Yesterday, some folks came over from the adjoining state to look at a Grand Cherokee we had for sale. Before they came over, we discussed the sales process, what they needed to bring and made sure that they knew that we only take cash. There was a branch of the bank that they do business with here in town, they had more than enough funds to cover it, so they came over.

They liked the vehicle and we were set to do business, UNTIL they went to the branch of their bank to cash a check for $6,500. Cashing the check would not have been a problem except that the bank had ran out of cash. That's right, the bank had ran out of cash. There had been so many people running in there to pull the cash out of their government handout, that the bank did not have that much cash. And neither did any of their nearby branches.

When was the last time you heard of a bank running out of cash? The folks had the money, but their bank couldn't give it to them. What a system.

To be expected.. people are short on food and other supplies and they wanted cash ASAP

That's the problem with credit banking. I'd bet this happens more often, but limited to a single branch.

I thank GOD we've not been adversely affected by this whole "process". Still working part-time, wife is working from home. We'll be OK.

Now, are you holding the Cherokee for them?

The local Credit Union I deal with had a different problem because of the stimulus checks, their system got overwhelmed by so many direct deposits hitting at once that it crashed their system HARD. No transactions at all could be done for the better part of a day. Not sure how this affected auto payments, ATM's etc, etc. but the local branch had to close until they sorted it out.

In an email that went out to customers, they said they normally handle about 5000 tax refund direct deposits from the government in a 'season'. When 9000 stimulus checks hit in ONE day, it flat-out overwhelmed the system.

I'm not one to carry cash except maybe a dollar or two, but have been carrying a little extra since this incident.

So what would have been wrong with a cashiers check?

In my small town, one bank has no more than 20K in cash; another one I have accounts at carries about double that.
Found that out when I needed to raid accounts to cash-buy a car.
The smaller bank asked me to give them a couple days' notice next time so they'd have cash delivered.
Probably since most transactions are electronic, checks, or bank drafts, they don't need to have cash on hand.
I think cash on hand is also static, as opposed to earning money for the bank.

Wait till the paper checks hit the mailboxes.....there WILL be a cash shortage,

A lot of people don’t understand banking. A direct deposit to your account doesnt move any cash anywhere....it’s just numbers on computer. Those numbers then get transferred around—debits, credits, loans.

However...a person walking out of a bank with a wad DOES move cash, and that cash doesn’t exist in amounts to cover it if everybody did it. These checks hitting the populace are going to aggravate the cash system.

“it’s a wonderful life” tried to teach people something about banking...but so few got it.

What does an angel getting his wings have to do with banking?

That many people to cause a cash run on the banks, only days after the start of the IRS direct deposits, IMO is a pretty bad omen to state of the financial affairs of the US populace, unless you live in a severely overextended or depressed area, during the greatest economic boom of all time.

We are not holding the GC for them, they didn't want to leave a deposit. It is 50/50 whether we will see them again. They very much wanted the vehicle, but it was unclear when they could make the drive again and if they want to. They did not want to travel with that much cash and didn't want to go to the trouble of getting a cashier's check in case they didn't want the thing or negotiated a different price. Everybody has their own way of doing things and it seems to me that a lot of people don't really know how to conduct business, especially out of town and when it comes to larger than daily outlays of cash.

We have ran into people not being able to get at their money evenings and weekends and the like, but this is the first time that we have ran into the bank not having the money.

Probably like a lot of you, I have bought the majority of my Mopars on weekends and for cash. Often, out of state. So, I got used to keeping cash around. But especially the last few years with interest rates so low, we only keep enough money in the bank to conduct certain business. The rest is kept handy in cash. Of course, everything has certain risks, but it is crazy that a person can only get their money between 9 and 3 Monday through Friday. That is, IF the bank even has the cash to give.

This whole weird economic situation we are in WILL be used to move us yet another step toward a cashless system.

You can bank on it!!! You will also hear many people talking even more about emergency cash and liquid assets in the event of SHTF. More preppers than ever in that regard.

Cash, silver, gold, ammo, They all have their place. Banks are too easy to shut down, this event should teach us that! Imagine the panic if banks were shut down. Months ago many would have said “it’ll never happen”. I think far fewer would say that today.

Now, I am suspicious to whole premise, basically "all the banks were out of cash".

Were you at any point able to verify this yourself directly from the bank?

If not, sounds more like to me the buyers account was the only one "out of cash".

If the S truly hit the fan, and ammo really became a necessity, would money of any kind, even gold, have any real value? I can't think that anything you couldn't eat, drink, wear, or burn would be worth much.

