In issue 99:04:01 we told you about a bank's practice of charging a check's payor if the check is cashed at his or her bank. We all know about the high percentages check cashers charge, so how is a person, especially a person without a banking relationship, supposed to cash a check these days?
A small bank, in fact a one-branch bank, has a solution. Commerce National Bank has entered into an agreement with CheckSmart to serve their business customers, and their employees, better. The agreement states that Commerce National will pay the fee when an employee cashes a payroll check drawn on Commerce National at any CheckSmart office.
Thomas D. McAuliffe, Commerce National's CEO, says, "It's a service for our customers, basically. It seems absurd to me that someone making seven or eight bucks an hour would have to pay seven bucks to cash a check. That's what we're trying to deal with."
McAuliffe continued, "I don't see this as a criticism of what the banks are doing, except that the way the banking industry is going, there are fees for just about everything. The problem is a good percentage of working people don't have bank accounts anymore because they can't afford them. We all think everybody does, but they don't. Otherwise check-cashing businesses wouldn't be opening on every corner." McAuliffe makes a good point!
