Some of these comments are so stupid. These fees are ridiculous. Stone and motor banks are paying you about.05 percent interest on your money so try and squeeze you anyway they can. Another reason why checks are dying.

Banks all around the country have been doing that for years. Why should they provide customer service to someone who doesn’t choose to bank with them?

I have been a BB&T customer for 40 years. They have been OK and have had no reason to change. My MIL had accounts with Sun trust and when she passed, it was a nightmare trying to deal with them even when we had all the necessary paperwork. A couple years ago I became the treasurer of a club here and have to deal with Suntrust. There online banking for a business account is archaic at best and extremely difficult to use. I use the bank check paying feature and have had several never make it to the payee. I have done this with BB&T for years and no issues.

Now they merge and BB&T’s good service did not follow the merger. It has been a terrible experience. Long waits in the drive thru, ATM failures, impossible customer service, stop payment fees on checks they failed to deliver, and just poor service overall. I am to the point where I am moving both my personal account and the clubs business account.

Not true. Wells Fargo charges $7.50 to non-customers to cash a check drawn on the Wells Fargo bank.

I really don’t get it. Why are you upset. In today’s age this is not an uncommon practice. If you go to a bank that you are not a customer of and use your ATM card they charge you a fee. For years they have made nothing on mortgage interest or personal loans. Most checking and saving accounts are free. One of their only sources of revenue is the interest they charge on credit cards and other services they provide. Just like every other bank they have overhead expenses, general administration costs, salaries to pay etc. so this is how they cover costs. Years ago you could get 5% interest on a passbook savings account, but you were paying 8-10% on your mortgage. Checking accounts were not free. The industry has changed over the years like many others. There were several ways your father and you could have accomplished the same thing without incurring any fees, you just have to know how to get around them.

While some "side" with the bank, I think it's BS. It's THEIR check, and they should honor it.

I don't like Suntrust for reasons I wont go into here
 

But I had a worse experience at a bank where I WAS a depositor. I brought in a roll of 50 pennies and they wanted to charge me 30c to accept it for deposit.

Wells Fargo of the East. They would charge for seating in the lobby if they thought. Truly a crummy bank.

7 dollars . My thoughts on bank’s, interest rates will go negative on our bank deposits very soon . Yes you will lose money by keeping it in a bank and will it be safe if there is a run on your bank ? . Our country has a national debt of Currently 27 trillion dollars , not counting what the Federal reserve owes . The government just ran out of money in the 3rd month of their fiscal year , maybe a first . They borrowed money under the guise of stimulus
borrowing. Interest rates our at 0
right now . If there is a run on banks to withdraw your money they
quite possibly don’t have it .
The interest on the national debt is now more than the defense budget which wasn’t predicted until 2025 .
Social security fund has been raided and the government now pays benefits out of the government budget . What do you think they will cut ? How much will the next administration borrow ?
Minimum 2 trillion a year , sadly .

The problem is that banks with walk-in branches are competing with online banks that have a much lower overhead. If Suntrust and other banks couldn't charge fees to walk-in customers, they would just close the branch offices. The OP could have used her own bank ATM to deposit the check and gotten the cash out of the ATM with no fee. The bank branch offices are there for convenience, like the 7 eleven stores.

We all, including me see things our way.
The person you dealt with is following bank policy. Had you taken the check to your bank where you have an account assuming you balance was equal to the check amount so if it bounces they can, and will take the money from you, they would likely cash it for you.

Family? Many many, years ago an aunt gave us a small check as a wedding present.
I'm sort of laughing-It was a small check, It was a real long time ago. She never gave us a replacement. Her gift cost us, if I recall $20 in bank fees.

I too am uncomfortable. People do not know or understand. We toss about terms like 27 Trillion. Truth reality how many of us know, can fathom one trillion let alone 27 of them?

Today someone stole your checkbook. The thief writes themself a check on your account for $1,000 and then goes to your bank's drive thru. As you say, they honor the check because it THEIR check and take a $1,000 out of your account. What would you do next, I bet it's contact the bank and say, I didn't write that check, why did you cash it?

In that case, I think the bank would be responsible for not verifying the signature. But, if they charged the thief a $7 fee, they would only lose $993.

Good idea to keep your money under your mattress!