Is this going to burn me?

[uuacallis]

So I recently got interested in CRH and will likely want to go to my local wells fargo and ask them to order me a box of half dollars.

While I am hopeful to find some gems, if I don't thats ok too because I plan to spend them. You see, I have an auto loan through another bank that irritates me to no end that I cannot pay online without paying a fee, so I end up dropping off a check once a month to ensure that I get a receipt that it is paid.

So I have a plan to order my halves from my preferred bank (wells fargo) and then pay my car payment with the skunky ones over at a non-preferred bank.

Two concerns
1 - Can they refuse to accept change as a form of payment or to charge me a surcharge on that? I know paper currency says all debts private and public, but it doesn't say that on change.

2 - They are both a mile apart and that they likely get their coins from the same place, so what are the chances I will get the coins right back the next month when I order them again? Or do you think that the non-preferred bank will just hold them for a while and once we get to month 2 or 3 of me using coins to pay my payment they will realize that they should likely send them to the central bank?

 

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[drcaulfield]

But they must have a policy that applies to all people. A business can't decide they won't take your $100 but will take the one from the guy behind you. This policy must also be clear before the debt is incurred. Just as stores you go into may have a sign on them thats says. No $100.

 

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[ParisRoubaix]

Wells Fargo is refusing my $0.50 as a deposit into my savings account. They technically don't have to accept them, they could even refuse $1 bill if they wish is what I was told. I then was told that I could deposit dimes, quarters, etc but now they are telling me they have a right to refuse that as well. What a joke, they tell me they can order a box of $500 in halves for me, but they won't accept $100 in halves because it takes up too much space in the vault.

 

[SilverForBrains]

Wow. Arkie is totally correct. I had no idea. I always thought they had to accept it. Good to know.

My understanding of the law is different based on a lengthy discussion about this last week. "Debt" is the key word here. A store for example can refuse any sort of payment it wants, because when you go up to the cash register, you haven't acquired a debt yet. However, in situations such as loans, you're paying back a Debt and therefore they must accept any form of legal tender you have

 

[drcaulfield]

My understanding of the law is different based on a lengthy discussion about this last week. "Debt" is the key word here. A store for example can refuse any sort of payment it wants, because when you go up to the cash register, you haven't acquired a debt yet. However, in situations such as loans, you're paying back a Debt and therefore they must accept any form of legal tender you have

This is also my understanding and it they refuse you are entitled to deduct that portion from the debt owed.

 

[ArkieBassMan]

My understanding of the law is different based on a lengthy discussion about this last week. "Debt" is the key word here. A store for example can refuse any sort of payment it wants, because when you go up to the cash register, you haven't acquired a debt yet. However, in situations such as loans, you're paying back a Debt and therefore they must accept any form of legal tender you have

Its kind of a "grey" area. If both sides really pressed the issue, it would likely go to court where it would come down to a judge's ruling. I remember reading about an instance not too long ago of a man attempting to pay a debt with pennies (electric bill I think). The owed party refused them as payment and it went to court. The man trying to pay with pennies lost.

I also personally know a guy who forgot about paying a speeding ticket until the afternoon of the last day to pay it, which happened to be a Friday. Naturally, he was pretty much broke at the time, but was able to scrape up enough rolled change to pay the fine. He goes to the police station about 30 minutes before they closed up shop for the weekend and hands them the coins, which they refused. He told them that it was legal U.S. tender and that they would accept it. Its all he had to pay the fine with. Their response was to lay out an orange jumpsuit and toothbrush and told him he had about 30 minutes to come up with the cash and pay the fine. Otherwise, they'd arrest him for non-payment of fines...and oh by the way, this is Friday and you won't be able to "bail out" of jail until Monday. There was a nearby bank, but he had no account there and the bank didn't want to exchange his coins for cash, but after hearing his story they relented and he made it back to the police station with a couple of minutes to spare.


If you owe someone $10,000, I just don't believe that you can -or should be able to for that matter - force them to take 1,000,000 pennies as payment. But, with a good enough lawyer, and the right judge, you might be able to. There's an old urban legend about buying something expensive (such as a car) on credit. Then attempting to pay the bill, in full, with a bunch of coin, like pennies. And, if the owed party refuses to take them, then the purchased item is yours free and clear. This again falls into that grey area. Say an auto dealership refused to take $100 bills as payment for the money you owed on a car, then you could possibly take that to court and be awarded the car free and clear. If you attempted to pay that same debt with millions of pennies and they refused, I'd bet that you would lose that battle in court, even though a U.S. 1 cent coin is just as much legal tender as a $100 bill.

Now the question in this thread is can the OP use his CRH half dollar dumps to pay his auto loan? While I think its very likely that the bank will accept the halves as payment, they can refuse. Can they legally refuse them? Maybe or maybe not, but it wouldn't likely be worth it time-wise or financially for the OP to pursue the matter in court over a single payment. The legal fees alone, not counting his time and trouble, would be more than the payment. So, IMO, he's at the bank's mercy on this one. I hope it works out for him.

 

[mercury1]

Wells Fargo is refusing my $0.50 as a deposit into my savings account. They technically don't have to accept them, they could even refuse $1 bill if they wish is what I was told. I then was told that I could deposit dimes, quarters, etc but now they are telling me they have a right to refuse that as well. What a joke, they tell me they can order a box of $500 in halves for me, but they won't accept $100 in halves because it takes up too much space in the vault.

Find a bank that doesn't suck so much. Lol. I would take my business elsewhere.