About once a month, I make a deposit of miscellaneous checks into my checking account. I've always used the deposit tickets in the back of my checkbook, but with my last set of checks, there were none attached. Normally, I fill everything out at home, listing the checks on the back, adding them up, with my account number already printed on the front with my name, etc.
So, last week I had to take my small pile of checks into the bank and remember to put my checkbook in my purse so I'd have my account number. Walked over to the little desk stand and looked for some deposit slips. None to be found; just some bank flyers. Well, that's irritating. I head to the teller and let her know about the lack of deposit slips. She said, "Oh, we got rid of those a while ago in order to be green." Ok, then . . . I hand her my pile of checks and my checkbook. She gives me a funny look and we had this exchange:
Teller: "How much are you depositing?"
Me: "Um, I don't know. I didn't have a deposit slip."
Teller: "You don't know how much you are depositing?"
Me: "Well, since I didn't have a deposit slip, I didn't add it up."
Teller: (Looks at me like I'm an idiot)
Me: "What do other people do?" (I sincerely didn't know what she wanted me to say)
Teller: "They add it up ahead of time and just tell me the amount."
Me: "I can't memorize a random amount like $129.32"
Teller" "Sometimes they hand me a piece of paper with the amount and their account number on it."
Me: "You mean like a deposit slip?????"
I swear, is it just me, or are we GOING BACKWARDS?????
This month, in our county's quest to waste more time and taxpayer dollars, some councilwoman is proposing that all stores in our county charge 10 cents per bag (paper or plastic) to customers. And the county gets 4 cents of this for "administration." Does this mean the stores will now be lowering their prices, since they are going to be recovering money for what they charged us for the bags in the first place? I don't think so!
Hey, I've used cloth bags for at least 5 years anyways. But there are times I like to get paper and blue plastic bags because, guess what? I RECYCLE! I use the paper bags for things like gifts, to transport meals that I make for people/events, and to recycle newspapers. I use the blue plastic bags to recycle all of my plastic/cans/glass for our curbside recycling service. Doesn't it defeat the purpose of trying to get people to recycle if they no longer have the bags to recycle?
Sometimes, I feel like giving up . . .
Doesn't the teller add up all the checks regardless of the amt you tell her? I'd have said $12877.14.
ReplyDeleteMy wife reuses all the grocery paper bags and gets a 2 cent rebate...personally that drives me nuts as we have a closet just to save those bags. I hate hen the store gives me everything in a plastic bag. We used to buy a pack of gum and just put it in our pocket, now it goes home in a huge plastic bag.
Yeah, it's absurd that she's got a computer in front of her and she's asking me for the total? I guess they want to double check? Not sure.
DeleteI'm not surprised other places get a rebate to recycle when we will be charged to do it here. Ours is the most crooked county behind the one in Chicago.
Pfft that is really dumb. "Green" really means it saves us a few cents so we aren't doing it anymore. But you can still kill a tree and write it down and bring it to us. Pathetic.
ReplyDeleteI use the plastic bags for cat poop. Reusing away. That is when cashew jars run out lol
Exactly! Similar to how our school district stopped giving the kids papers and made us print them out at home! Gee, thanks for making us all buy printer ink cartridges when you could have used the big Xerox copiers the taxpayers bought you!
DeleteLots of bags are used for poop, no doubt!
No deposit slips? That's insane.
ReplyDeleteIsn't it? Now I have to just use my own paper, I guess. It would be funny if I created my own deposit slips and printed them off to fill in.
DeleteThey did that here with the plastic bags also, voted to do away with plastic bags because of the length of time it takes...yada yada yada, and then voted in the right of the stores to sell you a bag for .10 to .15 cents, and these bags are made of, drum roll please, plastic.
ReplyDeleteMakes no sense to me.
Meanwhile, no one will wash their cloth bags (some you can't wash) and I suppose we will hear about all sorts of E. coli outbreaks from raw meat juices in our cloth bags!
DeleteOn your mention of the bank and lack of deposit slips, the same in my bank as well. The table where you are supposed to fill in the deposit slip is now completely empty - no deposits/withdrawn slips, no pens, no NOTHING. They will offer you a deposit slip at the teller window if you wish, but they no longer place them in the bank lobby. Which is a pain in the ass because I hate holding up the line to fill in a deposit slip when I can do it beforehand.
ReplyDeleteAlso, at the post office where I get my stamps, they usually give me a waxed paper envelope to put my stamps in once I purchase them, but now they no longer offer them. WTF?!?!
I usually shop at Trader Joe's where they use paper bags. As of last August, they stopped offering plastic bags and went strickly to paper. Which to be honest, I always felt that paper bags were easier to recycle and better for the environment.
Like you, I always recycle my shopping bags, whether they be plastic or paper.
I didn't know about the post office, but I have had the same wax envelope in my desk for about 10 years. Now I know not to throw it away!!
DeleteI love the Trader Joe bags. I dig up my geraniums every October and store them in the bags in the basement. Plant them again in the spring. So, I even recycle flowers!
We can deposit checks through the ATM machine without any type of deposit slip; just our ATM card and the checks and the machine does all the work figuring out amounts, etc. Scary I think.
