So today I met one of my tenants to pick up his January rent. Long story short, part of his rent was a check from the girlfriend of one of his use to be room-mates. The check was made out to me and I was a bit uncomfortable taking a check from someone I didn’t know, but the bank was right there, so I told him I would go over and make sure the check was good.
I strolled into Bank of America and pulled out my license and a credit card so I would have two forms of ID. When I got to the teller she asked me if I had an account with them and I said no, so she whips out this little ink pad and says, “I need your thumb print on the check.”
SAY WHAT?
I was stunned. I said I didn’t understand why I needed to put my thumb print on the check and she said it was bank policy when you didn’t have an account. I said, well I am not putting my thumb print on a check until I’m sure it’s good, can you check to see if the funds are available? And she said no. That’s when I asked to speak with a supervisor. The supervisor asked her to make sure the funds were available and then at my request explained that BOA had been doing this for years and it started in California because of some employees cashing their paychecks and then saying that it hadn’t been them who had cashed the checks.
I was so stunned, and since the rent is already 21 days late, I put my freaking thumb print on the check; and then I went out to my car and cried. I mean, how many liberties will continue to be taken away from the people who live in the land of the free?
I felt like a common criminal and I am also pretty sure that it violates some type of privacy act because now this girl who I don’t know can request a copy of that check from her bank and my thumb print will be on it!!
If any of you reading this have any law background I would love to hear your thoughts on this; and by the way I won’t post a link for BOA because I’m really pissed and won’t bring any traffic to their website!
Jodi,
I wonder how you would feel if someone else tried to cash a check made out to you…I can understand how upsetting this is for you, but I would be surprised if it were “against the law”. Personally, it wouldn’t bother me…unless it left ink on my finger 🙂
You are right of course, but still I don’t like the idea; and I did wipe my thumb a lot! 🙂
I’m so sorry you had to do this. I’m a BOA customer and STILL had to do that. As my fingerprints are already on record (former FL licensed broker AND former municipal employee) I didn’t balk at it. But I never thought about my fingerprint being on someone else’s check. It IS frustrating all the hoops we have to jump through these days thanks to the bad guys. Interesting to see if you get any responses from any legal friends. chin up sweetie xoxo
I’d agree that it might feel a little creepy, but I don’t see it as an infringement on any personal liberty. You could have left Bank of America and deposited the check in your checking account. Yes, there might have been a hold on the funds until the check cleared, but that does not seem particularly unreasonable.
We expect the banks to protect us from fraud and it sounds like B of A is doing that. Trust me, I’m no big fan of that particular institution, but I don’t know that I fault them for collecting a thumbprint. At least they didn’t want a stool sample. 🙂