It's like if that mountain-sized asteroid were coming in. Would you rather be right under it and have all your problems be solved, or would you rather be on the other side of the planet and try to live through the anarchy?

Cash, silver, gold, will only have value if we collectively agree it has value....the same as right now. Your asteroid example is a good one, so is the Titanic. Yes there are scenarios were it would be worthless, but that is unlikely, and would be an evolution...... it would likely take time before it would be worthless.

I don’t think that would happen immediately by any means. But the first value to disappear would be numbers in a bank account accessible via computer. Next paper money value.

All these checks hitting the mail and requiring people to walk into their bank (and then faced with the simple decision to deposit OR walk out with cash) is going to be very interesting.

The other lesson was that old men in nightgowns is just wrong.

Zuzu likes this.

hmmmmmmmm: 1929

It has happened in Florida when a hurricane is coming. People worried that they won't be able to access their money when the power is out or won't be able to use their cards.

It's not a shock that a major chain type of bank didn't have enough cash on hand.

At one time I was banking with US Bank a fairly large chain style bank with locations all over the United Sates.
I wanted to pull out $10k to take to the Mopar Nationals to buy stuff.
US Bank said they didn't have that much cash on hand all the time and that I needed to contact them in advance to take out that large of a sum of cash. We had to go to multiple locations to pull out $10k on a Wednesday.

Ive had it happen to me on several occasions over the last 25 years or so.
1st time I wanted 25k , all cash. Was traveling to upstate NY to look at a car. My bank branch didnt have it.'
asked me to come back next day and all would be good

Last time was about 3 or 4 years ago. I went in to get $5k. , again didnt have that much cash on hand. ( different bank chain entirely this time versus 1st time )

I once asked a family member whom is a vice president of a bank chain.
He told me once the amount of actual cash on hand depends A LOT on the branch itself

If it were me and the buyer was in front of me,,,, standing in a bank I would have asked to do a wire transfer and sold the car.

Here’s a banking analogy of sorts. Think of a bank like an electrical panel, say 200 amps, You stuff the panel with breakers that add up to a lot more than 200 amps.

If all the circuits start sucking electricity (cash) near their individual limits the main 200 amp breaker pops and the bank closes its doors. We all know that RARELY happens to an electrical panel. It takes a real special set of circumstances for enough breakers to all be sucking that much juice.

Like many millions of $1200 checks walking into the bank at once.

Standing in a bank?!?!?!? Where you been lately?

I bought a Jeep last summer for $17k, as is often the case the transaction was rushed due to other people responding to the seller that they would buy it full price sight unseen and they were on their way from 100 miles away.

I was worried BOA wouldn’t hand me over the $17,000 in cash, but they did, no questions asked.

That doesn’t mean getting cash from a bank will be easy when these checks hit the mailboxes though. There WILL be a huge bank run on cash.

US Bank. What a coincidence. Guess what outfit these folks banked with.

It could be that they didn't have the money. But they were an older couple, driving a nearly new car, had driven 2 hours and it was for the wife who clearly was disappointed. So, lack of funds is always a possibility, but I doubt it in this case.

More than one simple solution to that problem. The 2 parties could have met at the buyers bank and closed the transaction via bank draft or wire transfer.

Kevin

I had to schedule a cash withdrawal from my bank when I bought my Duster a year ago. I always call ahead to verify they will have cash on hand before I go in when making a large withdrawal.

There's a problem with THOSE getting counterfeited & has been for several years now. Guy in my golf league sold a car to a guy from Chicago. He sent two guys out with a CC for $19,000. They all met at his bank in MI. where the car loan was issued, bank looked at the CC, said it was good, & he signed the title over - bank released the lien, etc. Away they went with the car. Two days later, his bank calls him & tells him the CC was a fake, & he still owed the $$ to the bank. True story.

He got real lucky however, police found the car in WI with it's new owners who paid $9900.00 cash for a $20k car. Hmmm - $9900.00 cash. No IRS form required.

If he was there with the buyer and they got the cashiers check it wouldn't have come back bad.

I dealt with a cashier check one time many years ago and never will again. I went from the Pittsburgh area well into Michigan to look at my 1991 dodge Daytona chassis car that was listed for 17000.00. I got a cashiers check for around 12,500.00 and took the rest in cash. Well I liked the car, settled on a price, and went to the bank to seal the deal. Now I paid like 10.00 for the cashier check and the bank said it was good but wanted to put a five day hold on it. Well guess what? The seller as would I wanted money now, not five days from now. Well I had two choices with one being to drive home (300 plus miles) and come back, or pay 2.5-3 percent cash advance on a credit card. So I was screwed out of 300.00 to make the deal. Lesson learned.

