IMB

IMB is a building society, or for the purpose of this blog IMB is a bank, in their everyday function they work just like a bank does.

I dislike Australian Banks.
They make huge profits, but claim to be keeping their heads just above water. They charge for just about every transaction that you make (my experience with overseas banks is largely transaction fee free), I have in the past been charged a transaction fee for something as minor as checking my balance on screen at an ATM, I fail to see how this costs the bank anything.

Some time ago I purchased a house, which among other things, required a large cheque from my bank the day before settlement. Naturally, this cheque needed to be a 'bankers' cheque, nothing unusual there.
So I made my way to the local IMB branch to obtain the said cheque, and explained what I needed the cheque for, after paying the obligatory fee, I made my way to my solicitors for the home run.
I presented the cheque to the the solicitor, I was then advised that this was not a bankers cheque, and I needed to go back to the bank and get another.
On the way back to the bank, I met the real estate agent who was handling the sale, I told her of this predicament, she advised that this cheque would be OK, and it happens all the time.
With the stakes being so high (non presentation of the cheque results in interest and fees on a daily basis), I called the IMB to be told, oh yes that our standard cheque, the solicitor is wrong.
Still unsure, and with a solicitor who was refusing to accept my cheque, I visited a different branch of the bank. Here I was told that my cheque was almost worthless, and that the IMB couldn't produce bankers cheques.
So here we have a Bank who can't write cheques, that's quite unique isn't it?
Even worse when they will sell you a cheque, in full knowledge that its not what you want.
The end result, IMB had to make a cheque out to another bank on my behalf (who they have a 'trusted' relationship with), with an additional cost to me.
I then had to visit the other bank, to have this cashed and have another bankers cheque made out, again with another 2 fees.

This was way more stress than it should have been, and took much more than the 5 minutes that you'd expect to get a cheque made out, thanks IMB for making a stressful process even more stressful.