Is Financial Technology Changing How We Bank? | FinTech Vs. Banking | B2B Vault | Episode 146

Yo, what's up everybody? It's Justin live from B2B Vault, the payment technology podcast sponsored by Nationwide Payment Systems, hosted by this guy, the Steve Jobs of payment processing himself, Allen Kopelman, and we'll be providing you educational information about financial technology, business payment processing, and the technology businesses are using in the world today. And in today's podcast, uh, we thought we'd go over about how, uh, people who are not in business Right.

So, you know, this week was interesting. Yeah, we decided to go to a networking event slash trade show, the trade show IT Expo in Fort Lauderdale. So it was pretty interesting. One thing missing from the trade show floor was previously, like, I think 2 years ago was the last time they had it that I went, and it was packed with crypto companies.

Yeah, yeah, yeah, for sure.

And crypto is not faring well right now. In fact, I saw an article this morning on LinkedIn where a financial analyst is calling what's happening to crypto Chokepoint 2.0.

What does that mean?

Well, Chokepoint Part 1 happened during when, uh, 2008-ish when, uh, the president was Obama and they decided to crack down on the banks and all the ATM companies. And they started cracking down on anti-money laundering laws, and it became very difficult if you had an ATM machine to get a bank account. And they were monitoring, were people taking cash out of the cash drawer, sticking it in your ATM And that became a no-no. That became a big no-no. And many, um, restaurants, bars, nightclubs that were loading their ATMs that way ended up with getting their ATM shut off, getting their bank accounts closed. And hence out of that, we kind of grew a business out of that of managed ATM services and providing ATM services for high-volume locations who don't want to deal with— or let's say you have a location that's non-owner-operated, right, and they don't want the employees putting the money going to the bank and putting the ATM— managed ATM services. So he's basically calling what's happening with crypto Chokepoint 2.0, although we don't know exactly where the, where the pressure is coming from. Right? But various things have been shut down in the last week or two, you know, mining of the Binance coin and a lot of, um, crypto whatever wallets, I guess you call them. Yeah, or stop people from taking— withdrawing funds. And that's becoming a big thing. Yeah. And at the IT Expo, we saw a lot of, uh what they call it, telephone, telephony, telephony, what do they call it?

I do. It was loud-based telephone communication services. Yeah, that's all there was at the IT Expo. No shade on IT Expo. I thought it was pretty cool.

It's interesting to see like, how is, how are businesses going to use telephones? You know, in the, in the future, like, I I don't know, the near— I don't know if it's the near future.

I'm not interested in knowing about how a business is going to use the telephone. I get it, everyone's going to be communicating, has to communicate one way or the other. But I, I, when I'm seeing all this, all I see is a very oversaturated market. Oh yeah, a bunch of businesses doing the same thing. Yeah, like they're—

I mean, there must have been 100 companies selling phones systems.

And another 100 companies selling cloud-based security systems for your business and cybersecurity.

Yeah, that was like the big— probably the main 3 things we saw, right?

And I mean, I know the IT Expo was a combination of like 10 expos put together, right? So, you know, the middle part to me where they had like the little kiosks, right? I think that was the more engaging part of it because it kind of forced you to ask, what, what the hell is this? What is going on?

Right. Yeah, there was a lot of companies there that were showing new products, and they were set up as like a solution center. The guy explained to us from that one company that, oh, this is a solution center where as a business you could go there and you need a solution, you can go in there and find that 30,000 vendors or something inside the marketplace, inside their marketplace. So that was pretty interesting, you know, as a business person to know that something like that exists.

I got some really cool swag there. I got a handmade rhinoceros from South Africa. I thought that was amazing.

That was really cool. I got one of those things.

Yeah, you did.

Yeah. And then we got, uh, our picture taken at the Dell booth. Dell had a swinging booth.

Dell sponsored the event, so yeah, thank you Dell.

Yeah, thank you.

The food was okay. Yeah, the bean salad was pretty good. I was surprised because I'm not a fan of the navy beans like that.

Well, that wasn't a navy— not navy, it was like a fava bean.

Yeah, the big, the big guys.

Yeah, the big bean with the— had a sun-dried tomato and had broccolini in there. Yeah, some asparagus.

I was, I was surprised.

It's pretty tasty. And you know, there was a lot of, uh, vegetables, chicken. The chicken was good.

What vegetarian food?

I'm saying that salads— that—

oh, they did that. They did have a salad. I did get a salad at the end when we were leaving.