ReplyDeleteCalifornia charges for plastic bags (new law in the last 2 years or so). I don't use cloth bags but will recycle the plastic ones. We all do the best we can to try to recycle and go green, though there was that one day last week when I had a pile of stuff to take out to the recycle bin and accidentally through it all in the garbage one. I wasn't one to transfer it to the correct bin.
betty
I would never use an ATM to deposit checks as you have no proof of what you are depositing.
DeleteMaybe the CA plastic bags are better than the ones here? I can't see getting too many uses from the same bag because they tear so easily.
It's very, very rare that we have to deposit anything. With a couple of exceptions, all of our various incomes are direct deposit. What we get from the local bank, though, almost every time we interface with them, except when making deposits, is a sales pitch on converting our legacy savings account into something that will make a little more money. No-thank-you-very-much, we'd rather keep our unlimited flexibility with what modest amount we have rather than being locked into only have free access a few times a month and whatever other limitations apply for the newer accounts.
ReplyDeleteEvery time I go to the bank, they also try to get me to do something, like refinance a mortgage I don't have or open up a new checking account. I usually ask, "How many checking accounts does one person need?" just to see what they say. Usually shuts them up.
DeleteFirst class rant, my friend! Even I about lost it when I got to the part where she said, "Sometimes they hand me a piece of paper."
ReplyDeletePortland has outlawed plastic bags. It's either paper or cloth (which I use anyway, but like you, sometimes I like to use plastic or paper bags for recycling and garbage). What a nutty world in which we live, huh?
I am curious about this. So, if you go buy clothes at the mall, do people bring cloth bags? Or do you get nice paper bags with handles form all the stores? I've often heard that paper bags are worse than plastic for the environment, but I don't know why. They've always tried to get people to use plastic instead of paper at the grocery stores here, but maybe the paper ones cost the store more.
DeleteWhen I pay in several cheques at my local bank, I just hand them the cheques and my bank card. They add up the cheques and give me a receipt for the total amount. No deposit slips needed.
ReplyDeletePlastic bags are charged for here, to discourage plastic waste. No charge for paper bags. We have a council recycling bin for anything recyclable, except for glass, which we take to the local recycling centre. Most people are in favour of the plastic bag charge. Like you, we have cloth bags for our weekly supermarket shop.
Interesting that paper bags are not charged there. Like I said in another reply, we've been told that paper is worse than plastic, which makes no sense, but I'm not a scientist.
DeleteYou need a new bank! Wow, they did that and didn't bother notifying folks and providing instructs? That's mighty lame.
ReplyDeleteA bit over a year ago our bank started using e-cash for checks, I just take a photo of the check in their Android APP and it posts the deposit for me. No need to burn gas or wait in line, photo and done. And if I'm a bit leery, I can go online and enter the info off the check instead. It's almost like magic.
They stopped using deposit slip a couple years after they started using computers but they were at least kind enough to tell folks AND to hold onto deposit slips until just a couple years ago.
We have stores that provide bags for free and credit when you use your own, others that charge for bags, and at least a couple that no longer have bags at all. It's always amusing when a new customer comes in and is left with no bag to hold. Er, frustrating. You know.
I've only had a smartphone since June. Let me catch up!
DeleteI'm waiting for grocers to do away with in store shopping, because I really want someone else picking out my bananas. 😜
Wow, and here I thought we were behind the times .... you can do that already around here: just fill out you list online and either drive by the store or, if you're in town, have it dropped off at your doorstep. You sure they ain't got that in your metropolis?
DeleteI was being sarcastic. I really would hate someone else choosing my fruits, vegetables and meat for me!
DeleteHa ha, made you say it! ;-)
DeleteI pretty much knew that ...
Gosh, I'm not even sure if my checkbooks have deposit slips. I do so much online banking I hardly use them. Charging for bags is a ridiculous and unfair burden on the consumer. The people who make the bags should see to it that they're biodegradable. It's their product, it's their responsibility.
ReplyDeleteThe burden always seems to be on the consumer, doesn't it?
DeleteLOL at your conversation with the bank teller! We usually deposit the rare check by taking a photo of it with our smartphone via the bank's app.
ReplyDeleteI'm mad at my county right now - we used to be able to recycle a lot more stuff. They just discontinued recycling of glass and plastic (except clear plastic bottles). What? Now the amount of our garbage just tripled - instead of one of those plastic shopping bags from the grocery store, I now use three. Grrr. I started using cloth bags about six months ago, but I still have a stash of those plastic bags (to be used for garbage).
It's maddening when you get used to recycling one way and then everything changes. Here, every city is different, so you can never be sure of the rules. I did learn that if I can smash a plastic container with my hand (like a berry container) it can get caught in their machines so they don't want them. Knowing the reason behind the rules helps me!
Deleteused cloth bags is always the answer to these shopping bags.
ReplyDeleteCloth bags are great, but plastic ones do serve a purpose.
DeleteShame you weren't notified about the change.
ReplyDeleteAnd here, by law large retailers must charge for bags or face fines.