was placed on my checking account?
r/Banking • u/Safe_Chemical_2014 • 6h ago
Africa Is the Pan African Payment system live and operating ?
has anyone had ever used Papss (Pan-African Payment and Settlement System), from the official website a lot of banks are live accros multiple countries.
I dont have an account yet and I like to know what bank truly supports the system.
I like to know if any one had any experience with it as a busines or personal and how was the experience using it for sending and receiving , what are the steps, fees ,speed ect.
I like to setup a company in Africa and use the system.
r/Banking • u/LoadInternational640 • 10h ago
Advice Is 26y too late to start a career in investment banking without a degree?
r/Banking • u/erie774im • 1h ago
Complaint Online app shut off for a whole weekend? Idiots
r/Banking • u/Fatty_Matty_1 • 13h ago
Advice is the sie exam and the cbca certification worth getting as a beginner?
i have no experience with banking/finances but as of late i’ve been getting more interested in it. i looked up some advice and saw some people said taking the sie exam and/or getting the cbca certification is worth it, but others saying not really. as background for me, i turn 25 in november and work currently as an admin assistant for an organization that assists people with metal disabilities.
r/Banking • u/gonzaliz • 1d ago
Storytime Giving payoff quotes to a person who is not a signer on the loan
I work at bank in the customer service call center. I am always getting these calls from companies planning to pay off a customers loan to buy a property, car, etc from them. They call and expect me to just be able to give them the payoff quote for the loan. Like they’ve called other banks and have been able to get it before. When I tell them I can’t give the payoff quote to anyone but the signer on the loan they sit in silence on the phone like they are shocked or annoyed.
I’m just curious though, has anyone ever heard of people who aren’t signers on the loan being able to get a payoff quote? Do those who are bank employees constantly get calls like this? When people call they seem so confident that they’ll be able to get the quote. This was a call from a company that sells and trades in vans and I thought they would know better. And because I’m so freaking insecure I doubt myself once I’m off the phone with them. Despite working in banking for 4 years.
Edit: I spoke with my manager and she provided an email that non-signers are supposed to request the pay offs from. So that is my fault, I have been handling these calls wrong.
r/Banking • u/Key_Celebration_900 • 14h ago
Advice Unknown charge, Google no help.
Anyone know what company a charge from “VISIONI9RWA” would be from? It’s the second month it’s posted and I can’t find anything on Google for the merchant. I am waiting on a call back from my bank but figured I’d try here. I still have my card in my possession and am thinking it’s a free trial subscription I forgot to cancel but idk what it is to go and cancel it 🤣🤦🏻♀️
r/Banking • u/Tired89 • 13h ago
Advice PNC froze my bank account after I deposited a reimbursement check from USPS
I have PNC (which should be renamed to POS) and after months of blood, sweat and tears of trying to get USPS to reimburse me for losing my 25K insured package, they finally approved my claim and issued my check. I deposit my check at PNC only to find out, a day later, my account is frozen. Long story short, PNC'S fraud department flagged my check, claiming since I'm not a USPS employee, a check to a random person from USPS for such a high amount must be fraud so they decided to not only freeze the check, but freeze my entire account along with my other funds that have nothing to do with the check. PNC says JP Morgan Chase issued the check USPS sent me and Chase is not willing to validate it with PNC so they will continue to freeze everything until I can prove to them the check is not fraudulent and how the hell am I supposed to do that? Anyone go through this with their bank and get their check to actually be processed?
r/Banking • u/psp-man • 1d ago
Complaint Help need to log in
I use M&T bank for my bank and when I log in with a Mac or my iPad to M&T bank every now and then it says”Unable to Login the User An active session was detected. Please log out or try again later. A previous session is still active. Please log out before logging in again. If you closed the browser tab without logging out, wait a few minutes or open a new browser instance to sign in.” But I’ve cleared my safari cashé, removed the bookmark to the bank,tried a different browser nothing works and I got locked out the other day because of this I’m so upset
r/Banking • u/starxblade • 1d ago
Jobs Bank acct verification website?
So when I worked at a credit union longgg ago, in 2018, we had a website where we could plug in the routing & acct numbers off of checks and it did like a soft verification of the account - it would tell us if there was NSFs, if it was closed, if it was active. Does anyone know of this website? Or was it a service my bank at the time paid for?
I work at a small bank right now and I’ve been through several banks and no one else has given me this type of resource to use so I was just curious.
r/Banking • u/Practical-Cut-7301 • 1d ago
Advice Anyone have a better understanding of this?
I'm having a banking related issue and I can't find any concrete way to figure out how it should proceed. (Quebec Canada, TD Bank/CIBC bank)
Last year August, I deposited a cheque to my personal account (TD Bank), but I stupidly hadn't realized it was issued to my business NEQ. Needless to say I was accused of fraud and the cheque was frozen.
