Wouldn't be a problem for me since it is very rare that I cash a check anywhere other than my credit union which has many branches around my area.

Laura: You'll also have to pay a fee. Even if the check is drawn on a BoA account. I was a BoA customer, and at the time I was dating someone who was not, but who had a check from a third party that was drawn on a BoA account. They absolutely would not pay out without levying a fee, because she didn't have an account. They wouldn't even let her sign it over to me and let me cash it, despite having had an account for several years.

Just one of the many reasons I switched to one of the local CUs.

I use USAA, so I can scan a check and have it in my account the same day. Before the military, though, I used BOA, and I was thrilled to leave. It doesn't surprise me that they'd pull something like this. I guess I see where BOA is coming from, but surely there's a better way to prevent fraud than this.

No, no, you can't keep your money in a Froot Loops box, you have to keep it in an Apple Jacks box. That way you can nonchalantly use it in shady deals.

[www.slate.com]

I suppose they can do what they like. If you don't like it just go to another bank to cash the check.

It works both ways though, you don't have to give BOA any of your business.

I'm a "just show the *|CURSE_WORD|* receipt" kind of a guy, but even I wouldn't consent to being fingerprinted.

Also, who here think that the NH House of Reps has no business banning this practice?

... Great. Drop me a message so I can send you your free one way ticket to the next "Galts Gone Wild" conference... in Somalia.

@Thaddeus: Kinda. But if someone wrote me a check from a BOA account which I couldn't get it cashed, that pretty much makes it a bad check in my opinion. It would just be a fancy printed IOU sheet.

Not sure why people have an issue with this. It's only going to end up with the cops if your check was bogus.

@Thaddeus: That's the thing, this is for non account holders. You aren't really giving them any business by cashing a check with them.

"They're not building a massive database of thumbprints for use in a massive government biometric ID program"

The Conspiracy Theorist in me says "Not yet they aren't, but once they have them on record they could sell them at a later date for profit."

@NightSteel: Chase has also been doing this for years.

I could not cash my paycheck (!) without them trying to charge a $5.00 fee. Every time I would immediately ask to see the branch manager and every time they would relent on the fee. Then the teller would say, "But next time we will charge the fee. We are offering a service to you." My reply was always, "No, you are offering a service to my employer who pays for a checking account and will not be pleased if I tell them their check is not worth its face value."

@Corporate_guy: The business they should be concerned with is that of the customer who wrote that negotiable instrument in the first place.

I just thought of an idea that'll solve both the crime and unemployment problems in this country-- from now on every citizen will have their own personal policeman who follows them around 24/7 and makes sure they don't do anything illegal. ;^)

1. Collect tons of fingerprints.
2. ?????
3. Proffit!

@MostlyHarmless: Banks are under no obligation to cash checks for non-customers, and many do not. Were it not for attaching a fee to the practice, there would be no benefit to the bank to do so. I suppose if the NH House has the right to ban fingerprinting, but it would very likely lead to banks there refusing to cash checks for non-customers.

Union Bank also does this if you are not a UB customer. They have been doing it for a few years. I believe you also need an ID to prove who you are.

I don't really care about this, as I use UB to deposit checks and such.

Wow. I'd never allow myself to be fingerprinted to cash a cheque. Frankly this sounds like fraud to me. The account holder has paid for the privilege of writing the cheque which should be accepted with proper identification.

Private businesses have no business storing your fingerprints for a simple transaction. Heck they can barely keep all the rest of your personal information out of the hands of fraudters.

My issue is that my fingerprint is permanent. If that information gets lost or stolen (which it will), I can't get issued a new fingerprint, like I can with an ID, credit card, account number, or (and in very rare cases) a social security card.

I don't cash checks anyway, I always deposit them (I don't trust myself with cash, especially large amounts).

But if all went horribly wrong and I had to cash a check at a bank where I don't have an account (I have one at BoA), then I'd be partial to a bank that confuse cashing a check with letting me hold the Hope Diamond.

Meh, the government already has my fingerprints, and for a while I had a skin condition rendering my fingerprints virtually useless, so I really don't care.

meh, I wouldnt care. My printers are already on file with the FBI and several state agencies becasue of Jobs I have had in the past.

The only concern I have with this is how they are then storing that info. I doubt they are very secure about it and depending on the finger being printerd and the quality of the print you could steal it and possible trick a biometric fingerprint reader into granting access based on the copy they took.

@Corporate_guy: Because data breaches never happen. Or did we all forget about the Patriot Act, which allows agents of the executive branch to serve self-written search warrants on financial institutions.

@ARP: But how can someone use a digital image of your thumbprint? Other than the police and cashing checks at banks I've never run into a situation where I had to give my thumbprint and I don't see how I could have used a picture of a thumbprint to defraud them.

@ARP: And what, exactly, can be done with your fingerprint? I've had fingerprints taken for several jobs - it's a requirement to be bonded. I had my fingerprints taken for a volunteer position I took because I volunteer with children and they wanted to make sure that I wasn't a criminal. OH NOEZ!

I realize that we see all sorts of snazzy movies where people make fake fingerprints and use them to steal secrets and make crucial votes and unlock vaults that contain the covenant of the ark - but you do realize that these are movies, right?

Of course, if you do believe in all of that movie-magic, perhaps I could introduce you to some Freemasons? Join up and they'll protect you from all of this! I understand they'll even give you new fingerprints every 3 years for this very reason.

The storage issue shouldn't bother anyone. The bank keeps a low resolution scan of the check. You might be able to tell that a fingerprint is present but the scan isn't NEARLY detailed enough to reconstruct it for a fingerprint match... I'm surprised they don't have digital biometric readers. They provide MUCH more detail and potentially instant red flags.

