Quick note.

My bank used to have a $300 per day limit, then dropped it to $200 and now the daily ATM withdrawl is $100.

Yes... people can get money from the ATMs. But whats the near New Years limit?

Pre-paring is just prudent money management.

Diane

Banks brace for cash run
Plans include printing more money, refilling ATMs
faster for New Year's

November 19, 1999: 4:31 p.m. ET

http://cnnfn.com/1999/11/19/banking/wires/y2k_wg/

[Fair Use: For Educational/Research Purposes Only]

NEW YORK (Reuters) - U.S. banks are bracing for a run on cash machines by consumers who may try to stockpile money for fear of computers failing and savings accounts vanishing as clocks tick into 2000.

Banks are ready to load more money into cash machines and will have fleets of armored trucks on call to deliver sacks of money to branches if coffers are depleted. In a few cases, banks say they will keep doors open if teller lines are long.

The preparations stem from concerns that people will empty bank accounts at the end of December, to guard against losing savings in a system breakdown. Computers that read the last two digits of a year have been fixed so they do not confuse "2000" with "1900" next year, but many still fear glitches.

The U.S. Federal Reserve has ordered the printing of some extra $50 billion to meet any increased demand for cash across the country. It also has made arrangements to make it easier for banks to get short-term loans to meet credit demands.

"We are prepared to put cash into machines more frequently and provide higher denominations of bills," said Jim Schepker, a spokesman for Boston-based bank FleetBoston Financial Corp. (FLT) "If people try to enter a bank branch or use ATMs, we will keep them open as long as there might be lines at any given branch."

Many tuck away a month's income

So far, customers appear calm and have not made abnormally high withdrawals from ATMs as the year draws to a close, but many banks say they are scrutinizing ATM transaction volumes daily and preparing for the worst, just in case.

Nearly three in five Americans plan to hold additional cash for fear of any Y2K computer bugs, according to a poll for Reuters released on Thursday. Of this group -- equivalent to about 65 million households -- one in five believes it is reasonable to tuck away as much as a month of income or more, the survey showed.

But a majority of bank customers who plan to withdraw cash because of Year 2000 concerns said they will take out less than $500, according to another poll released on Thursday for U.S. regulators. The survey also showed customers are increasingly confident about banks' technology preparations now.

"Key has had a task force on it for more than a year," said Mike Conway, a spokesman for Cleveland-based bank KeyCorp (KEY). "We've got all our pipelines ready to go. We've got more than 40 percent additional dollars in our pipelines if they are needed, though we don't think they will be. ... We have not noticed any additional spikes at all in terms of cash withdrawals. So far, smooth sailing."

Just another long weekend

The banks also have embarked on a campaign to educate consumers -- stuffing brochures into statements and putting up displays in lobbies to tell people to think of the end of the year as a long weekend and withdraw funds accordingly.

"What we have advised our customers is that they should prepare as they would for any long holiday weekend," said Ed Shell, director of Y2K cash contingency planning at North Carolina-based regional bank Wachovia Corp. (WB).

Republic New York Corp. (RNB), a multinational bank headquartered in New York, is advising its customers to do the same.

The bank also plans to have the amount of cash in its system that it would have for a long weekend, plus some extra money, although it has seen no evidence of unusual activity.

Midwestern banking giant Bank One Corp. (ONE) said it has been carefully monitoring cash withdrawals across the country, though it has not seen aberrant spikes up compared with this time last year. The bank also has been working with the Federal Reserves in case it needs extra cash.

"We do not see any business or retail customers taking out more cash for any reason, including Y2K," said John Russell, a Bank One spokesman.

Cash usage is typically about 25 percent higher in the last quarter of the year, and particularly in December, than it is at other times, Russell added.

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), November 23, 1999

Answers

Hey Diane...

I think what you're doing to the troll-boys is great! Keep up the good work. Maybe someday they'll move out of mommie's house and have to get JOBS. Then they won't have all that "extra" time on their hands....

-- Dennis (djolson@pressenter.com), November 23, 1999.

Thanks Diane,

You deserve some flowers this morning for all your efforts!

Link

PS - I take it back. It's not even a close race - a turnip definately has a higher IQ than these spammers. < vbg >

-- John (jh@NotReal.ca), November 23, 1999.

Hi Diane, praise and admiration for your sterling job. And... eh, when did your bank start cutting back on ATM limits? Recently?

-- Colin MacDonald (roborogerborg@yahoo.com), November 23, 1999.

;-D

Also... thanks John! Love fragrant flowers like roses. Much more soul satisfying than other odours.

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), November 23, 1999.

Dianne,

You, of all people - What Bank? What town?

-- Randers (coyotecanyon@hotmail.com), November 23, 1999.

BofA, Silicon Valley, CA.

I first noticed the $100 daily limit about a month ago. They also have a lovely little message... to paraphrase... "We're Y2K Ready." Then they list an 800 number to call.

I'll write down the exact message and phone# next time I visit the ATM.

Diane

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), November 23, 1999.

I took $600 out of my ATM last Friday....That's the Daily limit for my Bank of America account. I promptly walked to a teller, and converted the %600 to ones and fives.

Been doing it for a while now. Also, I always pay with twenties...whatever I'm buying, and bring the change home....

But I'm still planning to make a $5,000 - $10,000 withdrawal on December 24 (if the Gov't hasn't shut down the banks). I'll redeposit it on January 10 if everything is OK. That's plenty of time for the auto debits for mortgage, car, utilities etc. to hit. Assuming those institutions can Auto debit at that point.

-- Duke1983 (Duke1983@aol.com), November 23, 1999.

Duke1983,

What area of the country are you in?

Diane

See also...

A little info on ATM's

http://www.greenspun.com/bboard/q-and-a-fetch-msg.tcl?msg_id= 001pyg

-- Diane J. Squire (sacredspaces@yahoo.com), November 23, 1999.

Georgia

-- Duke1983 (Duke1983@aol.com), November 23, 1999.

Diane,

I called my branch of Bank of America and they said "no way, no change has taken place, there may be changes in other areas of the country," but the "personal banker" doubted it.

Seattle.

Have you called the 800 number to see if any actual change has taken place as opposed to just "feeling" like they had reduced the take-out amounts?

On another subject. I posted a query about "sources and facts" (up the board a bit) It seems that you deleted a response from Y2K Pro that was completely polite.

Are you deleteing posters regardless of the message (blacklisting)? or is it their position or based on something else? It's your board, but I don't get it.

Thanks!

-- Randers (coyotecanyon@hotmail.com), November 23, 1999.

I am not sure about ATMS but this morning I cashed a 3,000.00 check. It took twenty minutes (the teller said she had to go get some more cash), and she also asked twice during the course of the transaciton, "You want to just cash this?". I politely said, "Yes, thank you, just doing a little x-mas shopping." It was the strangest feeling, truly bizarre.

-- morecashplease (karlacalif@aol.com), November 23, 1999.