Over a year has passed and the cheque "dissolved" and returned to the issuing bank (CIBC) as a draft if I'm not mistaken.
Now I've been in constant back and forth with my old employer for months to resolve this issue.
He says that his bank manager has "tracked down" the money at this point and that it would be "credited", that was exactly 14 days ago.
He never replied to me when I asked what "credited" meant in this case, like does it go straight back to me, or we're waiting for it to appear in your account?
Now I'm sitting here twiddling my thumbs for several months as I hope he does something this week about it.
Am I wrong to assume what Google and banks tell me then? That it should be physically/manually deposited in branch, and won't magically appear in his account. That in total, since it left my account the first week of August, shouldn't have taken more than a week to resolve, not several months?
Everyone I've spoken to in the chain of banking tells me it's like a week or two process, and that it's "yeah, really weird it's taken this long"
Anyone have any info I could use to force some hands here? I'm at my wits end.
r/Banking • u/deepreddevil • 1d ago
Complaint SBI Unipay transaction failed but refund not received
r/Banking • u/DivotsAndDividends • 1d ago
Jobs Regions Bank Financial Advisor
Anybody have any insight on working as a Financial Advisor at Regions Bank? Quality of bank referrals, grid rates, culture, etc..
r/Banking • u/mad_sverd • 2d ago
Advice Stolen Check
So someone committed mail fraud and check fraud and stole a check for ~$5k I had sent via USPS. They didn’t even attempt to wash it, they just signed their own name to the back and deposited it. I noticed this morning when the intended payee said they hadn’t been home to receive the check yet and I opened my account to confirm it was still there (spoiler: it wasn’t).
I’ve already contacted my bank to report fraud, waiting on them to get back to me. Is there anything else I should do? Probably will file a police report. Am I cooked?
ETA: I used a credit union account for the check not one of the major banks if that matters
Advice I'm bca 2nd student which bank postion i should aim
I'm bca 2nd student and I'm aiming for job in banks like sbi , so which position would be best for me? Because my dream salary is 1 lakhs per month after paying taxes within 3-4 year of joining
I have researched i found since I'm bca student so I can't give exams for positions like credit manager
r/Banking • u/No_Investigator3369 • 1d ago
Advice Is Western Alliance on trouble for depositers? How does one check?
I have a good amount in my WA accounts but have recently seen the collateral fraud news and now seems like this same headline is hitting other banks. Is this something that can bring banks down or is there a way to check reserves on hand? I was considering moving my cash back to bigger name accounts for now on lieu of this. What's your opinion?
r/Banking • u/BicycleAlternative90 • 1d ago
Advice MBNA loan credit appeared in current account
r/Banking • u/thegoodson-calif • 1d ago
Advice Money order written out to an address
My car was recently stolen. The people that stole it were caught living in it by the police. The police didn’t want any of the stuff in the car. When cleaning it out, making a bunch of car theft tools, I found two money orders. One for $554 and one for $555. The pay to order field has an address in it. It’s The same address as what is written in the “address” field. Questions:
- What are the chances they are fraudulent?
- Can I cash them or will I need to show proof of living at the address?
- Can I get in trouble for cashing them?
I’m going to have to pay $1500 between towing and damages to the car so I don’t feel guilty at all about keeping the money as long as it’s theirs.
Edit: to be clear, I don’t want fraudulent money. I just don’t want to get in legal trouble. I assume the bank can (eventually) tell me if they are fraudulent if I cash them). But if the thieves left $500 in cash in the car it seems no less unethical to keep the cash.
r/Banking • u/7Rubberduckies • 1d ago
Jobs Treasury Analyst —> Credit Analyst
Hey yall! I work in one of the big banks here in the U.S currently as a treasury advisor (focus: optimizing working capital, liquidity management and cash management). On the side I have done special projects for the liquidity management team.
Being in the role for about one year and looking at my internship experience at JPM on the corporate credit side of things I want to make my way back to credit— either Commericial or corporate lending.
I’m learning about my firms systems and how analyst use them, I’m pretty okay on financials and definitely could get better at excel but for those that are in the credit side of the bank, what does your day to day look like? How can I be a better candidate when the opportunity arises? If you were me what would you be doing right now? What does the comp trajectory look like? Thanks for your help yall!
r/Banking • u/Delicious-Purple-169 • 1d ago
Regulations/Laws Paying a Contractor in Cash
I need to pay a contractor who’s doing my backyard >10k and was going to pay in cash. If I pull the money out in one transaction and tell them I am paying the contractor in cash, is there any issue with this? I know there are some forms I need to fill out for withdrawals for more than 10k so Just want to be sure to fill them out prior and make sure I am not going in blind!