Why not just do a wire transfer?

I've had wire transfers take 2 days.
PayPal works and only requires both to have an Email account. Yes the receiver must pay 2% but that can be figured in the selling price with the buyer.

Fellas, the bank lobbies are CLOSED for anything other than an appointment. Most everything must be done at the drive-thru or ATM. And I would only take anything other than cash if it has passed through our bank and we have cash in hand BEFORE the vehicle leaves. PERIOD!

Even with cash, we use the pen to verify that it is the real McCoy. The banks are NEVER gonna be on the hook for anything, even if it goes through them. They will hold the amount of the check until funds are transferred and deposited. And very few customers pay attention to these details and fewer still will pay for a vehicle and then wait 10 working days to take possession.

This virus scare has made things more difficult and people need to make the adjustment. Trust me, I would much rather miss this sale and sell it to someone later this spring or summer, rather than have a worthless piece of paper in lieu of the vehicle.

If you are gonna buy a vehicle from me, you are gonna pay with verified cash. And we sell every vehicle we buy, so most people can manage to come up with the cash one way or another. But, no matter what, that responsibility is on them.

OP said they were at the bank, for that kind of money I am only assuming they were inside the bank

Exactly, many ways to get this done. So he has to wait a few days for the money to show up, seems he is willing to wait months. Whatever, he obviously isn't strapped for cash or in need of the funds right away. Just seems like a dick move to me. But whatever.

They were NOT IN THE BANK. Only the drive thru is accessible without an appointment. They knew the score the day BEFORE they wanted to come over. Plenty of time for them to make their arrangements.

They chose to drive 2 hours without the money to buy the GC thinking they could go to their bank's branch and cash a check for $6,500. And normally that probably would have worked for them. This time it didn't. I made none of the decisions about this. They did. Nor did I close the door to any way that they would have wanted to put $6,500 in my hands. I am a bit lost how that makes me a dick, but that particular opinion from that particular poster is not really that much of a surprise.

But you are right that I don't need the money. I do however, want the money. And I will get it from someone. If not this week, then maybe next week or next month. No matter.

They were nice people and I was willing to work with them anyway they wanted. AS LONG AS THEY PUT CASH IN MY HANDS BEFORE THE VEHICLE LEFT. Which I make clear in the ads and in any conversations we have with any and all customers. We have always been cash only and that only rarely presents any difficulties.

Yeah, you are willing to work with them as long as you get cash in your hands LMAO. Yeah, that's working with them. Whatever, your actions don't surprise me either.

Just me but I'm starting to think this was a couple with cabin fever that thought of an idea of how to get out of the house, travel, cross a state line, meet someone new that could give them an alibi for being out and about during lockdown and get back home with only gas money spent............don't take it wrong, just me thinking twisted in these strange trying times .


(bet if you called them and told them if they got the money together from their bank next week you would deliver the GC free of charge they would say no or they bought another GC or vehicle locally.......just me again)

All the banks I have dealt with over the years, have a cash withdrawal limit at drive thru, and it's way under $6500.

The banks with drive up teller only hours on Sat, still respected that rule.

With today's lobby closings, it's at my bank, lobby by appointment only (ie big enough balance and they offer walk in appointments I suspect )

I would never think a cashiers check is counterfeit if its generated in front of me at the issuing bank.

However, if it is fraudulently obtained, the issuing bank has no time limit on canceling payment and demanding return of the funds. Forget that "clearing" myth, for over a decade, there is no such thing. A bank "hold" is different and just a profit making delay tactic to mainly allow calendar day interest to acquire while your access to funds are held for a stated number of "business" days. The issuing banks funds are deducted electronically the same night of deposit, not matter what the check is or where bank is located in US.

The likelihood of the last situation is much less then getting currently getting COVID-19, but only one kills you.

"As of February 27, 2010, there is only one check processing region for the entire United States. Therefore, all checks are now local."