No, but I'm saying there was—

because I was looking for a bottle of water for him and there was a line to the back of the— I said, well, forget about it.

Yeah, I had water in the car, thank goodness. But it was interesting. And then there was another guy there selling like refurbished computers. We saw, you know, one bank that had— was doing mergers and acquisition type loans.. And then we met the people from the South Florida Tech Hub, which is something interesting and new for South Florida. While there's a lot of incubators—

not necessarily new, but it's, it's definitely growing.

Well, no, it's not— it's new in the sense that they changed their name to South Florida because I think it used to be called something different and they changed the name of it to cover all Dade, Broward, Palm Beach and Martin County?

I don't know.

I saw—

as far as I know, when I was introduced, it was always the Florida—

oh no, I think it was always called that, but I'm saying now they kind of expanded out to where it's officially over the 4 counties, and they're trying to get all the incubators and the different incubators to like join in and come to their events and things like that and sponsor more events and have more engaging events. And you know, with COVID over the last couple of years, there hasn't been a lot of in-person events, and now in-person events have kind of kicked up, you know, and it's, it's definitely in gear right now.

Yeah, I'm not super pumped about it, I guess.

What, in-person events?

Yeah, I've been to a few of them.

Well, they're just going to get busier as time goes on. People are gonna get used to going out to an event.

I will say it triggers my anxiety for real.

To go to an event? Yeah. Okay.

Because I don't know, I just don't want to get sick. That's— I don't care about catching COVID I just don't want to get sick.

And well, just like we have that rule in the office, if you don't feel good, you stay home for a couple of days and let's see what's going on. Because it's better to be safe than have 5 people get sick. So yes, and people need to know that. Like, if you're going to go out to an event, don't— if If you're coughing, don't go to an event. You're sneezing, don't go to the event.

Yeah. And when we were there, there I was standing—

I was— I walked away from a couple people. I don't know if you noticed.

Like, dude, yeah, like, bro, like, why are you even here?

There was like a person coughing.

I was like, yeah, yeah, yeah, you got to get away from that.

So, so I saw a lot of articles this week, and the articles were all talking about like ATM machines and banks And even, you know, we've talked to people about banking, and we see when we're driving down the street, many bank branches are closing and, and banks are merging. So we've seen, you know, a lot of, you know, bank mergers.

Yeah.

And, you know, so I think from that standpoint, I think community banks and credit unions, which some regulation has loosened up where you don't have to be a members to, to like use those banks anymore. They're open to the public now. So I think those banks definitely have an opportunity to establish themselves more and to be more involved in the community than ever as the big banks start pulling back on the branches. And we also talked about how one bank, PNC, Allen Kopelman, we're going to point them out, that they actually have, have branch— they're actually doing a pilot program. Yeah. Where they had, what was it, 26? Is that what it said?

Something said 26. They're wherever they're doing business, in 9 different areas they're doing business. Out of them 9 areas, 26 banks are going to be cashless. And I was telling Allen Kopelman that I used to bank with PNC, and I feel like they've been rolling this out for a really long time.

Well, I think that they've been leading up, doing things— that's what I need up to.

They've been rolling it out for a really long time because they closed the lobby. I— dude, at least 5 years ago.

Oh yeah, well, I've seen that where you go into the bank now, some banks, there's no tellers, right? They they just point to an ATM that's inside the bank. They put an ATM inside the bank, and you go to the ATM and you do your deposit, and you put your— get money out. And then there's maybe one person or two people at the desks, and that's it. Yeah, they're there for loans, they're there to help you open an account. Yeah, I mean, I think we're gonna see— because, you know, I went to that Financial Brand Conference. Yeah, I think you're going to see things like kiosks in the lobby soon where you're going to walk up to a kiosk and open up your bank account and they put some facial recognition on there and all sorts of stuff like that. So in these articles I was reading, they were talking about like, oh, where do people go for their financial services? And I know that it's kind of an age thing, right? So young people are going to lean more towards like fintechy type stuff like Chime and neobanks and things like that. And older people like my mom, she likes to go to the bank, right? Wants to walk into the bank, see the bank— the lady from the bank— do the paperwork in the bank. She doesn't want to do—

she wants to manage her checkbook.

Oh yeah, my mom's got a check register and she still writes checks and all that whole thing. So they were talking about like, oh, how do you do these things? And you know, we've also seen kind of like check cashing stores disappear a little bit too.

Definitely.

