Chapter 7

Jack stood in line waiting to deposit his paycheck and the check that Abby had given him when she had moved in with him. He wasn’t paying too much attention to what was happening at the front of the line since there was a rather buxom young woman over by the loan officer. The line moved forward at an unusually slow pace giving him lots of time to watch her pose for the loan officer. Each time she leaned forward, he swore that he could see more and more of her breasts. He figured that she was trying to get a loan and was using every tool in her arsenal to get it. He didn’t blame her.

It finally was his turn and he walked over to the free teller. Dropping his check and deposit slip on the counter, he said, “Here we go. I’d like a hundred in twenties.”

The woman typed in his account number and studied the screen for a minute. She said, “I’m sorry. We can’t give you any cash.”

“What do you mean?” Jack asked confused by the statement.

Licking her lips nervously, the woman said, “You don’t have enough money in your account to cover the cash advance.”

“That’s ridiculous. I always get a little cash when I deposit my paycheck,” Jack said frowning. He looked around and noticed that there were more than a few angry looking customers. He wondered what was going on.

The woman took a deep breath and said, “You’re overdrawn by thirty-five dollars.”

“What are you talking about? I should have twenty dollars in that account,” Jack said. He always kept a little money in the account. He wondered if the bank had some kind of computer failure or something.

“We have to charge a twenty-five dollar fee for accounts with an average balance under a thousand dollars. We charged your account that fee. You then had a check that came in that overdrew your account and we had to charge you a thirty dollar fee for the overdraft,” the woman said. She marked up the deposit slip and ran it through the system.

“Wait a minute,” Jack said getting angry. He said, “You’re telling me that you pulled money out of my account without telling me and then bounced a check.”

“It is a new policy. It is all explained on your next statement,” the woman said. She’d had to tell a dozen people that already that day. All she wanted to do was to get out of the bank and at home before someone took out their anger in her direction.

“That’s not right,” Jack shouted.

The teller took a step back from the counter and said, “Calm down sir. If you keep making a scene then we’ll have to escort you out of the bank.”

Taking a deep breath to get control over his emotions, Jack asked, “Can I have my check back?”

“I just deposited it, sir,” the teller answered handing the deposit receipt back to him.

Jack rubbed his forehead and asked, “If I come in tomorrow can I get some money?”

“No, sir,” the teller answered. She looked down at the counter as if ashamed and said, “You’ll have to wait five to ten days for the check to clear.”

“What do you mean; I have to wait five to ten days for the check to clear?” Jack asked feeling sick to his stomach.

“Under the new banking regulations, we can’t pay out money when there are not sufficient funds to cover it. Until your check clears, you can’t touch the money,” the teller said.

“I have to pay my mortgage,” Jack said.

The teller said, “I wouldn’t write a check until you’ve confirmed that this check has cleared.”

“Explain that to me,” Jack said.

“If you write a check and it takes less than ten days for your check to reach here and your deposit hasn’t cleared, then the bank will be forced to return your check unpaid. You’ll be charged a thirty dollar fee by us and probably a fee by the company that accepted your check,” the teller said. She didn’t think the policy was fair, but she wasn’t the one setting policy. It was her job to enforce it.

“When did this start?” Jack asked feeling like he was going to be sick. He had visions of losing his house even though he had the money to pay the mortgage.

“Today. It is the first of the month and the new banking regulations just went into effect,” the teller answered. She looked at the long line knowing that it was only going to get worse. If she hadn’t needed the job so bad she would have quit ten minutes after the bank opened that morning. This had to be the worst day of her life.

Jack asked, “What has the new banking regulations got to do with anything?”

“Since you do not have a savings account with us that has sufficient funds in it to cover the check, any payout against that deposit is considered an unsecured loan until it clears. Under the new banking regulations we are not allowed to do that without first establishing a line of credit,” the teller answered.

“This is insane,” Jack said staring at the teller. He wondered how many other people were going through this nightmare.

The teller said, “It wouldn’t be an issue if you had direct deposit. That is a bank to bank transfer of money. The deposit is immediately verified.”

“Lady, I work for a living. We don’t do direct deposit,” Jack said. He suspected that his paycheck was likely to bounce if his boss had deposited a check that morning thinking he could make payroll against the deposit. It could take a month for this mess to clear up.

The teller leaned over and said, “Next time go to one of those check cashing places. They’ll charge you 3%, but you’ll get your money right on the spot.”

Jack had no intention of paying twenty-four dollars to get an eight hundred dollar check cashed. He asked, “How does that get my mortgage paid?”

“Get a money order,” the teller said.

“That’s going to cost me even more money,” Jack said. He stared at the deposit slip and said, “That was my paycheck. How am I supposed to live if I can’t spend my paycheck?”

“I’m sorry, sir. I don’t know what to tell you,” the teller said.