I used to be in banking, and I have to say that asking you to prove who you are is not unreasonable. The problem with cashing a check for a non-account holder is, once that person is gone, there is no recourse if the check was stolen. If you don't want to be fingerprinted, take the check to your own bank. What I do have a problem with is charging a fee to cash the check. The account holder probably has a business checking account which is a great deal more expensive than a personal account. Cashing checks drawn on their own account is part of the services the account holder is paying for. The bank is trying to get an additional fee, or turn the situation into a cross-sell to open a personal account for the check holder, to avoid the fee. There should be a regulation against any bank trying to collect a fee for cashing a check drawn on one of the bank's own accounts.

The bank wouldn't have had a problem with the OP depositing the check (even cosigned) into his own account. The issue is with CASHING checks. The bank has little recourse if the check turns out fraudulent.

If you work for yourself, you can fight this by telling your local BofA or Chase branch manager that you won't be accepting their checks from customers for payment as long as they try to charge you a fee.

@GreatCaesarsGhost: At which point they can revisit the issue and pass a law requiring them to do so.

I don't buy your argument that without the fee there is no benefit. The benefit is in keeping customers who deposit money happy. Those deposits they don't pay interest on by the way, a hidden fee of those "free" checking accounts.

If their checks start coming back as no good because someone can't cash it, I'm sure they'll want to consider finding another bank, or hopefully a credit union.

@outlulz: my bank [credit union] sends me a digital image of the front and back of any checks i write. so someone's fingerprint would be available to me.
and i don't know exactly what i could do with someone's fingerprint, nor would i have any use for a fingerprint specifically... but my hobby is special effects makeup and i can think of two ways to reproduce that fingerprint into something that could be carried in your pocket off the top of my head, with stuff i have sitting on a shelf in my living room right now.
if i can do it, someone who does have a use for your fingerprints can probably do it.

but that will never happen because we all know that bank databases are unbreachable and they always run a drill through the hard drives before throwing their computers in the dumpster

Wait a minute. If that is for verification it means they would have to be able to compare those prints to others on file and thus your prints would be on file. Isn't that the logical outcome here?

@syr2012: Try being one of the "unbanked" for awhile. You find out real quick that trying to live on cash is very expensive, and not all in money. Stress from carrying large amounts of money, leaving it at home all day, etc. Then there's the fees for cashing checks, and making sure you always have enough money on you for emergencies. I learned real fast just how much I took checks and debit cards for granted.

Not surprising considering the rampant amount of fraud occurring. I always thought it was relatively uncommon to try and cash a check at the location. I tried it once and they said the check had to be signed by two people to cash it. Don't usually see that.

@Kimaroo - 20% More Kitty Added!: Love it!

@andrewe: Account holders do not have to give a fingerprint, only people who walk in off the street with no account asking to cash a check.

Still not sure how I feel about the practice. I understand both sides of the argument and can't decide.

@NightSteel: I don't know of any bank that doesn't charge non-customers to cash a check. Are there even any stores that will cash a check without charging a fee anymore, other than for tax rebate promotions?

@almightytora: Every grocery store around here wants a fingerprint to cash a payroll/government check as well. (Checks you write are fine.)

I would be very happy to leave my footprint on the butt of the teller who asked me for my fingerprints. I mean I've already provided picture ID and whatever else.

@ARP: If I cash a check, aren't my fingerprints on the check anyway, from holding it and endorsing it? It's just a matter of dusting for them, I suppose.

I guess the rub here is the easy to read thumb print stored in a database. That is what bothers people. It doesn't bother me much, because thumb prints aren't used for anything besides the police, and the police already have mine from that big high school prank back in the day... sigh... the 80's were great.

@GreatCaesarsGhost: Except that it's drawn from a BoA account, which means one of their customers is using BofA to act like a freaken bank.

@SynMonger: Yeah, that's what I was trying to get at, SynMonger hit it on the head. I could imagine this policy creating an embarrassing situation for a BOA customer who writes a check to a vendor and has the vendor come back to them claiming the bank won't honor the check.

@bigmil87: AT&T also had that private data covering every call and internet action its customers did securely in private hands.
Until the Conservatives said, "Gimme!"
So yeah, the best security guideline is to not let the sensitive data exist in the first place.

@catastrophegirl - sometimes makes typos and doesn't care: But again, what are they going to do with it? I guess they could make a fake fingerprint and wear it to cash a check made out to me that they somehow stole along with two fake ID's with my name on it? I don't see that as being very likely.

@H3ion: I think every high school student could tell you a fake picture ID isn't hard to get.

@GadgetsAlwaysFit: I believe the print is so if the check turns out to be a fraud, they can give the thumb print to the police.

They ask for an ID as well, but if someone is cashing a fake check, they're likely to use a fake ID as well. The thumb print can't be easily faked.

I think if a fraud check comes up, perhaps they might compare that thumb print to the thumb print on other fraud checks in their database, to see if the same criminal is scamming them over and over. Then they'd turn that info over to the police.

The thumb printing is a little creepy, and I can see why people would be bothered. It doesn't bother me personally. I also understand the banks are hit hard with fake checks or checks on bad accounts, and this is a way to catch crooks that hurt them. But privacy is important. It's a tough call.

@Corporate_guy: *only going to end up with the cops*??? Are you high? Where is it before it "ends up with the cops"? In that 100% safe database at your bank branch? On some schmoe's laptop? On some flash drive somewhere?

Hell, I don't even like being fingerprinted at the police station.

@GreatCaesarsGhost: So you are basically saying that if banks cannot treat me like a criminal, they will be robbing me. Nice.

@humphrmi: Not to mention there are lots of problems with the fingerprints ending up with the cops to start with. And that exactly is what Corporate guy is aiming at, if i am not mistaken: The bank will call the cops on you if the check gets returned.