Need a cashier's check in nyc but my bank is in a different state.

August 31, 2013 4:01 PM

How can I purchase a cashier's check with funds from a local bank in NC that I can deliver to a landlord in NYC within one business day?

I'm trying to secure an apartment(nyc) and I found out today(saturday) that I have it but I have to get them a cashier's check for >$5k by 5pm on Tuesday or else I will probably lose the place. The problem is that my bank is in NC(and it's a local credit union, not a national bank) and I'm here, so I am trying to figure out how to get a check from my bank that I can present to this landlord between the time the banks open on Tuesday and 5pm.

I asked the rental company if they can accept an electronic transfer and they said no.

One option I thought of is to get up early Tuesday morning and open a bank account here and transfer the money to it(which hopefully would happen immediately?) and then just get the bank I do that with to cut me a cashier's check. I don't know if this is feasible or not...obviously I would call my bank and let them know what I'm doing.

Is there a way to get a cashier's check from a different bank here in nyc? Are there any banks here that are particularly friendly to that sort of thing?

I've never used Western Union or any kind of money wiring service but plan to look into those as well.

I guess a last resort would also be to get a bunch of money orders but that seems like a messy way to do it and I worry that my account would get shut down or something with repeated purchases like that.

Are there any other options I am not aware of? It's fine if they are far-fetched.

Surely someone else has been in this situation before.

posted by fromageball to Grab Bag (8 answers total)

Contact your bank's representatives. They may be part of a network of credit unions, or have other suggestions. I know when I was in NJ, I was able to withdraw money without fees at a local credit union, when my credit union is in CA.
posted by gryftir at 4:10 PM on August 31, 2013 [2 favorites]

I got a money order for our first month's rent at my local grocery store (Western Union branch I think). They just swiped our debit card to pay for the money order. We had to do 2 checks since there is a limit on how much they can do in 1 transaction.

All we had to do outside of that was call our credit union in our old state to tell them to up our transaction limit to the amount we needed (which banks put on so you can't charge more than a certain amount without notifying them.) So your bank account won't get shut down. They would just deny your card if you don't call ahead. We literally called when we were at checkout and it all ran through just fine.

So no money transfer involved. It was similar to buying a gift card. Just call your credit union and say "I need to get some money orders and will need you to up my credit limit to $X please."

Also, my rental office couldn't care less that we had 2 money orders instead of one.

Option 2 would be to go to a "sister branch" of your credit union. Just call your credit union and see what branches they work with. Then you can access your account directly from that credit union in your new city just like your regular bank.

I would just get some money orders though the way we did. Seems easier than going to a bank in the morning.
posted by Crystalinne at 4:10 PM on August 31, 2013

I would offer then a check for $400x3 (ATM maximum daily withdrawal), and have your bank overnight the rest via check.

The $1200-1600, a copy of the bank check via fax, and a FedEx over night tracking number from the credit union should be enough no?
posted by SirStan at 4:20 PM on August 31, 2013

Ask the NYC bank if they'll take a check from your NC credit union account; otherwise, pull the cash out of a local ATM. Take that credit union check or the cash to the NYC bank and buy the cashier's check. There'll probably be a fee (probably in the $15-20 range, but you can easily check that), so don't show up at the bank with *exactly* the amount you need for the cashier's check!

You do NOT have to have an account at a bank to buy a cashier's check; you are not, after all, withdrawing funds from that bank. The only difficulty I can see is whether or not a NYC bank would accept your out-of-state credit union check, but you can get around that by using cash instead. Especially if you walk into the bank with the cash in hand, I doubt it'll take more that 10 minutes.
posted by easily confused at 5:01 PM on August 31, 2013 [1 favorite]

Ask a local bank if you can do a cash advance on your debit card from the out of state bank. I did this when I needed money fast from an online account due to my accidentally paying a credit card from the wrong account. There were no fees for me either from the online account or the local bank, and there was no apparent upper limit on the amount of the advance.
posted by deadweightloss at 8:46 PM on August 31, 2013

I've done the cash advance on my debit card before too (at my credit union's suggestion when I needed way more cash than my ATM limits on short notice). No fees on either end for me either. This way you can get the large amount of cash you need to pay for the cashier's check, without the stress of carrying it around town.
posted by ktkt at 9:38 PM on August 31, 2013

TD bank did an advance for several thousand dollars for us recently (same situation - out of state credit union).
posted by Pax at 6:43 AM on September 1, 2013

Western Union yourself the cash. Take it to a bank and get a cashiers check.
posted by Ruthless Bunny at 10:33 AM on September 1, 2013