Tired of banks putting a "hold" on checks you deposit? Posted by mitcka at 04/06/05 02:14 PM

Although a new federal law makes it fast and easy for banks to cash the checks we write--we still wait days for access to the money from checks we deposit. That can change with support for the Consumer Checking Account Fairness Act.

Are you waiting too long to get access to your money after you deposit a check? Banks commonly “hold” a deposited check for several days before crediting the money to your account. You could deposit a big check on Friday, write a check later that same day, and have your check bounce because the funds from your deposit aren’t made available to you until Tuesday (for a local check) or much later (for a non-local check). Sean Bonner of Metroblogging and Blogging Without Borders reported a typical experience.

A new federal law (called Check 21) helps banks, savings and loans, and credit unions to process the checks you write faster, but it doesn’t require banks to shorten those inconvenient check holds. Banks don’t even have to count weekends toward the number of days a check is held, even though they clear checks on the weekends.

Ecommerce Journal posted this: So who exactly reaps the benefits from Check 21? Not necessarily consumers. The new law does not require banks to process deposited checks any more quickly than they do now. Thus, consumers will not gain fast access to cash or the ability to pay bills in a timely manner just yet.

A bill has been introduced in Congress (called the Consumer Checking Account Fairness Act) to close these loopholes and to reduce check holds to one or two business days, counting Saturday as a business day. The bill was filed in mid February. Tell your legislators to support this bill!

comments (14)

1 Posted by Vince at 06/01/07 08:28 AM

Bank of The West hold my money too long.

2 Posted by Ann Grodman at 10/16/07 09:01 PM

Are you saying, "banks can LEGALLY *STEAL* MY MONEY FOR SEVERAL DAYS, before I can withdraw any of the money!....THE BANKS HAVE THE MONEY WITHIN 10 SECONDS -AFTER- THE BANK'S TELLER HAS GIVEN BACK TO ME THE -DEPOSIT SLIP!...SO WHY DOES IT TAKE 48+ HOURS WITH HSBC BANK BUT INSTANTLY ACCESSIBILITY WITH CITIBANK!

3 Posted by Kyle at 12/19/07 08:13 PM

My bank is placing a hold on my Christmas bonus check for two weeks, until two days after Christmas. I guess it's more like happy holidays for them.

4 Posted by Lynn at 01/25/08 01:51 PM

I've banked at the same location for eight years. In that time, the bank's been bought twice. First, it was First Commercial, then First Federal, and now Bank of the West. I never had to deal with holds on my deposits until BOTW took over. I deposited a check on Friday afternoon, wrote a check on Sunday, and the check went through before the deposit with a $33 charge for the privilege. GGRRR! I'm going to find another bank.

5 Posted by RICK at 01/30/08 10:33 AM

48 HOURS TRY BANK AMERICA HOLDS CHECKS FOR 10 DAYS FOR AN OUT OF STATE CHECK. WHAT A RIP OFF THEY ARE.

6 Posted by dan at 02/25/08 09:11 AM

i have you all beat, 25k loan from Capital one, my bank is bank of america. after 1 week they "released" 5k, in 2 weeks they will "release" the other 20k. I hope they choke on the intrest they are earning on MY money...after it all clears im looking for another bank!im already paying back the loan and it all hasnt been released yet.........

7 Posted by Oryx at 03/31/08 03:31 PM

Who in Congress does one write and is there a way to track the bill. What happens if the bill is passed and banks still do this? I was recently told I had to wait 10 days for an out of state check, even though Bank of America is a National Bank. I called the bank from which the check was drafted and it cleared the next day! This means that for 9 days, Bank of America used deceptive practices to make a profit off of my money (pretending that it hadn't yet cleared.) Oh yeah, when I called them on this, saying, no the check cleared, they said they have a right to hold checks as part of the Patriot Act or some such rubbish, presumably to make sure I am not sending the money to terrorists. Unless they think American Express is a terrorist organization then I'd like to know how they justified bouncing my check to them after the 10-day hold period and charged me $35.00. I think it's criminal that the banks can do this. I hope Bank of America loses a ton of money in this recession since these greedy practices helped cause it.

