Oh Yeah! gets a 'oh no' from Feds. (Pittsburgh, Smithfield: credit, to buy)

[sskink]

If nothing else, Ethan keeps coming up with interesting ideas, although it appears this one will be shut down.

Boston Globe: Pittsburgh Ice Cream Bank Draws Regulator Ire

[groar]

taking people's money, putting it in a savings account, collecting the interest and in return, paying people "interest" that consists of store credit to buy your ice cream....

gee, i wonder why that didn't work out? i'm surprised ANYONE went for that.

credit unions are great but this (which is not a credit union, of course) just came across as very weird and scammy. i'm sure the guy had good intentions, from everything i've heard about him he seems well-meaning and nice, but you're not bypassing the banking system if you're just putting everyone's money into one big first commonwealth account and calling yourself a bank.

[groar]

oh and here's a longer story from the p-g with more detail about how the whole thing was supposed to work.

Shadyside ice cream bank wants to handle your cold, hard cash - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

[captainmidnight]

Trust your money with a guy who can't even manage his own account? No thanks.

There is a reason for the FDIC.

[Hopes]

The last two lines of that article are hillarious!

So where does he keep depositors' money?

"In a savings account with First Commonwealth," he said.

Read more: Shadyside ice cream bank wants to handle your cold, hard cash - Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

[groar]

that post gazette article is one where you actually should read the comments!

[greg42]

Innovation is good. This is a little odd way of doing it perhaps though. I wouldn't put money in the ice cream bank, hehe.

Huntington is a good bank for minor procedural overdraft issues because they now give you a 24-hour grace period. Just opened an account there and am using it because Dollar pissed me off due to an issue that the 24-hour grace would have covered. (Dollar: I deposited a check, all the funds are available the next day. I had previously scheduled a payment to be paid on that payday because I'm not adjusting well to not having direct deposit. The payments are deducted about 10pm. The funds are available at midnight, 2 hours later. This means a $36 fee for the 2-hour gap *when they already know the funds will be available in 2 hours* and despite a long customer history they did not waive it. I still intend to write a real letter and see if someone wants to explain this customer-unfriendly policy. I wrote an email but heard nothing but a response that they weren't going to waive it.)

The main downside to Huntington right now is that the downtown branches are not that convenient to my spot here and they don't have mobile remote deposit yet (probably will be added to their mobile apps soon). The folks in the Smithfield/7th Ave downtown branch when I did go were super friendly.

[greg42]

Originally Posted by groar

that post gazette article is one where you actually should read the comments!

Heh, interesting. Banks do suck but there is a certain usefulness to them that's hard to get around. I'm not going to keep all cash and pay all my bills in cash, have to do something, and the ice cream bank doesn't really help with that. As far as just savings, I guess the ice cream bank might be no worse than anything else. Banks pay squat and while you are taking a risk there is at least a reward. Ice cream is a good reward.

[groar]

ice cream bank is a good bank for overdraft issues because since they don't have debit cards or checks, you can't overdraw!

[eschaton]

When I saw the microbanking thing the first time, I couldn't help laughing.

I mean, I guess I could understand if they put it in Garfield or something, but do they really think that the average Shadyside resident is in need of alternative methods of finance?