Corporations are run largely through policies, rules, and regulations, but those same corporations are run by people. What do you do when you need help and the person who is supposed to be on your side is using the "Company Policy" line so that he or she does not have to help you? What do you do?
Now that at least two large, nationwide banks and an international insurance carrier have gone under, the financial panic is on. It's harder to pay bills because the value of the American dollar is at an all time low. In addition to that, the price of fuel, food, and everything else has gone up. In addition to that, unemployment is also up because of the alarming number of small businesses that have gone under.
Now is the worst time in the world for a financial institution to require a major credit as a matter of corporate policy, in order to cash a check. Not just any check. My paycheck. The same bank that the check was drawn on in the first place.
Back in the Dark Ages, when I was a young adult, living on my own, a drivers license and/or a valid passport were acceptable forms of identification in order to cash a check at the bank in which it was drawn. That was a long time ago.
I am sure I am not alone in the "I don't have a credit card and I don't want one" category. But, I digress.
Today I was at a local branch of the bank where my boss has his business account. I went there on my lunch hour to cash my paycheck. Because I do not have a checking account, or a major credit card, I was refused help, singled out, and humiliated in public. When I say I was mortified at the level of apathetic rudeness I encountered by both the teller, and the manager, I am not exaggerating.
I explained to the teller that I do not have a major credit card, nor do I have a check cashing card, as I also do not have a checking account. I showed her my professional license, my atm card from the other bank, and two other pieces of perfectly viable identification, none of which were acceptable to her. She huffed in the air, and declared loudly to the room at large that if "you do not have a credit card with a mastercard or visa logo on it, I can't cash your check. Sorry, company policy."
Then, I explained my situation briefly to her supervisor, who was helping someone else, and who was listening to this whole exchange. The supervisor said she would help me, but when I got up there to her window, she stood there for ten minutes, telling me I "don't have proper identification" and when I explained to her that I felt singled out and humiliated by the treatment of the other woman, the supervisor rudely declared to me that "she is just doing her job. That is our company policy." and she refused to help me.
So, here I am, on my lunch hour, holding a check I can't cash, in the bank where the check was drawn in the first place, surrounded by people looking down on me because I don't have a credit card or a checking account. I loudly declared to the room at large that the policy sucks, and so does the bank. Then, I left.
Interestingly enough, I went to a second branch of the same bank chain that is located closer to my place of work. Then, I explained what I had just been through at the first branch, and they explained to me what id's besides checkcards or credit cards are acceptable, and they called my boss to verify my employment, and they cashed my check.
I thanked everyone at the second branch who helped me, not only releasing my money, but also teaching me a lesson. We all pay when someone turns the other cheek. We all pay when someone refuses to look beyond the large print and hides behind company policy.
Why didn't anyone at the first branch think to call my boss and ask him if I worked there? Why didn't they tell me what other kinds of id were acceptable? I have a valid passport, which is one of the forms of id they accept. I also have a pre paid credit card I can reload at any time at check cashing stores nationwide. Neither of the women from the first branch even considered my needs as a consumer, or even treated me like a person.
The "If you don't have a credit card, you are not a person, and are therefore not worthy of my time" attitude I got this morning was hurtful, discriminatory, and outrageous. I think the humiliation I faced at the bank this morning was worse than anything I faced in high school, and that is saying a lot. I may as well have been homeless as far as she was concerned.
My view is that I worked for that money, I took the check to the bank it was drawn on, as I always did when I got paid, and today was the first time I have ever had this kind of problem. I know that I would never treat anyone the way I was treated. Maybe that was part of the lesson.
The other part is that I felt, for the first time in my life, discriminated against on a financial basis. Because I don't have a credit card. The experience has not changed my attitude about spending money I don't have. I still don't want a credit card, and I have no intention of applying for one. But, what I took out of this experience is that the old adage, Treat others as you would have them treat you, still applies. It does for me.