Like, it's, it's definitely—

they disappeared and then they just went into like Walmart and your grocery store.

Yeah, Walmart started doing stuff with checks and the grocery store a little bit. Walmart more because Walmart really wants to become a bank.

I mean, you can pay for everything at the grocery store, bro. Yeah, you can go get money order, you cash your check, you can Yeah, you could do bill payment.

A lot of them have kiosks.

Western Union.

Yeah, they have kiosks for bill payment. They have software for bill payment. So where do people go to do their financial services? We're talking about, oh, get cash. You can get cash at the bank or an ATM, but at the same token, you can walk into the grocery store and get money. You can do cash back on your debit card and like, uh, and like a CVS, you know, so almost anywhere. Not all— you can't go in a restaurant, do a cashback.

That's almost anywhere, right?

Mostly grocery stores and pharmacies, man, for the most part, right? Yeah, yeah. So there's places—

gas stations, right?

There's a place where you gotta go to the ATM at the gas station to get cash back. Yeah. Oh, I didn't know that. I never go in there and try to do a cashback.

I mean, I don't use cash like that.

Oh, but you see people getting a cash?

I mean, it asks you right there.

Oh, okay. I'll have to check it out next time.

I got 7-Eleven. That's— I mean, that's, that's the gas station I go to. Okay.

So that's— so there are places for people to go to get cash besides the banking. ATM at a gas station, hit the grocery store.

I really appreciated the grocery store thing because there's like, as a parent, you know, you'd be at the grocery store and before they go on a field trip, you know, you're getting their lunchable. You need $20. Their lunchable, and then they're, you know, they're calling you, Dad, Dad, don't forget, I need $20. And, you know, you don't want to go to the ATM or there is no ATM close. And so that was a really good thing that, you know, grocery stores made it accessible that way. So then you can get a couple bucks right out of there.

I mean, you—

I don't know how much you can get. A lot of money. I've gotten like $300 from them.

Yeah, they might. I don't know.

I don't know the limit.

Yeah, I don't know.

I might have—

some stores might have a limit like at the register, and then you have to go like to the counter to get more money. And then we're talking about like depositing—

this—

some businesses have to deposit cash. So we've been having some interesting— so if you have to deposit cash, you can go to the ATM, deposit cash, and go to the bank, deposit cash. But also now I think we're going to see like we saw those next generation ATM sidecars at the ATM show we went to a couple months ago. And soon you'll be able to go to, you know, I think you're going to see banks start to put financial institution style ATMs like in public places. Like let's say I'm the Bank of Allen and I finance Justin's grocery store, and I say to Justin, hey, we don't have a bank in your— in the area, area within 5 miles of your grocery store. Hey, we want to put this banking kiosk in your grocery store so that people can come get cash out of the ATM with no surcharge, which we can help them get set up, and they can make deposits. And maybe even possibly with the addition of the Sidecar do some other additional banking services on that machine. And that's— I think we're going to see banks, especially the small banks— I don't think we're seeing like Bank of America do that. I think we're going to see some small regional banks, community banks start to look at this concept and do it.

Interesting.

You know, I mean, it's gonna— it's got to happen because they got to increase their— give because, you know, like sometimes the ATM in a small town, like a rural area, the ATM is the financial institution for that area because there's no other way to get cash unless you're going to drive like 45 minutes to the Walmart or into the town to get money. No thanks. Believe me, I've been where my daughter lives in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. We drive out to like a small town Yeah, the, the, you know, whoever has the ATM out there, they're like the bank of that town because there is no banks out. No one's going to put a bank out in a town with a couple hundred people, you know. It's not like Mayberry RFD, you know. And then depositing checks, right? So here we get into another level of banking, right? So you can deposit a check at the ATM, deposit a check at a bank, and then The other day someone sent me a check and my daughter was like, oh, what are you doing? All— why are you going to take that to the bank, right?

Yeah, exactly.

She's like, oh, get it out, do this, do that, and then take a picture of it. I never did it. It's the first time I ever did it.

Oh really?

Yeah, I never— well, nobody ever really mails me a check, so I go to the bank usually once every week anyway.

So that— you don't have to do that for deposits, right?

So I took a pic— well, for business they don't let you take a picture of it.

Oh really?

Yeah, it's not included on my business account.

PNC would let me do that.

Interesting. I have to look, maybe they added it. Um, maybe they added it.

PNC would let me do it for sure.

So you take a— I took a picture and deposits it. So that, that gets you now to the app, bank apps, fintechs. That's where I think that banks need to become.

