Stay away from Suntrust Bank
 

My sick 87 yr old father needed some cash so he wrote me a check. I took it to the branch on 466 and was told it would cost 7$ to cash it bc I didnt have an account there! WTH? He's changing banks asap. There's been other issues with suntrust but this one takes the cake.

Why didn't you take it to your own bank, generally if you have an account at a bank, they will cash your checks immediately if you have enough funds in your account already, they're protected. You go to a bank with no account, they don't know you from Adam. You could of been the cleaning lady and stole the owner's checkbook, stuff like that goes on around TV all the time.

I've had account with Suntrust since 2005. First in Maryland and then down here since 2011. Never had a problem. They have also now merged with BB&T, so you can use the BB&T ATM's at the Colony branch and soon you'll be able to bank at BB&T. Suntrust and BB&T will be renamed Truist Bank.

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I agree with @John_W on comments about SunTrust/Truist Bank. Our parents banked with them for many years; we assumed their accounts with no difficulty (with needed legal documents of course) and anticipate a successful, long association with Truist.

It's unfortunate for the OP to be assessed the $7 "no-account" check cashing fee. Many years back, you could cash free-of-charge a check drawn on a bank, at that bank without needing an account yourself. But too many times crooks ruined for the OP and the rest of us. I think that's pretty much the rule at most banks now and don't see it changing unfortunately.

Hi, His bank is close. I just think its absurd to charge for cashing a check thats coming from their bank. Never did like that bank anyway, glad he's moving his money.

In the past I have cashed checks there, this is the first time they wanted to charge. I picked up my dad, went back and called the darn check for free. 🙄

Just love when banks charges you get you’re own money out.

Suntrust is not much different from almost every other bank. They all have similar check cashing fees for non-customers. What bank did he move his money to that doesn't have a check cashing fee for non-customers?

I'm confused. The OP was NOT a customer, but was the check drawn on Suntrust? If so, they HAVE to cash it, with proper ID. If I were the OP I would have stood in the bank lobby and yelled "What do you mean you don't have enough money to cash this check?!"---that would get their attention. I worked in a bank for 4 years during college, but that was in NY and the laws may have changed, but all banks were required to cash checks drawn on them. As to charging a fee, who knows anymore, but again it seems ridiculous that a bank can charge to cash its own check. When we got a person wanting to cash a check not drawn on us and by a non-customer, we would send them to the bank it was drawn on.

When you open that new account get dad to add you to the account . Also get an ATM card and you won’t need permission to get cash for him

You might want to call around to various banks...Suntrust isn't the only one that does that. Regions did it to me when my daughter wrote me a check.

Check cashing fee
 

The relationship between a bank and its customers is a contractual relationship. It is not based on some sort of natural law, although it is regulated by statute. If the contract between the bank and the customer provides for a charge for cashing a check for a non-customer, then the charge is proper.

I don’t bank with Suntrust Bank, though I have had dealings with them. I had a loan through them once, and the gentleman who purchased our Motorhome, did his loan through Suntrust. We spent some time there while all the paperwork was being done and finalized. I was very impressed with their professionalism and how smoothly the process went. Except for the fact that I am so tightly entwined in the bank where I have banked forever, I would have changed banks.

I suggest using SunTrust’s ATM if he needs cash. It’s easier than cashing his check. I am assuming your dad will let you use his SunTrust ATM card and PIN to run his errand.

So if the check was for $7. Then what?

Why would you post something like this?? You try and cash a check from your fathers bank which you do not have an account and you are upset about a small fee? If this is going to be a reoccurring problem perhaps you should open a free account in this bank. Why go through making your Dad change all of his banking because you cannot cash one of his checks????? Hmmmm something is not right here??????

$7 sure seems outrageous. But how else would their CEOs make millions of $? :ohdear:

Here we go again. Someone becomes angry at a business and tries to cause it harm by coming on here and telling us to stay away from it. Just to be followed by several posts talking about how good that business is.

Tells me more about the poster than it does about the business.

I agree. Almost every bank charges a similar fee to cash a check for non-customers, even if the check was drawn on their bank. So, it is not fair to ask people to stay away from SunTrust, who is operating the same way as the other banks. Also, it doesn't make sense to move your money to another bank that probably has check cashing fees as well. If banks didn't charge these types of fees, I wonder how long they would be able to maintain walk-in branches, which are a convenience for many people.

The only way to change things like this is to write your representative in your state

Have you ever tried to cash a check there before when you didn't have an account? I do know that Bank of America charges $8 to cash a check if you do not have in a bank account there.When I was in Portland Oregon and went to a Bank of America to cash a check for a sale of an item to someone and I did not have an account they charged me $8, this is very common I don't know what you're so upset about.

Regions charges $20.

Seven dollars will certainly not deter a thief. A bank should we be required to cash any check drawn on their bank without an additional fee once verification of funds are in the account, verification of the account owners signature, verification of identityOf the person cashing the check. In addition to that the bank also has cameras and the ability to require a thumbprint at the time of cashing the check.

So? I dont know any bank that cashes a check that doesnt require you to have an account there. Youre lucky they even agreed to cash it for a fee.

That is not true. Wells Fargo does not charge any fees for checks drawn on their bank. That is absurd. If I were him, I would have been ****ed.

Banks are like airlines. They have all kinds of ingenious fees.

Policy is policy. Great service from SunTrust over the years.

I guess my thoughts after that this is your first post is, if your dads 87 you most likely are in your fifties/sixties/very late forties. By this age your ability to get your own money and financial wellness should be pretty well established where you don’t need your dads money ( and it must be need if you are paying $7 to get it). If you would like to work on budgeting and financial wellness, let me know.

I don't understand people being so outraged at small issues, did the manager get notified was the check written correctly. Pretty sure the fee would have been waved.

$7 ! That is a good deal. I tried to cash a check drawn on Bank of America some time back, as i recall, the fee was $25. We all recall when we could bring a check to the bank it was drawn on and expect it to be honored, no charge. Times have changed. It is all about "fees" now. That is why i left Bank of America several years ago to go with SunTrust. You can't keep looking back. We all remember what you "used-to"could do...........Well old man "used-to" died a long time ago. I used to could buy gas for 19 cents ...........and that is the way it is! Or was. You can run, but you can't hide.

Most all banks charge a fee. It is for your protection, you have know idea how much fraud is out there! Each bank has entire departments trying to protect you. You never said how much the check was for. You could of just had your Dad get cash or go to his ATM. Many solutions could of been chosen.

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.