BANKS want all your $$$ but won't order you BRICKS

News: Welcome to the Canadian Paper Money Forum.

I just began searching bricks a week or so ago and YES it is addicting!!! So when I decided to venture out into this brick searching thing I went to our bank that we have all are buisness through to order me in some bricks. And they told me they didn't want to??? To much work, no money in it for them, never done it before and told me plain and simple they just would not do it to much work for nothing. This is the same bank that we have our mortgage with and 3 personal accounts, 2 credit cards, overdraught, line of credit, and a buisness account. We pay mega bucks on fees and interest to them year after year. I was so mad I was tempted to pick everything up and move to a different bank??

The next day I sent my daughter down to make a diposit for me and as well to pickup some paper coin rollers to roll our yearly change to help out with our holiday funds. She told the teller she needed 40-50 rollers. The teller had the nerve to tell her she would give her 6 rollers and that would be enough and all she would give her. She just finished making a decent size deposit and the teller says all that???  UNREAL

I then decided to phone the Royal Bank about ordering bricks and they said no problem, no fees what so ever. I was shocked, I do not deal with them for anything and they were more then happy to do it for me. And to top it all off I have just had reconstructive surgery to my leg and was unable to hobble into the bank. The teller came out to my car and did the paper work!!   I was blown away and they gave us all the rollers we needed and then some...  Hats off to the Royal Bank!!!!! 

Did or do any other members have that kind of trouble with the banks and bricks, or that much trouble from your own bank where you give them all the buisness and they wont do anything back???

Have you guessed where the first bank is that we do all of our banking with?? If you said  Bank of Montreal   you were correct.....

Any other sad storries like this in the forums???  lol  lol  lol

Did or do any other members have that kind of trouble with the banks and bricks, or that much trouble from your own bank where you give them all the buisness and they wont do anything back???

PLEASE Don't get me started.
If I didn't have a locked in mortgage, a credit line, a grandfathered chequing account, and a few other things with the bank I would be gone tomorrow and try somewhere else. The problem is they know they got you and you can't do anything about it.

My parents work for HSBC bank. Everything's free of service charge. Bricks, coins, everything. And I still can't go brick searching?!!?!