Are there any apps that you could fit, like, are that are for specifically for depositing checks? No, not—

well, you can also do like you could set up a device in your business. Like, let's say you get a lot— no, I don't think— well, I don't know if anybody's got a remote, like a separate remote deposit check app yet. Be interesting that somebody launched that. But you can get like a device.

I mean, the reason I'm sure that there— it just sounds like a security nightmare because you'd have to have all the banks on the same page to be able to—

no, I'm going to explain—

to integrate into their deposit system.

I know, but I'll just tell you, there's like a company, RDM, so they make, uh, check imagers, right? So you can put software on your computer, right? And then the software, you run that. Let's say you get 50 checks a week, you image all the checks, front takes a picture, front and back, then it appears in the software and then you have your bank account link linked to it, and then it just sends, sends it over, sends the file over to your bank. So that company already has software like that. It'd be interesting if they did an app like that, then you wouldn't need the piece of hardware, you could just do it on your phone.

But that's third party.

I'm talking like it directly to the bank. Yeah, yeah, it's a third party, but that's how it's all— most of the stuff is done third party.

I'm just saying that banking has it. You're— every bank has an app, right?

They just need to include it in there. Yeah, yeah, they just haven't done that. I think they haven't done that for business checks because someone could get a check for thousands, huh?

For— you don't know.

I don't know.

The other day was the first time that you even tried doing this, so I don't believe anything you're saying.

Okay, I'm gonna go get my— I'm gonna get the phone right now. No.

Okay, well, you can try when, you know, you got another check.

The deposit? Not now.

When you get— that's good. There you go, record it.

Next time I get a check, we'll take a pic, we'll make a video. But you know, you can check your bank balance, you know, check your bank balance. People check it at the ATM, people check it at the bank, they can check it at a third-party ATM. Banks have apps, you know. The other thing which was good that I read is that, you know, banks are— bank— all these banks want to have like a digital credit card in their app now, and they're fighting with Apple, and it looks like they're gonna finally be able to get that. Nice. So that's coming up. And then payroll, you know, that's another thing. Like, it's another, you know, financial service that everybody— that people deal with is like, you know, you're getting your payroll, right? You know, like, we— I run payroll. I have a payroll company. I like it. It's all— they automate everything. They pay all the taxes. They take care of all the tax filing. It's a lot to do, you know. I remember once trying to learn how to do that, and I was like, yeah, that— I'm hiring the payroll company to do that. I'm not dealing with that. Rocky, what are you doing? You don't like all the new equipment? The podcast?

Yeah, Rocky is not feeling the setup right now.

There's a lot of new lights in here and stuff, so he's tripping out. And, uh, but payroll is an interesting service, and I see lots of payment companies like Square, Stripe, um, I don't know, does PayPal offer payroll services? I don't know, I don't know. But I see a lot of companies now are starting to get into the payroll services and add it to their— add it to their fintech offering, you know. And, um, you know, sending money between businesses, right? So we always talk about like real-time payments, Zelle. And today, again, another news story about, you know, Zelle in hot water with the, with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, and then Zelle in hot water with, uh, that committee, the Financial Committee in the Senate, you know. And, you know, we've talked about that, and Zelle tries to say, well, there's a difference between fraud stupidity and being scammed and being stupid, right? And I don't know, like, why—

I don't know. I get their argument, huh? I get their argument, but they're still going to lose.

They're still going to lose.

I think so.

I know Wells Fargo and Bank of America paid out more money, but they don't want to pay— they don't want to pay the full 100% because they say people were stupid to click those links. So they're, you know, they're calling—

I mean, I'm gonna keep my mouth shut, right, because I don't want to offend anyone, right?

But at the same time, that's one thing I would say is I think that like at the, at the high school level or even the middle school level, I think some form of cybersecurity, yo, these free, uh, basic, uh, financial literacy, basic technology class, and basic, I don't know, housekeeping and like cooking, bodily hygiene class.

Yeah. When they took health class out of this, like, right, it took health, economics, cooking, history— when they took all this out of civics, civics out of school.

Yeah.

Like, you got a bunch of people that rely on the devices to do everything for them, and so they're not thinking. And I don't know, I know I have 6 kids, and you know, all of them are very different. They go range from 26 down to 15. So the 15-year-old has no understanding of financial, of money, right? They just don't get it. Like, well, why can't we spend $500 on the— or $1,500 on the phone today?