Jack said, “I want my money.”

The teller said, “Sir, you’re holding up the line.”

Jack stumbled away from the counter. He couldn’t believe it. He turned and asked, “Can I speak to the manager?”

The woman pointed to a man over at the far end of the counter. There was a line of people there and two security guards. She said, “He’s over there.”

Jack walked over to where the manager was talking to someone else. He arrived in time to hear the manager say, “If you knowingly write a check for which there are insufficient funds then you will be charged with a crime. We’ve had too many people writing bad checks for us to accept the risk.”

Jack looked at the security guards wondering why there were two of them. He looked over at the bank manager and noticed that the man had a black eye and muttered, “Someone lost it.”

The man shouted back, “That’s my paycheck. That’s a fucking multi-million dollar company. It is a good check!”

“According to the new banking regulations it isn’t a good check until it has cleared,” the bank manager explained.

“It is written on this bank,” the man said.

“Then it will only take three days to officially clear,” the manager replied. He looked over at the security guard to make sure that he was paying attention.

“You can clear it now,” the man said.

“You should have taken electronic deposit,” the bank manager said.

Knowing that it was useless to argue, Jack stumbled out to his truck and got into it. He sat there staring at the deposit receipt. Printed across the front of it was the statement, “Deposit not available until checks have cleared.” He stared at it thinking that this was wrong.

He said, “I’m so fucked.”

He stared at the deposit receipt for a full minute. Finally, he asked, “How in the hell am I supposed to know when the check cleared? Am I supposed to wait ten fucking days?”

Jack was having difficulties breathing. He sat there staring into space until there was the sound of a large crash behind him. He looked around and noticed that a car pulling out of the bank had been hit by a car driving down the street. He got out of his truck and locked it before going over to see if he could help. A police car arrived before he’d even reached the street.

Looking at the accident, he said, “Poor bastard. Talk about a bad day. I’ll bet his paycheck is being held ransom by the bank for five to ten fucking days. Now he’s going to the hospital. I hope he has insurance.”

Looking back at his truck, Jack decided that he should probably walk home. As he walked, he thought about what the teller had told him. It didn’t add up. He was pretty sure that most transactions were nearly instantaneous as a result of computers. There was no way that it took five to ten days to see if a check cleared. He figured that it was some sort of game that banks were playing to protest the most recent wave of regulations that had been placed on them. He said, “They stole fifty-five dollars from me and there’s not a damned thing I can do about it.”

It took Jack half an hour to walk the two miles to his house. He arrived in time to see Abby slamming the door on her car. She looked madder than a wet hen. He figured that he knew what she was angry about. Abby saw him and said, “That bank is holding my money for two weeks.”

“The same thing happened to me,” Jack said.

She looked around wanting to hit something, but there was nothing within reach. She stomped a foot and said, “Bastards. They’re all bastards.”

He looked over at Claire’s house and said, “I wonder if that happened to Claire.”

“I don’t know,” Abby said bitterly.

Jack asked, “What are we going to do?”

“I don’t know,” Abby said. She had been so upset after her experience in the bank that she had to pull off the road on the way home to throw up.

“We’re fucked,” Jack said. He very seldom used that kind of language in public, but this situation deserved that kind of word.

Abby said, “I stopped at the grocery store on the way home thinking I’d write a check for some groceries. They had a huge sign out front saying that checks were not being accepted.”

“I heard the manager tell someone that if he wrote a check knowing that there were insufficient funds in the account that he’d get charged with a crime,” Jack said.

“It’s just as well that the store wasn’t taking checks,” Abby said. Near tears, she said, “We’re just trying to get by and they keep fucking us ... over and over again.”

“The bank took some money out of my account and then bounced a check. They stole fifty-five dollars from me. I don’t have a spare fifty-five dollars,” Jack said.

“I know for a fact that it actually only takes seconds for a local check to clear. This garbage about it taking five to ten days is a bunch of bullshit,” Abby said.

Jack was about to make a comment when there was the sound of a gunshot. Looking around, he asked, “Was that a gunshot?”

“It sounded like one to me,” Abby said.

“I think it came from next door,” Jack said afraid of what he suspected. He didn’t know the woman that lived in the house very well. She tended to be reclusive and never came out when he was around. He only remembered that her name was Penny something.

While Jack walked over to the house to investigate, Abby stared at it for a second and then fumbled for her cell phone. She called the emergency number and waited for the dispatcher to answer. When the operator answered, she said, “We just heard the sound of a gunshot from the house next door.”

Jack went from window to window trying to look inside to see if he could spot anything. The blinds were all closed and he couldn’t see a thing. He walked back over to Abby and said, “I couldn’t see anything.”

“The police are on their way,” Abby said.

“Should I break in?” Jack asked looking over at the house.

Abby shook her head and said, “I don’t think so.”