Banking in the 1950s-1980s: The Passbook, The Teller, and Friday Payday Lines скачать в хорошем качестве

Banking in the 1950s-1980s: The Passbook, The Teller, and Friday Payday Lines

Friday, 3:00 PM, 1975. The line at First National Bank stretches out the door. Workers clutch paper paychecks, waiting 20-30 minutes to reach a teller who will cash them by hand, counting out bills one by one. A woman presents her savings passbook for the teller to stamp with her new balance—the only way to know how much money she has. A man writes a check for cash, and the teller verifies his signature against a card file before handing over $50. This is banking before computers, before ATMs, before debit cards, before you could check your balance on your phone at 2 AM. For anyone under 40, this seems impossible. But this was how banking worked for your parents and grandparents—and it was dramatically different from today. WHAT THIS VIDEO EXPLORES: This documentary examines how ordinary Americans actually managed money and interacted with banks from the 1950s through the 1980s, before digital technology transformed everything. We cover the tools, routines, limitations, and human interactions that defined banking in the pre-digital era. THE TOOLS OF PRE-DIGITAL BANKING: The Passbook (1950s-1980s) Your savings account came with a small booklet—the passbook. Every deposit or withdrawal required physically bringing this book to the bank. The teller inserted it into a machine that printed the transaction and your new balance. This passbook was the ONLY record of your savings. Lost it? Major problem. Wanted to know your balance? Go to the bank. No phone number to call. No statement mailed monthly. The passbook WAS your statement. Paper Checks (1950s-present, but dominant 1950s-1990s) Checking accounts came with books of paper checks pre-printed with your name, address, and account number. To pay bills, you wrote checks by hand, recorded each one in your check register (a small booklet), subtracted the amount from your balance, and mailed the check. The recipient deposited it at their bank, which physically sent the paper check back to your bank for clearing—a process taking 3-10 days. Bouncing a check (writing one without sufficient funds) was shameful and expensive. The Check Register A small booklet where you manually recorded every check written, every deposit made, every ATM withdrawal (after ATMs arrived in the 1970s-80s). You had to do math—addition and subtraction—to track your balance. Monthly, when your bank statement arrived by mail, you "reconciled" by comparing your register to the bank's record, checking off cleared checks, finding errors. Cash Most transactions were cash. Credit cards existed but weren't universal until the 1980s-90s. Debit cards didn't exist until the 1990s. So people carried more cash—$50-100 was common. This made robbery a bigger concern. It also meant planning: if you needed cash for the weekend, you had to get to the bank before it closed Friday at 3 PM. Forget? You had no money until Monday morning. THE BANKING EXPERIENCE: Limited Hours Most banks: Monday-Friday, 9 AM to 3 PM. That's it. Some opened until 5 PM on Fridays for payday. A few had Saturday morning hours (9 AM-noon). Otherwise, closed. No Sundays. No evenings. No holidays. If you worked 9-to-5, you visited the bank on your lunch break or took time off work. Physical Presence Required Want to deposit a check? Go to the bank. Want to withdraw money? Go to the bank. Want to know your balance? Go to the bank. Want to transfer money between accounts? Go to the bank and fill out a form. Everything required physical presence during limited hours. The Teller Relationship You dealt with human tellers for everything. Many people had "their" teller who recognized them, knew their name, made small talk. This was personal banking—literally personal. Tellers verified signatures by eye, made judgment calls, processed everything manually. Transactions took minutes, not seconds. Payday Friday Chaos Friday afternoons, bank lines were brutal. Everyone cashing paychecks—still paper in most industries through the 1980s. Workers brought checks from employers, endorsed them, and tellers counted out cash. Some people deposited paychecks and withdrew cash for the weekend. Lines of 20-30 people, 30-45 minute waits, were normal. SHARE YOUR MEMORIES: Did you use passbooks? What bank did you use in the 1970s-80s? Do you remember Friday payday lines? When did you get your first ATM card? Your first debit card? When did you start online banking? Tell us in the comments. #Banking #1950s #1960s #1970s #1980s #PreDigital #Passbook #ATM #PaperChecks #BankTeller #FinancialHistory #Nostalgia #OldSchool #BeforeInternet #RetroTech #MoneyHistory #FinancialLiteracy #BankingHistory #Vintage #AnalogLife