Wow, $1,500. That's almost the new Apple iPhone. It's insane.

Do I mean— it's not 15—

what is it, $1,300? Yeah, whatever the price is.

It's $1,499. I'm pretty sure it's $1,499 for— that's the minimum of the the bottom barrel of the new iPhone 14 Plus Max.

Nuts.

Yeah, whatever. So it's like she tries to like, well, you guys spent this and this and this on this. I'm like, yeah, if we wouldn't have spent this, this, and this on this, you wouldn't have a house, you wouldn't have clothes, you wouldn't have food, car, you wouldn't have a car, we wouldn't have electricity. So like, you can't just spend money out of nowhere and still manage your life. So I think that on top of that, like, it's the social media thing. Like, they just— what they see on social media isn't real, right? Hello everyone, we'd like to take this time to thank our sponsors Nationwide Payment Systems and NPS Printer. We'd also like to shout out the listeners and everyone that subscribed to our YouTube channel. Thank you for tuning in. If you'd like to reach Allen or myself, head over to B2BVault.info where you'll find two forms, one to contact us and another if you're interested in becoming a sponsor. If you'd like to sign up for a merchant account, click the Apply Now button located at the top of the page of B2BVault.info where you'll answer a few questions and you'll be on your way to processing payments in no time. The podcast is available on Spotify, iTunes, Pandora, and other popular streaming networks. Thanks again for listening. And they don't understand that, you know, like, success can be easily displayed, and you can be fooled into believing that someone is very—

yeah, my dad used to tell me that. He goes, oh, don't be impressed when you see someone with a fancy car. He's like, they could be leasing the car. And they don't get very many miles, but they just go off. No, but they want to show it off.

But leasing a car, ain't nothing wrong with leasing a car. I'd rather lease a Lamborghini than pay two— what is it, $25 million?

$125 million? No, I don't think it's— I think it's a couple mil.

I have no idea.

I don't know. I'm not a car guy. I never priced one out.

Don't care for it. I like Lamborghinis, they look nice. I don't want one.

Okay.

They don't even look nice to me. I'm just being nice, I guess. Dude, if you want to race cars, go race cars. Like, it's not a race car. Like, you're not a race car driver.

I get it, you ain't fooling me. No, they definitely—

these guys in these pickup trucks that are like monster trucks, like, bro, like, what's wrong with your ego?

No, but like, for the minute somebody gets a phone, they need to like understand like what the scams are so that they don't fall for a scam. Agreed. And the same thing, like economics, that was— I remember taking that class when I was in high school And I remember the guy said, okay, everybody's gonna make like $25,000 a year. And then you had to go—

you had to budget your monthly budget.

Yeah, we had to make a budget for like, oh, you're gonna rent an apartment, you're gonna buy a car, how much is the electric bill? And you had to go find it all this out by however you were going to find it out.

Yeah, that's a—

that's a—

that's— that needs to come back.

And, uh, that was— that was a really big eye-opener for me. And I've even sat down like my— I sat down my daughter too when she went to She got her first job, she moved to Iowa. And I remember before we went to Iowa, we sat down and I go, okay, we gotta talk about what's happening. You know, you had your— you know, you were at college and you managed— you know, she managed to pay all her own bills her last, uh, almost 2 years there. I didn't have to go with any money. She was— she was getting grants because she was doing the TV, right, right, you know, meteorology, and she was on the radio. So she, that, you know, she got all these grants and she got a little payroll, you know, they had her on the payroll a little bit. So, you know, plus it wasn't very expensive to live in Gainesville. It's a very reasonable place to live. So I sat her down when she was going to Iowa and I go, well, this is how much your check is going to be, this is your net pay. 'And then, you know, what are your bills?' So we wrote it all down on a paper so she had it, because I said, you know, I don't want to get the phone call.

You're a good dad, man.

You know, I want to make sure she knows what's up.

Yeah, not a lot of people got that.

No, I know that. And that— and that— she's lucky.

Yes, she's very lucky.

I'll teach your kids if you want. I don't need you to teach my kids.

But yes, I would love for you to— they won't listen to your ass either.

What's in my sock?

Like, man, I'm not listening to your old ass. I don't listen to my dad.

I'll tell you what, my son, they listen to my grandpa, my dad though. They listen to your dad?

Oh yes, my dad. If my dad comes out of his room, yeah, and says something, they actually really listen to him. Okay, that's pretty. My daughter Mariah loves my dad so much. Shout out to Pops. Love you, Pops.

