Any good ideas on changing a *few* old-style $50s and $100s into less obvious $5s and $10s -- without raising anybodies' warning flags at the bank?

JER

-- JER (JER@safemoney.com), September 06, 1999

Answers

nobody bats an eye when ya buy a bag of pinto beans at the grocery store with a $50 or a $100......

next store....few cans of corn

next store....a jar of peanut butter

takes a little effort.......but just think!

you're getting two jobs done at the same time!!

: )

-- andrea (mebsmebs@hotmail.com), September 06, 1999.

I've got an easy answer for you. Send me all the $50's and $100's you got, I don't care what series they might be. I'll send you a fresh crisp $20 for each bill you send me and nobody will be the wiser! Be sure to wrap all your cash in foil before you ship it through the mail and I'll do the same. Same day service too!

-- Jonathan Edwards (truth@whitehouse.com), September 06, 1999.

JER-- FWIW, I have taken my batches of twenties (fifty at a time-- from the ATM) right up to the teller, just like I owned the place and asked for my one's, five's, and ten's (and occasionally rolls of change). Then I try to engage in engaging conversation to attempt to distract teller from [usually] her asking ME anything. The one time I was asked (casually) (at Bank of America), I just said, "The kid's allowances." Recently went back to the same bank to ask for a cashier's check (for an amount of dough enough to buy a new car); told her to make it out to . She didn't ask squat and didn't bat an eyelash...

-- Dewer Dye (qwerty@!!!!.com), September 06, 1999.

Jer - I just couldn't resist the temptation with my first post. On a more serious note, it's not hard to make "change". Tell your bank (any bank, visit several) that your going to have a big garage sale and just cash in one or two of your bigger bills for smaller ones. You can also present yourself as a small businessman, who requires change for his business. If you've got a lot of these to do, and a limited number of banks to visit, go back to the same bank and make sure you see a different teller. That, plus make a bunch of tiny purchases as previously suggested will work. You should be sure that you are aware of "laundering laws" that prohibit exchanging money to conceal it's origins. I am only vaguely familiar with this prohibition and can't help you much there. If you've got somebody you might know that is knowledgable in this area, I'd ask before I started exchanging large quantities of big bills. In today's seziure fever environment, you could find yourself in trouble very, very quickly with a total forfeiture of your assets and outrageous legal expenses trying to prove your innocence for simply trying to "make change". Don't carry large quantities of cash around with you - anywhere. You'll likely lose it to the storm troopers who will pull you over for a imagined infraction. Good luck.

-- Jonathan Edwards (truth@whitehouse.com), September 06, 1999.

As a Mom, I have always asked for small bills. You don't give a kid $50 or even $20 for lunch money. The gals at the bank know this by now and don't even question.

-- marsh (armstrng@sisqtel.net), September 06, 1999.

JER,

I wouldn't worry about what they think at the bank. It's your money and you can do whatever you want (at least, so far). As long as you meet all of the reporting requirements and don't "structure" your transactions there should be no problems.

My only advice would be to go to a bank outside of your immediate locale where the tellers don't recognize you to avoid being followed home one day by some teller's boyfriend or some such thing.

-- Clyde (clydeblalock@hotmail.com), September 06, 1999.

JER, when I cashed out fairly fast around Washington, D.C., right before I moved here to Northwest Arkansas, I essentially had cash in $20s and $50s. I would have preferred to get the smaller denominations, but because I needed to move fast, I pretty much took what the bank would give me, as long as it was cash.

Once I got to NW Arkansas, I started converting to $10s/$5s/$1s/quarters/dimes/nickels/pennies. My method was to simply take, for that morning say, $3000 in $20s, and split it up into 6 rolls of $500 each. Then go to 6 different banks, simply converting to the denominations that I wanted. When asked (not too often), I always said that it was indeed for a garage sale coming up that weekend. I never had any problems, since the amount at any one bank was always "reasonable". And since it was simply cash for cash, it was in no way a "withdrawal", thus not subject to "structuring" type regs.

-- Jack (jsprat@eld.net), September 06, 1999.