I bank at Wells Fargo and I couldn’t deposit a check today because there ran out of envelopes at the ATM! Luckily, I didn’t need the money to be in my account but what if I did? Would I have tried to deposit the check without an envelope? What would’ve been my choices otherwise?
It’s impossible to answer these hypothetical questions since I wasn’t put in the situation but what’s important is how I can solve this potential little problem. Here’s a couple of ways to do so.
Keep Some Envelopes of My Own
This is the obvious solution. I’m sure that if I put it in my own envelope, Wells Fargo will accept it, especially if the reason is because they ran out! An alternative is to keep some of Wells Fargo specific envelopes in my car but that might be a bit cumbersome.
Deposit During Office Hours and Inside the Branch
Using the ATM during office hours allows us to ask the people in the bank to give us some envelopes. In fact, there’s no need for envelopes if we deposit the check inside the branch. Oh speaking of depositing checks, if we deposit a check that’s from the same bank through the teller, we can probably get the cash right away (different banks may have different policies, but Wells Fargo allows this).
Don’t Transfer Every Last Cent to Savings
If we keep some money in our account, we won’t need every check to be deposited on an exact date. There will always be accidents, and we should plan for it ahead of time so it doesn’t affect us.
So, can you think of anything else to prevent? If you were faced with the same situation, would you deposit the check without the envelope or what would you have done?
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{ 10 comments… read them below or add one }
Are you serious? Do you really think an envelope is that much more security? If someone really wanted your check, they’d rip open the envelope and take it. Just deposit the check with no envelope. As long as you sign the back and write “For Deposit Only”, you’re okay.
I always bring a blank envelope when I plan on making a deposit. If there are no envelopes in the machine, I utilize my normal business envelope. Works great and I’ve never gotten a complaint from the bank.
Bank of America has done away with envelopes for atm deposits.
it was such a waste of paper anyway.
I’m with Bank of America also and I love the new ATM’s. They suck in the envelope and then display the check on screen. Usually the ATM will decipher the amount and you just confirm it. Otherwise you can zoom in on the scanned in check and see the amount. They also print a little miniature version of the check on your receipt.
*Correction* They suck in the *CHECK*(no envelopes are used).
I’ve never deposited checks with the ATM before, but I understand the frustration when there are no envelopes
-Mike
Sean: I’m not saying that an envelope is more secure. I’m just saying that i will use an envelope if the ATM urges us to. I don’t really need the bank to call me and say there’s a problem with my deposit.
Douglas Karr: Good for you. I’m sure they just want to make sure what they print on the check doesn’t cover up important information on the check itself so any envelope will do as long as it’s white.
Living Off Dividends and Austin: That’s good to hear that BofA is going away with this age-old procedure. The ATMs over here in California is one of the oldest ones though and hopefully they will change them out!
The new deposit system at Bank of America requires no envelopes, however you must deposit each item individually. So if you work where you receive a lot of small denomination bills as tips, such as a waitress you must feed the machine, this could take a while and the safety factor is questionable.
Actually, you don’t need to feed the machine your bills one by one. Bank of America ATMs allow you to insert 40 bills at a time.
We used a BofA ATM that takes the checks directly to deposit the checks we received as wedding gifts. You can deposit bills 40 at a time, but checks must be individually inserted. It took us about 15 minutes to insert all our checks, and with the mini checks printed on the receipt, our receipt was about 2 feet long. It was a Saturday, otherwise we would have gone inside. At least there was no line behind us! Overall I do find the new BofA ATMs to be very easy to use. I just wish banks in the US would issue credit and debit cards with “smartcard” technology to help prevent skimming devices and other fraud.