All right, I know.

Don't be sending Allen the weird-ass stuff on TikTok anymore, bro.

They were funny.

No, my dad is nuts.

Yes. No, so the, you know, so the, you know, so yeah, I think, you know, find— definitely people need a class, just like we talk about on the podcast before, like basic business financial literacy. People need to understand they have to have a budget for their company and things like that. And, you know, we also talk about like, you know, how do people pay bills? You know, using your bank has bill pay. You can use your bank's bill pay. You can go to the website of the company you're paying and pay your bill.

Do you use that service at all?

Um, I used to use the bank bill pay when I was paying a certain— I had a certain like car payment.

It was one bill, right?

Yeah, one bill.

I, I could only find one bill in mine too.

Yeah, no, no, it was just one thing. And it like, I was like, I would get—

it was for my, for— it was for my electric bill.

Yeah.

And I would get disconnection notice.

Yeah.

Because I use that.

That's crazy.

I would get emails all the time like, you are 3 days away, blah blah blah. And I'm— and I would have to call FPL and be like, yo, I made this payment like 2 weeks ago, right, through my bank. And they literally on the phone, the woman said we're gonna advise you to stop doing that because it takes a really long time to post. Oh, she said if you're gonna do it that way, you need to send it out on the 1st.

Wow, that's crazy.

Like when you get the bill, you know what I mean? Yeah, so that's how long it— that's how long it was taking.

I remember, like, I had a problem with FP&L one time. So we're in this office for like over 15 years.

We could tell.

Okay, whatever, it's not that bad.

No, we painted, it's fine, it's all good. We took everything off the walls. I wish we could tear the carpet up, but it's not gonna happen.

So we had— so at one point during 2008, 2009, a lot of the businesses moved out of the building that we're in. And I think it was at one point I was— we were the only tenant. No kidding. Yeah, it was crazy. And I wasn't getting my mail at all. So I called the mail— I called the post office. I go, hey, I'm not getting the mail. So I know what time the guy comes. So I go wait by the mailbox in my car. The guy comes, I'm like, I got a problem. There's no mail in my mailbox. There's mail in all those mailboxes. None of those— the mail above me, below me. I'm like, some of that's got to be my mail, and you go look. The guy tells me no, he can't do it. So I go down to the post office, I speak to the I don't remember the guy. I forget what the guy's title is, like the manager, postmaster. Yeah, the postmaster. I speak to him.

My dad was—

begrudgingly, the guy speaks to me and I explained to him what's going on.

You to go fuck off too?

No. So I said, I haven't got mail in like over a month, so there's a problem. And then I get a phone call from FP&L while I'm there. And they're like, uh, you plan on paying your electric bill? I said, well— and back in those days, I wrote a check and you sent it out in the mail. It wasn't— they didn't have really have online bill paying, not back then. It was just beginning, you know. So they tell me, I say, oh, I didn't know, I haven't seen a bill in like a month. And I'm in front of the guy, the postmaster. So the guy looks at me, he goes, okay, tomorrow I'm gonna come there at 1 o'clock to your building, blah blah blah, meet me at the mailbox. So I meet the guy at the mailbox, they take all the mail out of all the mailboxes, and I says, can— and they will not sort it in front of me. They will not. Yeah, they would not sort the mail. They says, we're gonna go take this back to the post office, re-sort the mail out, we're gonna find your mail and then tomorrow I'm gonna meet you at your office and bring you— dude, the guy comes with a full basket of mail. There was checks in there that I was—

that were old.

They were old, like 3 months old, that I was waiting on, that I totally forgot about at the time. And I was like, because I was dealing with a personal issue at the time, at a death in the family, and a and all this is going on. And then FP&L made me put my bill on like automatic draft. Yeah, for the office, because we hadn't paid them in like 3 months. And, uh, and I was like— and then I showed the guy like all the bills. I go, dude, see all my bills? I said, you guys are basically trying to, you know, just, you know, ruining my business. And I'm coming over there to the post office for the last 3 weeks trying to get you to come over here Thank you, finally. And then they went and relabeled it. Well, apparently the guy was putting them all, my mail, in the mail below, and then when he ran out of space, he just shoved it wherever because the guy didn't want to come to your office. No, he just was putting it all the, the, he just didn't know this, whatever, being lazy, whatever. He just was being lazy. And he was— he thought, oh, because it said the suite number here, he put it underneath, which was actually somebody else's office. So all my mail was in the thing below and all over the place because the guy didn't know what to do with the mail. So he was just shoving— even though people weren't here, he was just shoving it all in there. They weren't too happy with that mailman, I bet. But, you know, so back to, you know, and then what other services does your bank provide like ACH wires so that you can spend money that way. We always talk about Zelle, you know, but I think like, you know, what other— you know, when we talk about next generation, um, next generation ATMs, we saw all the different services that you could put on there. So we saw like deposit pay a bill off of it, buy crypto, which who knows if that's going to be a thing or not, and then a ton of other services. But all of that's being developed, and I think that, you know, businesses can use that to their advantage. Even neo banks— let's say you have, you know, neo bank and you try to make a footprint in a specific neighborhood with your neo bank. That would be a good way to establish credibility with the community by putting a financial institution style ATM and kiosk out. And like business that maybe you're financing or you're doing their credit card processing, things like that. What do you think?