HSBC bank has been like a mother to my family and without them, I wouldn't have a home to live in, food to eat, and all that other stuff I enjoy. I am very grateful for HSBC. I have nothing against HSBC other than the income they pay my parents...I demand a raise! 
 
~~~~~

Anyways, you can make a coin roll by rolling a sheet of notepad paper arond into a cylinder shape. Adjust the size by rolling it around one sample of the coin and roll the coins in between. Then push the ends towards the coins to seal them. Viola! A homemade coin roll!

Now don't make me angry. If you do, then you'll wish you were never born. 

The whole purpose of bricks are for businesses and venders to supply change for their customers. If you walk into a bank and ask for a brick, and keep doing that every week on, they're going to wonder why the %#&$ do you need that much change.

Everything's free of service charge. Bricks

If I was in this situation I would be living at the bank

If I was in this situation I would be living at the bank

They rarely have new bricks. I gotta live mixed bricks. It's so annoying and exhausting! I have to check each one rather than looking at the first number and the back number so I know what's in between and just keep on the lookout for inserts.

PLEASE Don't get me started.
If I didn't have a locked in mortgage, a credit line, a grandfathered chequing account, and a few other things with the bank I would be gone tomorrow and try somewhere else. The problem is they know they got you and you can't do anything about it.

Welcome to "Are Brick searchers GUARANTEED a profit? Part 2"
Same banana boat as Squid...I'm trying not to get started and I should really be in bed now. "The rhetorical answer...no..why...the banks." Time to try another bank.

PD

So if they won't give me BRICKS I will drain their ATM. I just took out 1k on mycard, used my wife's card and took out 1 k, and used my daughters' card and it was out of money at $300. The good thing is that there are no service charges for using their machine. HA
Maybe they will have to order bricks to keep the machine full.

I AM ON A MISSION

And I atleast got a two digit radar out of it all. (Even the prefix is a radar LOL)

This is normal.

Many banks and Institutions do not want ANYTHING to do with getting Bricks.

I have even found that within an Institution some branches have no problem and others are unable to order new Bricks.

What you do is get to the know the tellers at a branch when you do (Especially the Teller Manager). Be the Best Customer they have seen. Super friendly and helpful. Also tell them over time that you are thinking of moving all your business to their bank. Tell them they are the best branch you have ever dealt with and they are doing a FANTASTIC job.

All these things help them remember you. You become a FRIEND of the Branch. Over time they will remember to hold old notes and new bundles when they come in (Over and above the ordering of Bricks.

But I will warn EVERYONE.... It will NEVER last forever. If things go well you may get 10 Months or so from a branch before they shut you down.  It is inevitable and usually propagated by the Security and Anti-Fraud department of the Institution. Get used to it, you will hear EVERY excuse in the book why they are unable to continue ordering Bricks. I can write a book for everything I have heard so far!!! 

All you do is pickup and staryt building your House of Cards all over again. It takes time and money. This is why people are slowly getting out of Bricks, too much time and cost.

I have been very discouraged lately as I have been getting Bricks of low AOV's or the occasional high AOU for just over 2 months now. I have not seen a single prefix beyond AOV where the gentleman down East are getting APB now.... 

I have been very discouraged lately as I have been getting Bricks of low AOV's or the occasional high AOU for just over 2 months now. I have not seen a single prefix beyond AOV where the gentleman down East are getting APB now.... 

I guess you will have to move down East and become a banks best customer all over again

Seriously, what you said is so true. It never lasts

I find that at my bank, the customers who give the tellers Christmas presents or souvenirs from travelling that they tend to get friendlier service throughout the year than others. 

A good strategy might be to find a small branch where there is hopefully a low employee turnover and just remember the tellers and/or branch manager during the holiday season or get them a little something when you go on vacation.   One $20 bottle of wine a year might do wonders for you.  Not that I'm a brick hunter but I do notice how tellers remember their kind customers cuz they are the exception to the rule 

get them a little something when you go on vacation

I guess I could do that If I could afford to go on a vacation
But we all know, Brick Searchers don't make any money

I guess I could do that If I could afford to go on a vacation
But we all know, Brick Searchers don't make any money

Yes, I agree. I stopped doing bricks for the time being so I can afford to go on Vacation.

I now have time to grade my notes and put together a bunch of notes for sale...I will be putting together a bunch of fantastic notes at great prices!!! 

I now have time to grade my notes and put together a bunch of notes for sale...I will be putting together a bunch of fantastic notes at great prices!!! 

A big sale?  I'm excited already!!

A couple of points about ordering:

1) It all depends who is behind the counter that day when you try to start.
2) It depends on how you approach it.
3) It does NOT depend on assets/Liabilities in the bank.  It depends on you and your character, and how they percieve you.
4) There are brick walls - wait til they retire.
5) Gifts are risky, because con-artists use gifts.  Write a personalized thank you letter instead - and MEAN it.
6) Gotta spend the time to get to know them, and for them to know you.

Always know that they are in control of the yes or no decision.  There could be regional factors or past events affecting their decisions.

Hope this helps - H

A couple of points about ordering:

1) It all depends who is behind the counter that day when you try to start.
2) It depends on how you approach it.
3) It does NOT depend on assets/Liabilities in the bank.  It depends on you and your character, and how they percieve you.
4) There are brick walls - wait til they retire.
5) Gifts are risky, because con-artists use gifts.  Write a personalized thank you letter instead - and MEAN it.
