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> I've never heard of any bank offering that service. I'm not a cash person, but this is literally how cash deposits work (in the US). You fill out a deposit s

> I've never heard of any bank offering that service. I'm not a cash person, but this is literally how cash deposits work (in the US). You fill out a deposit slip with your account information, hand the slip and the cash to the teller, and that's about it. If you own checks, your check book probably came with some deposit slips pre-filled with your account information.

mrleinad 5y ago
Can't you make deposits directly on the ATM? Where I live, the ATM takes your bills, counts them, and directly deposits them in the account you choose. No need to interact with any of those pesky humans.
- brendoelfrendo 5y ago
  Well, yes, but the GP comment was specifically saying that they had "never heard of any bank" offering the service of taking cash and depositing it into a provided account, which is weird because that is very much a standard service that brick-and-mortar banks provide. Either the other user was uninformed or my sarcasm detector is broken today.
  - pdonis 5y ago
    > he GP comment was specifically saying that they had "never heard of any bank" offering the service of taking cash and depositing it into a provided account No, I said I had never heard of any bank offering the service of taking all the account numbers of all the bills I have to pay and paying them for me out of my bank account.
    - ghaff 5y ago
      You can do so online (which I do for many monthly bills). But that doesn't really solve any perceived problems about maintaining anonymity associated with making cash payments buth neither does anything going through a bank.
    - mrleinad 5y ago
      In Argentina there's a service named "Pago Mis Cuentas" (Pay My Bills). You can add all your services (gas, electricity, cable, internet, taxes, etc). When there's a new bill for the services you added, it's displayed on a list with checkboxes right beside each one of them. Check the ones you want to pay, click Pay, and you're done. It's linked directly to your bank account. The website was created by a bank consortium. Is a service like that what you're talking about?
      - chc 5y ago
        It's not, because this conversation is specifically about how much worse it would be to pay all your bills in cash, while you seem to be talking about a digital payment.
        mrleinad 5y ago
        Yes, because of this statement in the parent: > I said I had never heard of any bank offering the service of taking all the account numbers of all the bills I have to pay and paying them for me out of my bank account.
tshaddox 5y ago
It sounds like you're talking about taking cash to your bank and depositing it into your own bank account, which of course you can do. The original commenter was talking about taking cash to your bank and somehow very quickly distributing it to everyone you owe money to this month.
- pdonis 5y ago
  > The original commenter was talking about taking cash to your bank and somehow very quickly distributing it to everyone you owe money to this month. Exactly.
  - ddingus 5y ago
    Use auto bill pay?
- XorNot 5y ago
  The original commenter is talking about a solution which would be vulnerable to the exact sort of "digital jail" being referenced in the article. They've added a central authority to their decentralized solution, in the form of the absolute classic way banks are used against people - by freezing accounts and deposits etc.
  - throwaway22032 5y ago
    Nah, because you can just go to any money transmitter. Which is actually just anyone, if we didn't scare people off it by making payments this like, scary bureaucratic taxy AML'y thing. I have online banking on my phone, if you wanna give me cash to send it to someone, no problem, why not.
- throwaway28203 5y ago
  I use autopay for all of my monthly bills.
pdonis 5y ago
> this is literally how cash deposits work (in the US) I wasn't talking about cash deposits. I was talking about paying bills. I can't go to my bank and give them the account numbers of all my bills and have the bank pay them for me. If I wanted to pay each bill in cash, I would have to schlep to each individual company I pay bills to and pay them.
- jamesknelson 5y ago
  There’s nothing that makes it inherently impossible to put bills this way in cash, though. For example, in Japan, you can pay bills by taking them to the local konbini - which is probably no more than a couple minutes walk away - then handing them the bills. They scan barcodes, take your cash, stamp the bills, give you your change. Done. No need for ID or a bank account. The reason that people can’t easily pay bills in cash in the US is not because it can’t be done.
- cgriswald 5y ago
  I'm in the US and have had checking accounts in three credit unions and five banks and they all offered this service. They don't send cash if that's what you have in mind, but they do send checks. They'll send a check to anyone given a name and address, and if I provide an account number, for many businesses they'll also receive a billing amount and pay it each month automatically.
- ipaddr 5y ago
  Every bank has been doing this since for at least 30 years. Companies register. It is simple and easy. Telephone banking used this before internet banking.
- brendoelfrendo 5y ago
  Ooooh, I understand now, and I do apologize for misreading your comment. Banks do offer bill pay services, you just set it up and they mail a check every month. To your point, I don't think there's a way to get your bank to send the recipient cash every month, but I feel like that's a moot point since your cash is already in the banking system at that point.

