Yes I actually numbered them 1 to 90 with a Sharpie. 1) to make them easier to count in case there was a discrepancy after I handed them over, 2) in case later they find some counterfeit bills in the till, I could say they weren’t mine, they don’t have my numbers on them, (unless of course they were mine). Spread them out on the bed and took a picture of mine.
And no, I didn’t roll around in them.
I don’t think they get anything out of it except for some marketing. They advertise it and I’m sure it brings some people in the stores who end up getting payday loans from them, which are very lucrative. When someone overdraws their account on a utility/rent/whatever payment, they will often be required to pay with certified funds. So you probably get a lot of people coming to these stores for money orders that also need loans.
I’ve stuffed $20k in cash into NFCU ATMs over the course of a week.
I think the biggest issue with the OP’s thinking here is the distrust of an ATM deposit in this case. I can sort of understand it if you 100% have always refused to use an ATM to deposit cash. But to say you won’t do it because of the high dollar amount doesn’t make sense to me. I’ve never put $9,000 into an ATM at once, but I’ve put multiple times that into ATMs over the years. I don’t see the difference. If you don’t think the ATM is going to lose your $900, why do you think it is going to lose your $9,000? I’ve never lost one dime to a faulty ATM deposit. Has anyone here had that problem?
While not the same, I’ve been writing something on the computer, have the power go out, and lost a half hour of work. And you sometimes hear of people suddenly getting $100,000 deposited in their account when they only put in $100. And if I deposit $9000 and the machine counts it as $900, it’s my word against theirs. Maybe I’m a bit paranoid about this stuff. I sell a $10 item on Ebay and I will drive to the post office to get a receipt instead of just dropping it in the mail box.
Personal risk management. Also, it’s all relative. Some folks are fine risking $9,000 at an ATM. Others are only fine with $9.
But there has to be actual risk, no? We’re not talking about gambling bankroll here. It’s clear that there is some risk in driving with $9,000 in your pocket. What’s not clear is how much risk there is in putting $9,000 into a machine that is depositing it into your bank account. I think the risk of the $9,000 disappearing into the machine and not ending up into your account is miniscule - less than the risk of a criminal taking your cash from you. Which is why I asked, has anyone on here ever had an ATM deposit disappear?
Too small an audience here for meaningful results. You could also ask, has anyone on here ever been robbed of high 4 figures cash.
Fair enough. How many stories of people getting robbed have you heard? How many stories of ATM deposits disappearing have you heard?
While a valid point, I don’t think people make too many cash deposits at ATMs compared to withdrawals.
Not to mention, you’re making this deposit in a different state. It’s not like you can run to the bank branch the next day to follow up if there was an issue.
And more importantly, breaking up your large cash deposit into numerous smaller ones may reduce what’s at risk in the case of a malfunction, it’s also screams “structuring”.
I’ve had deposits jam with 15-20 checks that go unscanned. I’ve never lost anything, but these were also checks with my name on them, not unmarked bills. The ATM keeps each pending deposit isolated until the transaction successfully completes, but someone does have to manually retrieve the bills which does introduce additional risk variables to the equation.
Dang it man, now you got me worried about depositing the nine $1000 money orders I got. If I get $1000 more a week later, will I have some suits knocking at my door? 
Money orders are not cash, there’s no reporting requirements for you to be structuring around. And, suits dont knock at your door for a one-off occurance, you’d need to do this habitually to even attract anyone’s interest let alone an in-person visit. And even then, it’s so simple to explain why you had them, and even the money order purchase dates will show the second ones didnt even exist at the time you made the first deposit.
Visits from “suits” isnt anything to worry about, unless you really are trying to hide some skeletons. I only mentioned it because having the documentation that you received all the cash at once, then deposited in smaller amounts, would leave you having to trust that the agent would understand and believe your explanation about machine malfunction concerns.
I just remember reading that cash AND cash equivalents are reported. Or maybe that was for reporting GETTING $10K+ in a transaction on form 8300.
He wasn’t leaving town immediately. Additionally, all my accounts that accept ATM cash deposits show the deposit amount pending almost immediately in online banking. If the number was wrong, he could go inside the bank right after the failed deposit.
All the ATMs I’ve used for deposits limit the number of bills you can place in at any one time, so since the machine forces you to do it that way, there is no risk of a structuring charge. Plus, he wasn’t depositing over $10k.
I haven’t done cash deposits at every bank out there, so I’m sure there is a system where this is the case. But there are also other systems that don’t require this. I’ve had a machine recognize that a bill was folded and spit it back out to me. I don’t remember if it gave me just that bill to straighten out or if it gave me all my bills.
Form 8300 is for retail sales. Banks deal in SARs and CTRs.
He’d be someone from out of town walking into an unfamiliar branch trying to claim missing cash. Surely you can see how the conversation would come with an inherent cloud of suspicion? Regardless, he goes there, and they say they’ll investigate and get back to him - at which point he will no longer be able to swing by the following week to followup.
Well, yeah. But if it jams or loses power - which are the most likely processing errors - it’s not spitting anything back out to you. Thus the need for manual intervention.
I’d be surprised if there was any ATM that immediately dumps deposited items into the pile with previous deposits as they are scanned, before the transaction is finalized.
I can tell you from personal experience over the years that bank CTRs in the absence of a specific suspicious activity report don’t get anyone’s attention until they’re in the 100s. Nobody is really going to care about selling a car for 10k cash.
It is sort of handy to maintain an account at a national bank or two just to deposit cash on the road when necessary. I always did.
No one in my bank knows me, so I guess this isn’t really a negative in my book.
Any conversation where the bank is alleged to be at fault comes with suspicion on the part of the bank.
I don’t think an in-person follow up would be necessary. Either the machine f’d up or it didn’t. They would know when it gets emptied and counted. I have no doubt banks have procedures in place for this sort of complaint.
If either of those thing happen, the machine is shut down with you as the last person on record using it. I’d say in that case, theres a good likelihood your deposit gets processed correctly manually. That and I see it as a miniscule chance of happening.