Yeah, I, I mean, you're talking about the, the kiosks? Yeah, like the whole, like the financial institution kiosk, like I mean, they're pretty much been doing that for a long time, right? But I mean, they're like branches inside of the grocery store. I mean, I see— I could see how banks are gonna eliminate people more and more. I mean, the only time that I was able to even see somebody at my bank— at, well, my old bank— was if I was trying to get more money out of the ATM than it would allow.

Wow, that's crazy, right?

So I think it's like $600 or whatever, and if you needed more, you would have to— yo, I'm gonna call— at PNC, you had to make an appointment. That's crazy to do that, right? Like this— I remember I walked in there and she was like, yeah, you need to make an appointment, I'm a little busy right now. I said, you need— you, you— I need to make an appointment with you to get my money? And she said yes. I was like, yo, I cannot wait to close this bank account. I cannot wait. And I was very happy when I finally did.

That's crazy. No, but that's what's happening, like, with banks, you know. There's no customer service.

Well, like, I think what banks are starting to realize is, is that fintech is making them obsolete. Like, there's, there's so many other ways to go about handling our finances that we do not— and the younger generation doesn't A lot of them, they don't trust banks. They don't trust— there's not— there's no— the interest rate— they're, they're, they're getting educated and understanding, like, they have a better, uh, chance of, you know, seeing a, you know, like, a return on investment, because that's all what a social savings account really is, you know. And there's no real, uh, incentive for putting your money inside of a bank. I mean, I can make more money Well, you could make more money putting your money into crypto. Not now, not now, but last year at this time.

No, 2 years ago, whatever, right? Yeah.

But what I'm saying is my money is just as safe as at home underneath the mattress as it is at the bank, in a sense, somewhat. So I mean, there's always risks, right?

Yeah.

I mean, so I think that banks are going to have no choice but to pivot and make, uh, adjustments for how the, the people are getting their money, you know. I mean, how they want to receive their money, how they want to send money. Like, it shouldn't be such a big deal. I don't— it— if it's so easy to send some money over Cash App, how come you have to do all the other things through your bank, right? I mean, if you there's just got to be some security protocols established, and I'm sure that it's already there. I mean, it's facial recognition, they have the two-step authentication, I mean, two-bit encryption. It's just— there's just a lot, you know what I mean? Yeah, I think bank encryption— I mean, 256-bit encryption.

No, I think banks need to step their game up. So like, your bank has an app and they just need to make it do more. Agree. That's it. They need to make it where you can deposit funds, not go to the bank deposit.

I think COVID is accelerating that. Yeah, because you started, you started really noticing, like, I mean, I— that's why it's weird when you say about these, this, the contactless banks. Yeah, because I swear PNC has been rolling this out for at least 5 years.

No, some banks have been doing it, right?

And so you go into certain branches, it just makes sense, like They've been transitioning to that for sure.

Even Bank of America, right? I used to have a bank account at Bank of America, right? And there's one right down the street here from by the office. And I remember going there, they would be like, oh, you know, are you doing something that you could do at the ATM? And they had ATMs in the lobby and they wanted you to do like your deposit.

What I mean, like Wells Fargo, they've had the video conference calling for I don't know how long.

Yeah, they, they're Yeah, they stepped up the game on that.

Yeah, I mean, that's contactless. You weren't really— there was no contact to the tellers then either. So yeah, I mean, in the future, I don't think banks is gonna— the, the idea of a bank isn't going to be the same. The idea of a bank is going to be like government controlled. I— this is just me talking.