mrleinad 5y ago

Can't you make deposits directly on the ATM? Where I live, the ATM takes your bills, counts them, and directly deposits them in the account you choose. No need to interact with any of those pesky humans.

brendoelfrendo 5y ago
Well, yes, but the GP comment was specifically saying that they had "never heard of any bank" offering the service of taking cash and depositing it into a provided account, which is weird because that is very much a standard service that brick-and-mortar banks provide. Either the other user was uninformed or my sarcasm detector is broken today.
- pdonis 5y ago
  > he GP comment was specifically saying that they had "never heard of any bank" offering the service of taking cash and depositing it into a provided account No, I said I had never heard of any bank offering the service of taking all the account numbers of all the bills I have to pay and paying them for me out of my bank account.
  - ghaff 5y ago
    You can do so online (which I do for many monthly bills). But that doesn't really solve any perceived problems about maintaining anonymity associated with making cash payments buth neither does anything going through a bank.
  - mrleinad 5y ago
    In Argentina there's a service named "Pago Mis Cuentas" (Pay My Bills). You can add all your services (gas, electricity, cable, internet, taxes, etc). When there's a new bill for the services you added, it's displayed on a list with checkboxes right beside each one of them. Check the ones you want to pay, click Pay, and you're done. It's linked directly to your bank account. The website was created by a bank consortium. Is a service like that what you're talking about?
    - chc 5y ago
      It's not, because this conversation is specifically about how much worse it would be to pay all your bills in cash, while you seem to be talking about a digital payment.
      - mrleinad 5y ago
        Yes, because of this statement in the parent: > I said I had never heard of any bank offering the service of taking all the account numbers of all the bills I have to pay and paying them for me out of my bank account.

tshaddox 5y ago

It sounds like you're talking about taking cash to your bank and depositing it into your own bank account, which of course you can do. The original commenter was talking about taking cash to your bank and somehow very quickly distributing it to everyone you owe money to this month.

pdonis 5y ago
> The original commenter was talking about taking cash to your bank and somehow very quickly distributing it to everyone you owe money to this month. Exactly.
- ddingus 5y ago
  Use auto bill pay?
XorNot 5y ago
The original commenter is talking about a solution which would be vulnerable to the exact sort of "digital jail" being referenced in the article. They've added a central authority to their decentralized solution, in the form of the absolute classic way banks are used against people - by freezing accounts and deposits etc.
- throwaway22032 5y ago
  Nah, because you can just go to any money transmitter. Which is actually just anyone, if we didn't scare people off it by making payments this like, scary bureaucratic taxy AML'y thing. I have online banking on my phone, if you wanna give me cash to send it to someone, no problem, why not.
throwaway28203 5y ago
I use autopay for all of my monthly bills.

pdonis 5y ago

> this is literally how cash deposits work (in the US) I wasn't talking about cash deposits. I was talking about paying bills. I can't go to my bank and give them the account numbers of all my bills and have the bank pay them for me. If I wanted to pay each bill in cash, I would have to schlep to each individual company I pay bills to and pay them.

jamesknelson 5y ago
There’s nothing that makes it inherently impossible to put bills this way in cash, though. For example, in Japan, you can pay bills by taking them to the local konbini - which is probably no more than a couple minutes walk away - then handing them the bills. They scan barcodes, take your cash, stamp the bills, give you your change. Done. No need for ID or a bank account. The reason that people can’t easily pay bills in cash in the US is not because it can’t be done.
cgriswald 5y ago
I'm in the US and have had checking accounts in three credit unions and five banks and they all offered this service. They don't send cash if that's what you have in mind, but they do send checks. They'll send a check to anyone given a name and address, and if I provide an account number, for many businesses they'll also receive a billing amount and pay it each month automatically.
ipaddr 5y ago
Every bank has been doing this since for at least 30 years. Companies register. It is simple and easy. Telephone banking used this before internet banking.
brendoelfrendo 5y ago
Ooooh, I understand now, and I do apologize for misreading your comment. Banks do offer bill pay services, you just set it up and they mail a check every month. To your point, I don't think there's a way to get your bank to send the recipient cash every month, but I feel like that's a moot point since your cash is already in the banking system at that point.