[HN Gopher] The Branch Banking Model
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       The Branch Banking Model
        
       Author : smitop
       Score  : 35 points
       Date   : 2022-09-01 16:51 UTC (1 days ago)
        
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       | Cupertino95014 wrote:
       | No one goes to a physical bank anymore, right?
       | 
       | Wrong. If you happen to get to a branch at 8:55 am to use the ATM
       | (assuming they open at 9:00), you'll see a line of people waiting
       | to get in. Are they all just old people who don't know any
       | better? A quick inspection will show that they're not.
       | 
       | One reason I've gone to one was to get a bunch of $100 bills to
       | pay for my puppy at a breeder. For some reason, breeders tend to
       | insist on cash. I suppose there are less legal reasons to want
       | $100's, but I wouldn't know about those :)
       | 
       | Continuing with "choice of denomination": if you operated a
       | retail business, or you were having a garage sale and you wanted
       | a whole lot of variously sized bills to make change, you might go
       | to the bank.
       | 
       | Turning in coins? Lots of stores have coin machines, but they
       | take a commission out if you want cash and not store credit.
        
         | neilv wrote:
         | Modern US $100 notes have more anti-counterfeiting features
         | than the other ones.
         | 
         | Wanting cash can be to lower costs and risks and admin
         | headaches, especially if it's just a small side business. Cash
         | can also be for tax avoidance.
        
         | Aspos wrote:
         | Perfectly valid arguments for installing a modern, 4-cassete
         | Diebold atm with a cash recycler and, optionally, a coin
         | hopper. Such a device costs about $40K and is much cheaper to
         | operate than a branch.
        
         | jjtheblunt wrote:
         | Are breeders illegal around cupertino? I thought everyone was
         | adopting rescue dogs and putting breeders out of business,
         | adopt don't shop and all.
         | 
         | i know LOTS of pet families and the impression is based on
         | them...but a few do have breeder bred dogs.
        
           | Cupertino95014 wrote:
           | They're not illegal anywhere, AFAIK, and you can just go to a
           | dog park, see all the pedigreed dogs, and talk to the owners
           | to know that breeders are doing just fine.
           | 
           | There might be licensing rules, and a lot of the owners
           | you'll talk to got their dogs from somewhere in the sticks,
           | maybe for that reason.
        
         | ghaff wrote:
         | I like to have a few $100s for traveling internationally--
         | although in general it's hard to predict if they'll be accepted
         | in the US. At some point, the US got incredibly conservative
         | about changing currency denominations. It's also been my
         | experience that the average bank branch doesn't keep a bunch of
         | hundreds laying around--though I imagine a downtown branch is
         | probably better.
        
           | Cupertino95014 wrote:
           | You just reminded me that I was in London, I think, and for
           | some reason I was really glad I had an emergency $100 in my
           | wallet. Debit card didn't work, or something. It's been a
           | while now.
           | 
           | > the average bank branch doesn't keep a bunch of hundreds
           | laying around
           | 
           | Is that what you've found? I think asking for 10 or 20 would
           | usually work. If you wanted $200,000 worth, you might get
           | asked a few questions :)
        
         | rufus_foreman wrote:
         | The ATM I use lets you set the mix of denominations it returns.
         | Which is good since it recently started giving out all $100s by
         | default.
        
       | rr888 wrote:
       | Yeah I value a few branches around. I'd hate to rely my finances
       | on some startup with an app that could stop working any time. A
       | branch gives some idea of permanence. Maybe its an illusion but I
       | just dont trust virtual only banks.
        
         | metadat wrote:
         | Definitely an illusion, banks are about making a buck, or lots
         | of bucks, full-stop.
         | 
         | Bankers are the greediest of the greedy of humanity. Don't
         | trust them to look out for your best interests any further than
         | you can throw 'em.
         | 
         | Some individual ones might be nice enough people, but the
         | system at large encourages and rewards certain very self-
         | interested behaviors.
        
         | hn_throwaway_99 wrote:
         | I totally understand not wanting to use a "fintech", which is
         | usually not a chartered bank.
         | 
         | But Chase, BoA, etc. etc. all have very good mobile apps. I
         | still don't see why you would hardly ever have to go to a
         | branch if you used one of these apps.
         | 
         | The right answer, as pointed out clearly in the article, is
         | generational. Older generations normally have much more wealth
         | than younger generations, and that's on top of the fact that
         | millennials have a lot less wealth at this stage of their life
         | than baby boomers did.
         | 
         | So the vast majority of wealth held by retail banks is for
         | people who got most of their wealth, and certainly most of
         | their banking experience, before online banking existed. I have
         | a strong sense that once that generation passes that bank
         | branches _will_ go the way of the dodo, or else completely
         | transform into something else (e.g. like what some banks are
         | trying to do with  "coffee shop" branches).
        
       | dragontamer wrote:
       | The most surprising thing for me was... well... this tweet
       | discussed.
       | 
       | https://twitter.com/patio11/status/1181062074316681216
       | 
       | There's more bank tellers today than ever before, despite the
       | proliferation of ATMs. Strange.
        
       | lantry wrote:
       | I'm curious if this also applies to credit unions. I understand
       | they are structured and regulated slightly differently but it
       | seems like they're subject to a lot of the same pressures.
       | 
       | I use credit unions pretty much exclusively and have never done
       | much business with a bank, but it seems like they are mostly the
       | same from an end-user perspective. Is the anecdote about "being
       | ambushed [by a salesperson] upon walking in" a common occurrence?
       | This has luckily never happened for me at any credit union.
        
         | kactus wrote:
         | I'm curious about this too, as I've only used credit unions and
         | branchless banks. Credit union branches are plastered with loan
         | and mortgage advertising, and the people who handle the loans
         | are salespeople, but I've never been "ambushed" upon walking
         | in.
        
       | revskill wrote:
       | If not for the purpose of getting the salary, no need to open a
       | bank account for me.
        
         | ghaff wrote:
         | A lot of people who own houses, pay service people of various
         | kinds, etc. still write checks pretty regularly. There's more
         | acceptance of credit cards and things like Venmo--which I
         | believe have a premium to put on a credit card--but I still
         | write checks for a lot of things in the US.
        
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