Yeah, this is—

so I think of it more like not going to be a situation Well, I don't know about that. I, I'm just saying, like, I don't see—

you still got to get loans and car loans and mortgages, and the rest of the world operates pretty much in that way. Yeah, well, that's what I thought.

Government controlled.

Well, I don't know. I did— I don't—

who knows where we're headed to, man. Ladies and gentlemen, kiss your loved ones, give them a hug. Yeah.

Hey, I don't know, get that crazy. Just saying, you know, banks need to step it up. Banks need to step up their game and improve their apps and bring some fintech to their apps and bring fintech and think about how to bring— take the branch, right, and put it somewhere else.

Like, put the branch into the phone.

Yeah, the branch into the phone. And also like the branch into the grocery store. I remember years and years ago, used to go into Publix and they had like a Bank of America kiosk in there.

That's what I'm saying. Like, back home in Wisconsin, like, that's, that's standard operating procedure. But now, anyway, grocery store you go to, there's a bank in there, right?

But I haven't seen that in years now. It went away.

Publix down by my house, there's a bank in here.

There's a bank in there. No, I'm saying they need to do it in all the, all the bank, in all the Publix, like And they need to, you know, take out the pharmacies and put the bank in there. Well, I don't know, people need the pharmacy.

The pharmacy and the grocery store, like, it's just wild to me. Like, you have all the stuff that's inside of the grocery store to make you healthy, but yet you're going to a pharmacy. It's another podcast.

I don't know, I, I like the Publix pharmacy because every time I've gone to the CVS pharmacy, if the wait and wait and wait and wait, and they're just more efficient at Publix.

I don't know.

And I think we're gonna see, like, I'm blessed and highly favored.

I do not have to take medicine.

Okay.

I do not sick. I have good health. And yes, I am very grateful that I am able to say that.

High five on that. No, but I would— no, I'm just saying, like, it's— I think one of the other things that I started to see happen, like at pharmacies a little bit. Well, I know at Publix there you can go in there and get shots, all different kinds of shots, like a tetanus shot. They were giving the COVID shots. They give other shots in there, which, you know, they're turning these pharmacies into, uh, farms.

No, zombie farms.

Well, I don't know about that. They're turning it into—

I'm not letting no pharmacist shoot me with something, bro.

Well, you can't get it at the doctor's office.

That's, that's really weird to me.

I know that's what I said.

I said if the doctors aren't giving you shots, right, then you shouldn't get that shot. I would say maybe it's not in your best interest, but that's, you know, don't— I'm not a doctor, so don't take my advice.

So let's end the podcast with a question.

Sure.

Where do you get your— tell us, where are you doing your financial business?

How do you access your money? Right.

Do you use a bank? Do you use a fintech app? Are you using a combination of those things? How many times do you go to the ATM? It's like, I always laugh when people tell me, oh, cashless society, cashless society, right? Not gonna happen. There's a lot of cash out there. And even the other thing which I didn't bring up is, as a new service, you know, we have a lot of people asking us about these smart safes. So they're being advertised, it hasn't been worked out like how to supply it as service. But a smart safe is where a business can take their cash, put it in the safe, which we saw, right? It counts the money, and then at the certain time during the day, it sends an electronic deposit to the business owner's bank account. The armored car comes by once a week, picks it up, they count the money, make sure that it was all there, and then it's all, you know, whatever. They do the Would it— they balance it. Yeah, they balance it, make sure it was exactly correct. And a lot of businesses are asking about that, and it's going to be a really big service, I think, in the next couple of years, because as banks don't want to handle cash, businesses are going to have to get these smart safes so that they can keep getting cash, right, and getting it deposited to their bank account electronically. I don't know, we're gonna have to video Rocky in here.

Rocky's not feeling it today.

He's like freaking out about all the furniture.

Oh, it could be the rain too though.

Oh, it's raining. Yeah, it could be the rain. Come here, Rocky. You wanna—

all right, man. Well, yo, so let us know, listeners, we appreciate you for listening. Check us out on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok, LinkedIn, Space, the Sun, Moon, and Stars, @B2BVault. You can find us there. Check us out on YouTube. Please like and subscribe to the channel. Turn on post notifications so you know when we're posting a new episode of the pod. Um, check out b2bvault.info. You can find information about sponsoring the podcast. You can get in touch with Allen or myself. You can even apply for a merchant account by clicking that nice button on the top in the right where it says Apply Now. It sends you to the form. You fill out that form. Boom, you're on your way to getting money.

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