Yesterday I went to the bank to withdraw funds from savings for the purchase of a hybrid vehicle (my current commute is 82 miles round trip with significant carpool lane opportunities for a vehicle with the permits that allow access.) The seller of the vehicle is not willing to accept anything but cash, no problem for me, I’ve got cash I can use but it’s in the bank.
I’ve banked with Wells Fargo since 1989 and they’re enormous with branches all over the place. The closest branch is in a grocery store, I didn’t go there because I thought a bank with an actual vault (where they keep cash) would be a better bet. When I asked the teller to withdraw the money, she signaled the service manager to come over due to the amount, less than $20,000 more than $10,000.
The service manager indicated they didn’t have that kind of cash hanging around the bank! I was shocked. I mean, this is a bank isn’t it? This was the downtown San Mateo branch, one of the larger ones on the peninsula…I could withdraw cash, but only a portion of the required amount. I had to go to two other bank branches to repeat the process to gather the required amount. If I could wait until Friday, they could special order the amount. Amazing.
Now, I don’t know the liquidity requirements on banks, but I’d think they need to be a little bit north of $20k for a large metropolitan area bank. Are we experiencing a liquidity crisis? I have to admit, it didn’t make me feel very confident to find that I was unable to access my own money! Has anyone else run into this situation?