6) Gotta spend the time to get to know them, and for them to know you.

Good point Huds. You have to be nice (and so does your teller) in order to get bricks. My mom has a friend at the bank that works part-time every Saturday.

[edit]

Now I wonder if she could give me some fresh new bricks instead of soiled, smelly, circulated old ones...

Not a good idea. *pinches self* Thanks for the heads up Huds!
[/edit]
Banks usually issue bricks to businesses and vendors for change purposes assuming you couldn't care less about the issue date, condition, inserts, serial numbers, etc. If you say you're a banknote collector, they would advise you to go to a store instead because you'll drain their change supply and leave businesses very disappointed [at the bank]. The bank would lose money this way. If you say you need change (I say I'm going canvassing), they will most likely give you bricks (new or old).

At the end of the month, people pay rent in cash. When my parents are not home, they give it to me so I am able to sneak a trip to the bank and swap it into fives. 

I ask my BMO branch for bricks every now and then, and they are more than happy to do so and accept my returned notes because they use new notes in their cash dispensers anyways. They order $5, $10, $20, $50, $100 bricks very often (they give out mostly new notes in the branch and send everything else out) and I can frequently get bundles and bricks as a result.

Unfortunately, most of the time I get a rude teller in my face before I get the chance to be polite to them.

PLEASE Don't get me started.
If I didn't have a locked in mortgage, a credit line, a grandfathered chequing account, and a few other things with the bank I would be gone tomorrow and try somewhere else. The problem is they know they got you and you can't do anything about it.

I dont deal with BANK OF Montreal but i remember walking in to Bank of Montreal once asking for a 10$ since my pocket was full of change, their like do you have an account with is? i said no, then their like you have to have an account with us before we can do anything. I was like Your a bank shouldn't you want to give a non client an impression to do business with you?

Royal bank on the other hand. Was Awesome, the new 20$ journey series came out i ask to exchange 20 crispy notes and said it was a collection (i was only 15). They carefully counted the notes like their so fragile and envelope them for me. I was amazed!!!

The banks are the biggest crooks in the world. Last week I went to my Naitonal Bank to cash my employment cheque, it was a National-Bank-Issued check that I have always cashed at the same bank for week. That day I did not have shaving cream and had a "hobo shadow" and my hair was also messed up because of the cold/wind. To top it off, my voice was hoarse because of cold/sinus. And let me tell you, the teller was the BIGGEST B***H I HAD EVER SPOKEN TO. I assume she was using some of the "safety trainning".

Here is how the conversation went:

"I cannot cash that cheque for you"
"But you see, this is from the National Bank, it's my employement cheque and I've always been able to cash this cheque here. You can even verify the funds"
"I'm sorry I cannot cash that cheque for you, your account seems to be overdrawn ($0.20 overdrawn)"
"Okay. Here, I will make a deposit for $5 into my account so that'll take care of the overdrawn"
"Sir, I will not cash that cheque for you"
"Can you please just make the deposit? Let's take care of one thing at a time"
"That will not change my mind about cashing your cheque"

I ask for the supervisor. She comes in and starts typing stuff in the computer.

Me: "As you will see, I was always able to cash that cheque at the National Bank, it's my employment cheque. But first I would like to make that deposit please" (the $5 bill is still sitting there)
Her (without any eye contact): "I will not cash that cheque for you".

After about 5 minutes of arguing and something about freezing my check for 5 days, she has me escorted out by the security guard for "clogging up the lines". Un hun, they have 2 tellers open with 20 people waiting in line and 3 teller strictly for commercial with about 4 people waiting in the commercial line.

I used to work at a bank and let me tell you, all their policies are made up to fill up their coffers.

You want to deposit $5K or more? They will harass you and get all your information to prevent "money laundering".

But a drug dealer don that needs to launder $100K will have it transfered it to 25 different bank account with 5 different banks. He will pay his transaction fees and that'll be it.

They are not harassing you to prevent money laundering, basically what they are telling you is: "You have too much money and we are not making enough, next time break that amount into pieces or multiple accounts so that we get more fees out of you and we won't harass you, else we will report you to the government for suspicious activity and you might get tax-auditted".

^ Wow.  Someone resorting to swearing over a bank teller on a public forum.  Incredible. 

I wonder if that particular bank teller actually reads these forums offline?

Have you changed banks yet?
If not, don't whine here.

Just as a note.....

Banks should only harass you for your information if you're depositing in excess of $10,000 within a 24hour period. This is NOT the Bank's policies but an anti-money laundering regulatory issue decreed by the Gov't.

As for new bills and bricks.......

NOW! I mean RIGHT THIS WEEK would be the best time to get singles, bundles and bricks of new bills with absolutely no fees or hassle. You gotta thank the Asians and their New Year for that ;p

Just as a note.....

Banks should only harass you for your information if you're depositing in excess of $10,000 within a 24hour period. This is NOT the Bank's policies but an anti-money laundering regulatory issue decreed by the Gov't.

As for new bills and bricks.......

NOW! I mean RIGHT THIS WEEK would be the best time to get singles, bundles and bricks of new bills with absolutely no fees or hassle. You gotta thank the Asians and their New Year for that ;p

Which Asians do you thank?

The ones that follow the Lunar calendar (this Monday is Lunar New Year)!! But if you wanna be specific the Chinese.

Which Asians do you thank?

Bruce Lee, Hop Sing (On Bonanza for you young folk), and Uncle Benny

We mustn't forget Jackie Chan, William Hung (*cringes*), and Yan from Wok'ing with Yan!