Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

A Man Walks into a Bank

ft.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

151–160 of 184 posts

Re: A Man Walks into a Bank

#151

Post by duaneb »

jarek wrote: post #146
duaneb wrote: post #145

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Do you have a better solution? Also, many banks now allow cashing photos of checks.

> Do you have a better solution? I don't personally, but there's lots of accounts in these comments about systems in other countries that have free or nearly free near-instant wire transfers provided bank account number and name. Charities soliciting donations include their account number in ads. If you don't have a bank account you can make a deposit into the account at the post office. It doesn't get much simpler.…

> I don't personally, but there's lots of accounts in these comments about systems in other countries that have free or nearly free near-instant wire transfers provided bank account number and name. Charities soliciting donations include their account number in ads.

This is currently expensive with american banks because use of checks is so wide spread - that might work.

> If you don't have a bank account you can make a deposit into the account at the post office. It doesn't get much simpler.

I guess.... and yet, I prefer checks for A) having something physical to document, B) being able to give people non-cash physical money. I guess something like a cashiers check would also serve this purpose, and C) avoid using online banking software, which is atrocious. I can't use more than 10 characters per password, and my default one is 26 characters. I don't trust billion dollar companies with securing my banking information. If people want to take my money, they'll have to make an effort and go through my trash.

Re: A Man Walks into a Bank

#152

Post by [deleted] »

YuriNiyazov wrote: post #118
veyron wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh I meant fees to the recipient, There's a law in the US that requires CC merchants to charge the same price as they would with cash payment (for most goods; some, like gas, have special exemptions), so when you pay X dollars by credit card the merchant receives less than X dollars.

Could you verify that it is indeed a law? I keep on hearing different reports about this: some say that it is a law, some say that it is not a law, just a clause in the contract that the merchant and the CC network agree to.

[deleted]

Re: A Man Walks into a Bank

#153

Post by ChuckMcM »

petenixey wrote: post #10

This story was from a little while back but what's to stop you just printing a cheque from someone else and paying it into a bank today? There's no alerting to the originator that a cheque's been paid out and there are no obvious authentication tokens on the cheques. Frank Abignale only had to get past an initial look-test so what techniques protect against (and are consistently used) to prevent cheque forgery today?

Sadly if you want to see a forged Cashier's check you need only try to sell a car on Ebay. There is a scam, that works like this:

1) You advertise an item of value X

2) Person 'buys' it. Sends you a cashiers check.

3) "whoops, they typoed the number and the cashiers check is for $1000 more than your car (or boat or whatever)" Go head and deposit it, take out the $1000 'extra' and send it back to me.

The check is forged, the fraud depends on banks giving legitimate customers access to 'some' of the funds right away and holding the rest until the check clears. The victim gives away the $1000, and their property, the crook rides off, and 3 days later the check bounces.

Re: A Man Walks into a Bank

#154

Post by brigade »

YuriNiyazov wrote: post #118
veyron wrote: post #89

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh I meant fees to the recipient, There's a law in the US that requires CC merchants to charge the same price as they would with cash payment (for most goods; some, like gas, have special exemptions), so when you pay X dollars by credit card the merchant receives less than X dollars.

Could you verify that it is indeed a law? I keep on hearing different reports about this: some say that it is a law, some say that it is not a law, just a clause in the contract that the merchant and the CC network agree to.

In the US, there was never such a law. It was a term of credit cards' merchant agreement that merchants couldn't charge extra for credit card use.

However, the recent Dodd-Frank Act limits that - merchants can give a discount for using cash and allows them to set a minimum amount for credit cards up to $10.

Re: A Man Walks into a Bank

#155

Post by redslazer »

cluda01 wrote: post #149
seanx wrote: post #147

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A friend of mine had $3m stolen by his business partner who simply wrote out $500k cheques and took them to the bank. The bank oked the cheques despite knowing that he had no signing authority. Once it all came to light, the bank then sued my friend and drove him into bankruptcy. Fuck banks

Wouldn't you be able to sue the business partner for that sort of behavior?

Muc cheaper to get the money back from the bank and let them sue him. It was their mistake and they have lawyers fur such things.

Re: A Man Walks into a Bank

#156

Post by jarek »

duaneb wrote: post #151
jarek wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Do you have a better solution? I don't personally, but there's lots of accounts in these comments about systems in other countries that have free or nearly free near-instant wire transfers provided bank account number and name. Charities soliciting donations include their account number in ads. If you don't have a bank account you can make a deposit into the account at the post office. It doesn't get much simpler.…

> I don't personally, but there's lots of accounts in these comments about systems in other countries that have free or nearly free near-instant wire transfers provided bank account number and name. Charities soliciting donations include their account number in ads. This is currently expensive with american banks because use of checks is so wide spread - that might work. > If you don't have a bank account you can mak…

You don't trust your bank's online systems, but you trust them to properly verify that cheques drawn against your account are valid?

Re: A Man Walks into a Bank

#157

Post by theorique »

cdcarter wrote: post #137
theorique wrote: post #66

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Yeah, exactly. I was going to try some new method (PopMoney?) to pay my roommate for rent and utilities, and then I noticed it cost $1 per transaction. Back to paper checks (= free). It's not the fact that it costs something - a dollar is no big deal - it's the fact that the alternative is free.

Does your bank offer an online bill-pay system? Mine does for free, and if they can't deliver the money electronically they cut and mail a check for you.

The banks I use do offer this. I call it "electronic on at least one side" because it appears like an electronic payment for me, even if it's old-school on the other end.

It works fine for the "paying utility" case (or "mailing combined rent check"), but it feels kind of silly when it's for transferring money to my roommate who lives 20 feet away.

Re: A Man Walks into a Bank

#158

Post by albedoa »

mathmoi wrote: post #67
dalore wrote: post #26

Earlier quoted context omitted.

What about signatures? Surely the signature has the match the one on file or the cheque bounces?

They definitely don't check the signature. About a year ago, I altered the way I sign cheques. I used to sign my full name, now I just initials them. I got not problem, no cheque bounced.

Only you can define what your signature looks like. That is why you didn't have any issues. They don't check the signature against anything, if that's what you mean. See this comment: http://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=4345214

A few years ago, I was going through the process of changing my name. I was endorsing checks with my new name and depositing them into accounts with my old name -- a completely different name, and still no problems! I imagine this happens fairly often with newly-wed women.

Also, the signature on my current driver's license is a squiggly line.

Re: A Man Walks into a Bank

#159

Post by steve-howard »

jarek wrote: post #141
freehunter wrote: post #36

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because cash doesn't leave a paper trail and not everyone can accept cards.

And third point necessary here: because U.S. banks don't have any other reasonable inter-bank transfer system.

Well, it does, but they've chosen to monetize it. I can transfer money to anyone with an account, but I have to pay $25 if I want it done today and $3 if I want it done some time next week.

Re: A Man Walks into a Bank

#160

Post by vacri »

zalew wrote: post #73

Heh, a check in 1995 you say. Ok, hear this. This year 2 guys here in Warsaw put a bag full of newspaper into a cash deposit and walked away with 1.5 million Euro on their account. By 'their' account I mean an account set up on a fake or some bum who gave them their ID for a few hundred. Supposedly they had an insider who thought them how to build trust on the account, so after some time the deposits are cashed in be…

I'm surprised that there wasn't some kind of rangecheck for ATM deposits. I can see that you might want to take 5-figure deposits on faith and this could realistically happen, but by the time you get to 6 figures, is an ATM really where you want the deposits to be happening?
Post reply on HN