Fed Banks charge for rolled coinage?

The libertarian theory is exciting to some, but for most, we realize that an "unfettered" market is the same as a back alley, with all the bad as well as good associated with it. Enron, savings and loan wildness, Worldcom, Bear Stearns, bad mortgage lending all show this most vividly. "Risk-takers" profited at everyone's expense--pity the taxpayer!

 

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It cost banks money to handle coins but they must because of business customers that need them for their customers.

I don't blame a bank for not selling to non customers.

 

Either way you word it, say you were going there to buy a box of pennies for $25 dollars, she simply told you that it would cost you $30 dollars. Welcome to making a profit.

 

We own it!

Dude, did you say "credit union"? As a credit union member, you do understand the difference between a bank and a credit union?

Credit unions are severely limited in the investments they can make. They earn lower profits. (They also pay less. But to overcome that they tend to go for technology. CUs were the first to have dial-up touchtone banking back in the 1980s. They also established networks of ATMs across CUs.) Credit Unions tend to do a lower volume of business. The largest CU is about the same size as the smallest bank. At least, it was so when I wrote several articles for Credit Union News.

As a credit union member, you get to vote for the Board of Directors. Where do you imagine you would be in life before you got to choose the directors of Wells-Fargo?

The sheer volumes of business allow banks to keep rolls of coins in their vaults because they cycle them in an out and the cost of shipping can be spread out across transactions. A credit uniion's lower volume means that coins in the vault are money laying around and not working.

As a CU member, you can run for the Board. You can certainly go to Board meetings and bring a proposal. Put it writing. You know, the CU might have other numismatists. Also, for my own credit union -- members since 1984 -- when I want something like rolls of halves, I usually pay up front, they take the money from my account and a week or so later, I can pick up the coins.

 

Gee, Wally, a guy could get yelled at.

1. What I wrote could be said on 50s TV. What you wrote could not.

2. I do not post on Collectors Universe.

3. Your claim that other collectors have mortgages, etc., is a logical falllacy. You cannot show a causal link between those "other people" and the person before you.

4. The relationship between the Federal Reserve and the banking system should be well known to any numismatist. Also clear should be the differences among production, wholesale and retail, in finance as well as manufacturing.

 

Short of coins

Sounds like you have an Inventory/Ordering problem. Did your bank ever analyze why you don't have enough coins for your regular customers. With the mint pumping out billions of coins it just doesn't track that any bank would be short coins.

 

One of the reasons, banks are out of control today!

 

Well, I guess I am the one who is feeling like the little guy in all this and from some perspectives Im at fault apparently. I will just bite the bullet I guess and open an account since the average American is no longer entitled to buy rolled coin at face value... just another freedom lost I guess. We become more of an I, me, me nation everyday. I welcome a change to socialism so we can at least level the playing field a bit.

In all seriousness I cant believe that most here dont see a problem with banks refusing to sell products to people who arent "members". Like being a member of a bank has some sort of big privilege or gives one status. It doesnt give you squat.

 

But they will sell you rolls at face.
If you make friends with the one that controls the coin orders it can be really cool.

 

Banks loose money on people who just buy coins (due to costs of counting, rolling, and transportation) and do not have an account. However, when you become a member and open an account, the bank can recoop their cost and make it worth their while...

 

1. I was being nice actually

2. if you really believe banks "NEED" to charge people $$$ to sell them rolled coinage to stay afloat your either not associated with what banks do or are considered to be for or just don't realize all the money banks can make and usually do make with the exception of the banks that gave out $300,000 home loans to people with minimum wage jobs. (disclaimer) this is an example and as such should not be taken as the whole meaing of what is implied I'm sure anyone that reads this can get the example and be able to add to this example as to what banks make big bucks on and lose big bucks on and all are based on solid information or lack there of.

3. what exactly was it I said that would not be on a 50's tv show? crap? if you were offended by me saying that I'm sorry.

4. how many people do you actually believe make loans with banks?
I think it's alot more then you seem to think thinking banks actually need to charge fees for rolled coinage

5.

6. play nice and stop preaching as if you know all I'm sure you're smart but being smart and trying every angle to show it are 2 different things and the latter usually gets flamed.

7. have a nice day

8.

 

Wells Fargo is a big bank. I wouldn’t be surprised if they get in total from all their branches several hundred or more request a day from non-account holders for boxes of rolled coinage. If they didn’t charge the $5.00 fee no telling how many requests they would receive a day. I view the fee as reasonable.

 

I have found there is a little thing called schmoozing with the tellers, getting in good with them, bringing them goodies for finds etc that they hold for you. When I got back from E. Europe and had to get rid of my remaining $100's one of my tellers said she had been saving money the while I was gone - a Series 1934 $100, some 1950's era star notes etc. They also let me know when they get cent boxes and Ike dollars, $2 bills.

