They refused to cash the check, insisting I go to my bank to cash it.(I had everything I needed to prove ID for both of us)
I am stubborn. It would have been no problem to get in the car and drive a few blocks to my bank, but that was not the point. The point was the bank was refusing to honor a check written by an account holder to my son.
They held their ground & I held mine.
The tipping point came 10 minutes later (the stubborn factor) when I raised my voice ever so slightly so those waiting in lie heard:
“Let me get this straight. You are refusing to cash my eight year old son's $25.00 birthday check written to him by his grandparents even though the account is with your bank? “
“Well Ma’am, we will do it this one time.”
In economics classes I was taught that a check is a contractual agreement between the owner if the check,the bank,and the receiver to issue legal tender based on the funds being available.
What we have in effect here is a throw-back to the days before the Federal Reserve and the Federal Reserve Notes in which everything is now denominated.
Let's say that your debtor banks at Wells Fargo and the amount of debt to you is $5000. What we have here is $5000 in Wells Fargo Notes, and the fee assessed by Wells Fargo is the same sort of fee one would pay to switch from Dollars to Euros or to Pesos. Before the Fed, every bank had its own bank notes and the quality of the debt instrument predicated on the stability of the Bank that cashiers the note. If you also banked at Wells Fargo, then you would be denominating your debt in Wells Fargo notes and thus would not expect to have a currency conversion fee attached.
Removing this burden used to be the whole point and purpose behind the Federal Reserve. With this sort of policy they obviate their need to exist.