Today I tried to cash our tax return cheque. That isn’t a typo, we received a literal cheque.
Our main bank, SoFi, is digital only, so I had to schlep it down to our backup bank. Got frontline bankers, you either get unbelievably helpful and friendly experiences, or you end up speaking to someone dumber than a dog’s foot for an hour, often ending up in a worse off position that you started in. It’s a 30/70 split, and there are no exceptions.
I got the 70. To be fair, it wasn’t entirely their fault; in the US when the treasury sends you a cheque, they only provide half the digits of the amount owed on the face. So instead of, say $219.85, they will just say $***2*9*85. This is for “security”, but the cost is a huge inconvenience.
I fed my cheque into the machine, picked what I hope were the right digits, clicked submit, watched in dismay as the machine swallowed it whole, and then checked to see my account “pending”.
Great.