It cannot be all about you, we have members on the forum here that are or have been bank tellers and can share their stories surely. You have to be good to them, they will deliver the goodies

 

As already mentioned all banks are in buisness and the purpose of that buisness is to make a profit monitarily. They need the profit to pay employees, thier benifits, up keep of the property, property taxes, gas bills, electric bills, phone bills, water bills and on and on and on.
When someone just wants to play give me coins and here is your coins back, the bank looses money. Employees take out time to get those and return the same ones over and over and over. There is no profit for the bank that used to do this and more and more are refusing to play that game.
Stop and think if you were in buisness to make shoes and people keep coming in for a few shoe nails or glue and not want to pay for that. You wouldn't like that would you. Yet to bother a bank for coins is different, right?
The Bank of America by me has instituted a new policy. No bulk coins for customers without a buisness type of account and even then, there is now a charge. Most of them no longer have coin counting machines. They must be sent out for counting thanks to the idiots that play the short roll game. One coin missing from each roll. Now to send the coins out for counting there is a charge for the customer.
Such policies will be slowly instituted everywhere thanks to those playing the take out and put in large quantities of coins for fun and hobby.

 

Sure it does.

Look the ideal situation for a bank is to have a small cushion of coin on hand (dead or unproductive assets) and have just as much coin come in every week as they need to pay out to their customers (typically businesses) every week. But this ideal seldom occurs. Some banks are coin sinks taking in more coin week in week out than they need for their customers. Rather than have this dead asset on hand and constantly growing they ship it back to the Fed. They have to PAY to do this. Some banks are coin sources and constantly pay out to their customers week in and week out more coin than they take in. This means that they have to order and have shipped in more coin from the Fed every week. Once again they have to PAY for this as well.

Now the banks will try and balance those the best they can based on prior needs compared to what was needed in the past so as to keep the coin shipments and expense as low as possible. But when a roll searcher starts coming in and buying up boxes of coin it throws their calculations and estimates off, can wipe out their cushion and may mean that they have to tell their big money customers that they can't supply them with what they want. The banks TRY to keep the amount of surplus coin on hand low and they can't allow for the roll searchers.

So who do you turn down and probably annoy, The roll searcher with no account at the bank, or the big business with multi-millions of dollars in accounts in your bank?

And we can't see why you have a problem paying a fee to a bank for a product that costs them more than face value to get when they have no chance of recovering it from you any other way. (Not to mention that if you bring it back later after searching it they may have to PAY again to get rid of it.)

The problem comes from people who think that the banks are there to exchange money and make change. That is not what banks do! Banks are there to make money by making loans. Of course they have to have the money to be able to loan it, so they offer safekeeping and a little interest plus some convenience to their account holders in order to get them to make deposits. That gives them the money to loan out and the interest charged provide funds to pay overhead, salaries, interest on deposits, and show a profit. The exchange of currency or making change is merely a service they provide for their customers and one they don't make any money on. If they could stop doing it they would.

 

What a great Idea, I love it. What could they do, can't Make you buy them. Awesome Idea, Again!!!

 

I completely understand where you and the others are coming from, but I dont think people are seeing the big picture here. If Bank of America has stopped selling rolled coin to regular customers and will only sell to business customers then what about all those folks who are having yardsales lets say, what are they suppose to do if all banks start doing this? I think its a terribly bad idea to start going down the road of not allowing people to buy rolled coin unless they have a business bank account. Can no one understand this point? What are people going to do when that happens across the board at all banks? I sure as heck wont be paying for rolled coin from the Mint at a premium. Around here we cant even go to a coin star machine to get change, they only take in change and dont sell from the machine. I guess the solution will have to be something like coin ATM's if banks stop selling coins.
Also if a bank is in such bad shape that they need to charge for rolled coin I dont know if I'd want to bank there. Banks are suppose to make their money off loans, safety deposit boxes, bill pay services, and things of this nature. Yeah Brinks will charge to have coin delivered and picked up but they are minimal... so we might as well not beat a dead horse here... we have people on both sides of the argument and we are all pretty firm in our beliefs on this.

 

how much do banks get charged anyways for rolled and boxes coins from armor truck companies ?? is this the same for all types of coins ??

 

Is it not the "I, me, me" in us that fools us into thinking this was an entiltement to begin with? Oh, the irony of it all

 

Well I for one, have given up on participating in the Banking system and Big Banks in particular. One bank will refuse to take rolled coin from anyone except an account holder, another will refuse to sell you rolled coin for the same reason. My final frustration came with my last EBAY Sale, PAYPAL Transfer of FUNDS and Availability of those funds by my Bank. To put it this way, if you buy something on EBAY and use PAYPAL, your funds are immediately withdrawn from your Bank account, usually within minutes or hours of processing. It seems our banks have the technology to electronically complete that transaction with great speed. On the other hand, making a deposit from PayPal to your Bank account, can and does take DAYS. Their excuse is (your bank & Paypal), it's in transfer mode" . NO, thats not the case. Both PAYPAL, the FED and your Bank are all making a shared amount of interest on those monies, and your paying them a (PayPal) a transaction fee for the luxuary of doing that. Hold my money from me and charge me for doing so , Whats wrong with this picture? The only way Banks loose money, is in their poor investment section, and than again, the account holders pay a price for their misbehavior and poor judgement with higher fees and more limited fee free services. It's getting real close to the point where the pockets they continue to pick, will simply , like me pull completely out of normal Day to Day banking participation. They won't be able to afford it. Sorry for rambling on here, it's just been a horrible week so far .