Just charge me a fee already and stop wasting my time!

Having just moved, there are no Citizen's Banks near me. I hadn't imagined this to be a real issue, with direct depost and autopay on bills I don't really need to actually go to a bank. That plan would have worked just fine if I didn't sign up for direct deposit one day too late. That resulted in me getting sent a check. Oh well I thought I will just go to an ATM and deposit it. Sure they might charge me a fee since I am not from their bank, but I would rather pay some silly fee than go through the trouble of getting a new bank.

So off I went to an ATM I put my card in, and what the heck, no deposit option. Oh well, this was a little bank. So I went to a Wells Fargo. Sure enough once again no option. So I went ahead and called my bank and asked if there was any way for me to deposit this check while I am in LA. There answer was to just go to an ATM and deposit it, they will charge a few dollars in fees but it will work.

So off I went to another ATM, and another, and another. As far as I can tell she was clueless. None would let me deposit the check. This strikes me as absolutely moronic. If one of these banks had just said to pay a twenty dollar fee to deposit the check I would have done it. It would have been worth it to be done with this silly ordeal. If direct deposit can go to a NY bank there is no good reason why any ATM in the country can't deposit checks for every bank in the country. Why would banks turn down such an obvious opportunity to charge more fees to us poor customers?