My Biggest Banking Pet Peeve: Teller Indiscretion is Okay?
When it comes to banking, there is nothing I hate more then cashing a check. Why? Because the tellers count out your money as if there is zero chance that someone nearby can see or hear what is going on, which is not the case at all.
I used to have to cash petty cash checks for work, and the checks were for about $1,500. The tellers would count out the money for all nearby to see and hear. I always felt nervous walking away from the transaction, going to the parking lot, getting into my car, and driving back to work. I was afraid someone would try to mug me in the parking lot or even follow me in my car to mug me later. I felt like a walking target. I had the same problem when I withdrew a large sum of cash from my account to purchase a used car.
Why do bank tellers insist on counting money for customers indiscreetly? There is no need to lay out the bills on top of the counter, count them loudly, then hand them over to me sans envelope (even when I ask and provide the envelope, I might add). The fact that most banks I visit do not have any sort of glass separating the tellers from the customers makes this lack of discretion even worse. I know that tellers deal with so much money that it probably seems like no big deal to them, but it is a big deal to me.
If you work at a bank, I would love to hear your take on this. And if you have similar feelings about this practice or suggestions on how to deal with it, please tell me.
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Comments
By counting it out loud in front of you they are avoiding any claims that they shorted you of your cash. This way it's all upfront and if there are errors they are caught right away.
If they didn't count it out loud for you, you could easily walk away with more or less than what you should have and it would cause all kinds of problems.
After the bank gives you the money, they don't care whether you're robbed or not. They just don't want to be the accused.
We DO have to count your money aloud and to you, even if the customer says it's not necessary.
Normally at all banks I've worked at, the teller will have a counter they work at and then an upper counter for the customer. Anything over $1,000 and they should count it at their counter and also ask if you would like an envelope.
Sorry you've had some bad experiences! :(
My advice is if you are getting back a large sum of $ to ask that it be counted back to you in a manager's office or something. I had a customer do that once when he was getting back $7000.00 in cash and it worked out fine.