If I write you a check, Pay to the order of (you), I can't see why my bank would not have to pay out legal tender. Does anybody know?

Nobody has pushed it, demanding that a bank officer gives him written notice that the bank will not give him $20 for a check drawn on that bank which says "Pay $20 to his order". That's called "dishonoring the check", and now the recipient gets to go to the check writer and complain that the check was dishonored by his bank.

That can lead to very interesting results; for instance, if it's a paycheck, the state Department of Labor would be very interested to hear about a company issuing dishonored paychecks.

In reality, I suspect that once a bank officer gets suspicious that the presenter knows his legal rights, the check will get cashed properly.

I dunno. I rarely cash checks -- not never, but rarely -- as I find the whole ATM thing (depositing the check at my bank and pulling cash, if needed) much more convenient, most of the time. That said, I only do bank business at Wells Fargo, and have never had a problem getting a check cashed there, no matter which bank issued it.

Are you a customer of Wells Fargo? I'm assuming that you are since you use their ATM, which would probalby cost you service fees if you were not a customer.

But if a non customer walked into a Wells Fargo Bank and asked them to cash a check, they'd likely ask for a fee. Many banks charge a fee for this service unless you have an account with them. Banks have turned to service fees for revenue- they make a killing on NSF checks.

I also use Wells Fargo for my personal banking. I re-financed my mortgage several years ago thru E-Loans.com, and Wells Fargo ended up buying it, so they allow a percentage of my mortgage balance to count as if it was a cash deposit in bank account- which allows me to basically bank there fee free- including check printing, ATM fees waived, free electronic bill pay, fre travelers checks, etc.....

But they do have a stiff list of service fees- give it a read sometime.

As a Banker I can tell you that if you are not a customer of Wells Fargo or US Bank and take a check from one of their customers they WILL NOT cash it, turn it into a cashiers check or even tell you if the check is even any good. If I call them from another bank they will not even tell me if funds are good on a check that a customer of mine has from one of theirs. These banks think that can do whatever they want because they are so large. If you want good customer service look for some of the medium sized banks that can still give you the products and services that the BIG banks can give but, still have that small town bank feel. As far as two party checks banks dont like them because there is a TON of fraud that gones on with these types of checks. If I can answer anyother banking related qquestions I would be happy to talk with you.

That said, I only do bank business at Wells Fargo, and have never had a problem getting a check cashed there, no matter which bank issued it.

Any banks around that give away guns for opening an account like in Micheal Moore's movie?

I'd bank there.

I don;t believe the bank can charge a fee for honoring it's own instrument...

I would never open a new acount at at "bank"!!
The Richfield/Bloomington Credit Union where I bank, greets me by name, answers the phone with a real person and does not have many of the bullshit charges of USB or WF. The charges they do impose if any are normally 1/10 of what USB or WF sock you. It is not posted. My son was at an auto dealer 2 years ago to buy a car, in 10 minutes via my cellphone he was loan approved and left with the car within 30 minutes. Try that with the big boy banks, you couln't press all the right numbers to talk to a real person in english at most of them!! I do still have accounts at both USB and WF so I know what it is like to deal with them.