Bank lobbies re-opening?

I don't have a clue. I haven't been inside a bank lobby in ages.

Is it still the 19th Century in Texas? Does the teller record your transaction in a paper ledger?

Cindy Hamilton

My good friend is a masseur.

Just found out he was sick all day yesterday and not well today. I forget the symptoms but they sounded bad. He's 75.

Plus he was only 6 or 8 feet from me for five minutes** three days ago, while not wearing a mask. So now I have had my greatest exposure and have to worry for another 10 or 11 days.

Ironic since I was just about to sign up for food delivery, to get rid of what had been my biggest risk, the supermarket.

Here in Delaware some banks are closed and some have drive through and some by appointment only.

This week my wife wanted to deposit our stimulus debit card into a Wells Fargo checking account and closest branch was closed and she had to make an appointment for the next day at a further branch.

Our hot spot period is starting to end and things are slowly opening up but at reduced capacity. Hospitals have begun doing elective surgeries like knee replacements.

It was funny a couple of weeks ago they opened up barbers and salons for critical workers only. Our son got a haircut and he is not a critical worker. He said they don't care. They need the business.

Oh, yeah, I forgot to include that.

Since they made it posssible to deposit checks by smartphone, I don't expect to go inside a lobby for 5 more years, when I need cash to buy my next car.

And maybe to get them to witness changes to my will. Do they do that?

Of course not. They brand the numbers into cow leather.

...

Had go in yesterday to close an account; unlocked door for me by appointment time. SW KS; local/institution option I think on policy, guv rescinded earlier decree in face of legislature passing legislation to severely curb emergency powers to prevent probable overriding passage of her veto.

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Don't you have an ATM card? I routinely deposit checks at the ATM at my bank.

Cindy Hamilton

I'm not sure the lobby at my bank ever closed. They did restrict access. I had to snoop in my safety deposit box a few days ago. An employee let me in after I rang a buzzer on an outside door. It looked like maybe half the bank's people were gone. No mask required.

No. Wife does all the banking the old fashioned way. Our stimulus check was sent out as a debit card which could have been used at an ATM but she wanted to get rid of it and put all the cash in a checking account.

Ok. Well, I guess there's no accounting for taste. I prefer to maximize my convenience and see the inside of a bank on my own business at most once a year. I can't quite convince my mother to use an ATM card, so I occasionally stand around the lobby of her bank.

Your wife also could use the card at any store that takes VISA. I don't see a particular need to use it all up at once. If I hadn't gotten my stimulus as direct deposit, I probably would have loaded the card on Amazon.

Cindy Hamilton

That was my first plan but the ATM didn't have any deposit envelopes. It's been a long time but I thought it used to.

My bank in Texas does allow lobby access, but only by appointment and not for ordinary things like check cashing.

I really wish they'd stop calling it THAT. "social distancing"* is what we need to avoid and has always been a bad thing. What we need is PHYSICAL distancing.

• please notice that I was objecting to the use of the PHRASE "social distancing" and NOT the actual practice.

My bank's ATMs haven't used deposit envelopes for years. You endorse the check and put it in a slot. The machine scans it. They say you can put in up to 30 checks at once but it is much more likely to work with 1 at a time.

BTW, there is an ATM at a branch bank near here. There was another bank across the street. A few years ago, my bank bought the other one so now I can use either ATM.

My ATM doesn't use envelopes anymore. You just stick the check in the slot and it scans it. Then it tells you how much it thinks the deposit is and you confirm it.

Cindy Hamilton

I have to go by the bank one of these days and I don't have a clue if they are open but I do have a few checks I have accumulated I want to deposit. If they are not open I will use the ATM. Otherwise I enjoy talking to my lady friends in there. They always seem to be in a good mood and we find something to laugh about.

I didn't need any for my current car bought new and that was 14 years ago now. The dealer principal was a bit shocked when I said that I wanted to pay for it using a card, but when he realised that it wouldn't cost him a cent, he was happy to do it that way.

The bank allowed me to raise the transaction limit on the card for just 30 minutes. I got them to do that by phone, walked down to the dealer's place which is just down the road, paid using the card, with the staff watching in amazement and drove the car out of the dealers place.

Maybe it had Trump's name on it and she wanted to cash it out while it was till good??

The massage parlor in your town needs to relocate to the bank lobby. That way you could apply for a loan and get a massage while you wait.

Also, who still goes to a bank lobby??

Yes, and they wear vests and those visors that all bank tellers wore in

I guess I'm still living in the Jurassic... Except for the Trump check and a dividend I got from the electric co-op on the same day I haven't deposited a paper check in a long time and the last time was probably in the lobby.

I still don't know why the stimulus wasn't a direct deposit.