A few weeks ago I got a check for 25 cents from Illinois Bell. The check was drawn on a bank in Lake Lillian, Minnesota. Do you know how obscure Lake Lillian is? (Of course you do. You know everything. I’m just asking rhetorically.) It’s so obscure it’s not in the Minnesota key to my road map book, which includes such metropolises as Dundas, population 422. It’s so obscure the person I talked to at the Minnesota tourism office couldn’t find it on her computer (she said to call back when Jerry gets back from lunch). Why would a major corporation have its checking account in such an obscure bank when there are lots of banks right in the neighborhood? –V.M., Chicago
Best of Chicago voting is live now. Vote for your favorites »
Maybe they want to head off the lunchtime rush of people cashing their 25-cent checks. Illinois Bell was not very forthcoming on the subject. The company says it employs a contractor to handle its refunds, and the contractor uses the Lake Lillian bank because it’s cheaper, somehow. I believe that, of course. I believe everything. Let me merely speak in generalities, therefore, of what it usually means when a big company uses a tiny boondock bank. I refer to the arcane world of corporate cash management.
Who gets screwed in this arrangement? Probably you. Most banks are wise to the check-float game, so they put a hold on any out-of-state checks presented for payment. You can deposit the money in your account, but you won’t be permitted to walk out of the bank with it for several days, thus giving the check time to clear Lake Henrietta or wherever.