"Regulation CC stipulates four types of holds that a bank may place on a check deposit at its discretion. Each has its own qualifications and it is legal for the bank to place any type where the requirements are met, although bank policy may instruct that the type of hold placed be the one that holds the most funds the longest that can be applied legally."
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Expedited_Funds_Availability_Act

The cashier check thing is a bit different in Canada since there are fewer banks.
I've never sold anything worth much value but always end up getting a check from the bank when buying something expensive and usually people take them without any worry.
The two times it was different, one buyer called the bank to confirm the check was legit and when I bought my truck the old guy wanted us to go to his bank with him. No big deal. The check cleared while we waited.
If I was a seller I'd probably do one of those two things myself to make sure everything was legit.

It’s happened to me on numerous occasions trying to gather enough cash to purchase cars. I have to go to a couple different branches. If you call them a day in advance they can make sure they have the money available to you. I’ve come to expect it!
KID

Yes, I am willing to work with my customers as long as I get cash in my hands. You must be sitting at home, bored and wanting to argue. It's too bad that you do not see the value and protection that cash transactions provide. But I do and my customers know it long before they ever got in their car to come to me. How they prepare for that is on them.

I absolutely guarantee you that when I go somewhere to consider a deal, I go prepared to be able to actually do that deal.

My business is classified 'essential'. So I'm conducting business. My way. And I enjoy doing business my way. And tomorrow, I'll be out conducting my 'essential' business. Buying, selling, making money. What will you be doing? And although I am sure it was not your intent, you made my morning by being upset with my successful cash business.

Thank you.

My credit union has a limit of $1500 a day in physical cash you can withdraw from your account from a teller. No limit on a cashier's check.

If I call my Credit Union and ask, they will up my ATM limit for 24 hours. But the normal daily limit is $1,500. I do have to answer a few security questions if I call on the phone and the phone number must show as me on their 'Caller ID'.
My credit union is Boeing Employee Credit Union or BECU. They are affiliated with many other credit unions across the USA and Canada. I was in Augusta GA and needed $3800 and the local education workers credit union gave me $3800 in cash withdraw and no ATM fees. They would have done a Cashiers Check too.
If the seller had an account at an affiliated CU they would have done a hot money transfer instantaneously. He did not.

Well you sure do think highly of yourself, but actually I couldn't care less. I'm not upset in anyway. You do you.

wooof !

UPDATE: The folks called first thing this morning. They went to 2 branches of their bank and got their cash, came up and bought the Grand Cherokee. Just to sooth some feathers, I gave them the Guitar Jones discount of $100 for their trouble. They were not nearly as upset as Guitar Jones was about the whole deal. They were primarily unhappy with their bank, not me. And are changing banks ASAP.

I had to explain to them what the Guitar Jones discount was. They laughed and said they didn't expect the extra $100 dollars off, but thanked whoever Guitar Jones was for it.

So, Guitar Jones, you made some folks very happy by your insolence. We all realize that that wasn't your intention, but once again, unintended consequences. And once again, you get a thank you. This time from my customers.

Keep up the good work!

Wow that would be awesome if I were to believe it, so PM me their name, address and phone number so I can verify and they can thank me in person! But on a side note do you now report your cash only transaction to the IRS as $6800 or $6900? I mean since you are such a nice guy and so concerned about your neighbors maybe you took a loss on this one to help them out during this tough time. I'm not sure who you think you are fooling but it isn't me.

I gave them the Guitar Jones discount AND made a good amount of money. And you know what? We were both happy with the deal. What did you do today? I bet that I did more with your name today than you did.

Where did you come up with this nice guy, neighborly concerns, and taking a loss for these folks stuff? They certainly do not need my help. They just need a different bank, which they are getting.

And I don't know if this answers your question on tax reporting or not, but doing a deal in cash has NUMEROUS advantages. Those who control the information, have control.

The deal today was real, whether you believe it or not. Frankly, I am enjoying your discomfort enough that I don't need to exaggerate the facts. The people who have met and dealt with me in person drove 4 hours round trip......twice and were happy. But you, who have never met or dealt with me have a different opinion. But since you aren't handing me wads of cash, just guess how important your opinion is to me. (I thought you would enjoy that one)

I am taking tomorrow off to help my son. But Wednesday, it's back to business as I am going to St Louis to bid on an '18 Ram. And buy some parts. This is the first time I have been 'essential'. And I like it.

You are still mistaken me for someone who cares what you do, I don't care, not one bit.

Right back atcha.........

Anything over $5000 I call in first...there have been times I have gotten $80000 in cash in one shot, for that I called the week before...they brought me into the safe to count it...not at the counter in front of everybody in line.
Craziest thing I watched was a guy who I know came up with a 100 grand cash
on a Saturday...he was back with the money in 3 hours...I didn’t ask😀