Subj : Re: all banking by appointment only
To : August Abolins
From : Charles Pierson
Date : Mon Jan 18 2021 12:51 pm
On 18 Jan 2021, August Abolins said the following...
AA> After several months of trying to be efficient wrt banking - minimizing
<snip>
AA> says "It's
AA> not us. It's the government." Bull. She cannot cite the regulation.
AA> And I cannot find such a thing searching for it later online.
I only go to my bank when absolutely necessary. There are 3 branches in the
Houston area that I am aware of. One is just very inconvieniently located to
access, one is located in the VA hospital, but is small and only has about 3
employees, so there is always a long line since many VA employees and
patients use it.
The 3rd is slightly closer to me than the other 2. I've never had much over
a wait when going there. The problem comes from a change it made a few
months prior to Covid. This location went tellerless, Meaning that instead of
a teller, you walk up to a machine which is basically like an ATM. Only
instead of using your debit card, you type your account number onto a keypad,
then you are video linked to a person, who might be in an office there, or
anywhere really, to conduct your transactions. Loans or other things do still
have actual person to person situations though.
When or even before Houston/Harris County began their lockdown they actually
closed the location except for drive through banking, which consists of one
drive up ATM, and two rows that are exactly the same video chat thing they do
inside. Luckily, it was minimal problem for me, since the only thing I
ordinarily needed to go to the bank for was twice a month to deposit one
check from my wife's home health job for hours her patient's wife paid her
beyond the hours her patient's insurance covered.