8 Posted by Angry Lady at 04/02/08 02:57 PM

BOTW now holds 5 days for first $4900 and 14 (FOURTEEN) days for balance on out-of-state checks. They are allowed to do that because Regulation CC allows them to, provided they don't exceed the maximum timeframe based on the characteristics of the check (e.g., amount, check institution and its location, etc.). They say it's because they are required to, but the truth is they do it because they can. I've been with this bank for about 8 years.

9 Posted by John Crain at 07/30/08 02:29 PM

WAMU holds out of state check for 11 days!!!

THis means they are earning interest on my money, while I can't use the 50k for my house down payment.!!

Crooks!

I would NOT recommend that anyone bank with WAMU

10 Posted by Pissed Off at 08/07/08 03:53 PM

I deposited a 6k check and I won't be able to use it for 15 days! They don't count the day I deposited it or the weekends! I'm getting sick of this does anyone know of a bank that doesn't put long holds on deposits?

11 Posted by brian at 08/16/08 03:30 PM

i just sold a truck i owned, brought my check to my local bank on a saturday witch was a cashiers check from the same town diffrent bank there holding my money for 7 business days so now i have to wait 11 days to purchase another vehicle
boy was i mad.

12 Posted by Sara at 10/04/08 10:37 AM

I deposited a check on 9/22/08 for $2800 in my Bank of America account. They claim that the $2700 hold is until the paying bank cleared the check, which was cleared but they still have a hold until 10/07/08. Now I have to pay an extra $150 in late fess because my rent which was due on the 1st is late.

Will the banks ever be rich enough so they can stop stealing from those who can't afford it?

Thanks for nothing Bank of America!!!!

13 Posted by trina at 10/31/08 02:37 PM

It seems most banks are jumping-on the "screw the consumer" bandwagon. I've known for a long time that Bank of America is a scam-artist. When I purchased a car I used them to finance it. They required me to open a "savings account" with $300 in it (they'll just add this to my loan amount)to get a car loan. Uhm...OK. Whatever. So the years pass and I happen to make a few deposits into that savings account just to have an emergency slush fund. Occasionally I write checks out of that savings account to cover checks in my regular checking account with them.

Finally the day comes when I pay off my vehicle. Never late on one payment. I take some money out of my savings account to pay for home repairs. I know exactly how much I have in savings as I rarely write checks out of it, so I don't bother opening the statements they send every month. About 6 or 7 months after I pay off my car loan, I get a letter from Bank of America saying that my savings account is OVERDRAWN!!!! I open a statement, and see that they've been taking $50 a month from my savings account because you have to have at least $500 in this "type" of savings account if you don't have a car loan with them. So...they bilked $400 from my account, and added a couple hundred more in "fees" for not having this $500. I checked and when I opened my "savings account" they didn't have this $500 limit. They arbitrarily just made this rule one day.

So...read those little booklets you get in the mail that are 30 pages long with tiny, tiny print and written in finance jargon you can never hope to understand very carefully...you know - the ones that come in the mail every three days or so? For each bank account and credit card you have??? (Because we all have SO MUCH TIME to read these...it's not like we are working or busy or anything).

Banks are scam-artists. I am going to go to cash only folks. They are dipping their fingers into the American consumer's pockets every time they can. And if they can't get what they want, they will pick your pocket!!!

It's interesting that if I were to charge someone 31.99% interest on a loan, the federal government would call it "racketeering" and I would go to prison. But the banks can do that and laugh in your face.

What is going on here, people?!?

14 Posted by trina at 10/31/08 02:40 PM

sara:

No, the banks will NEVER be rich enough to stop stealing our money. It's called GREED, and it's reached a new level in this society.

Take your money out of the banks! Cut-up your credit cards! Use cash! Put your cash in a fire proof safe in the floor of your closet. It's safer there than in the stock market or in a bank!!!