Indy500
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Because the bank earns interest on it...and all the others it has locked away in the 'betweeny' time of it being cashed and cleared.
Its a freaking scam basically, and hopefully they will be sued for theft in the future. |
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steven e
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5days to clear and five minutes to find you if you have not paid. |
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Alfie
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So that the banks involved can share the interest you should be receiving. It reminds me of the amount charged by Thomas Cook for altering your flight reservation: £110 (which they already hold from you) for less than 2 minutes work on their keyboard (an airline will charge only about £75 if at all). Ordinary people are very vulnerable to this sort of thing all the time nowadays. 5 working days for a cheque "clearance" is ridiculous, barefaced cheek. |
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Onestep downfrom God
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Pay for special clearance! |
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SCH
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1st of all no checks are sent thru the mail anymore. Check 21 requires the electronic truncation of checks...meaning they are imaged and sent to the federal reserve.
OK...this is why it takes 5 days (sometimes not always, local banks should clear in a day and you will understand why)
Day 1...You take your large dollar check to the bank teller who says she has to put a 5 bus day hold on the check. Said check is imaged by bank and sent to that bank's local federal reserve bank electronically.
Day 2...Federal reserve bank does their thing...if the check is local it is sent right to the local bank and clears that day...sending bank recieves money. A non local bank is a bank that doesn't use the same federal reserve branch as your bank. So the non local banks check is sent on to that banks federal reserve branch.
Day 3...transit time and processing time (non local feds can be across the country and takes time for the information and man power to catch up as well as time differences across the country mean one fed reserve bank can be noon and the other can be closed...
Day 4...Non local banks fed reserve branch recieves the check your bank sent and processes it.
Day 5...Non local bank recieves check and debits the money from account holder.
Lets say on day 5 there was no money in the account holders bank account. The process has to be reversed, there for it can take 10 days to 2 weeks for an NSF check that was drawn on a non local bank (rembering non local to a bank means they do not use the same fed reserve branch as your bank) it can take so long for you to find out about it.
This is quite a bit faster than it used to be...and it is why banks do not like that for a $5000 check they can only put a 5 bus day hold on the check, because it can take longer than that for them to find out the check is no good. And it is also why for checks larger than $5000 the government (reg CC) allows banks to put an extended hold on the check, or if the bank feels the check may be counterfit or fraudulent.
Hope this explination helps. |
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Icarus
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in a day you could have several million pounds worth of cash to move.
As a bank you take the money out of the accounts immediately and stick it in one of your own accounts for four days gathering interest.
You then pay it to the receiving accounts.
Doing this every single day brings you a lot of money for nothing. |
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claimbankchargesback
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It happens because of several factors:
The banks computer systems are still pretty old, although are gradually getting upgraded. A lot of transactions don't happen instantly, they are run in a batch job at the end of the day, which is why payments come out of your account in the early hours of the morning.
With cheques, rather than being scanned in the receiving bank, they are sent by post to a processing center. Cheques from other countries, such as the US have to be sent back there, which can mean its up to 6 weeks before you know the cheque has cleared properly!
It does the banks a favour to have your money for a couple of days, without having to pay you interest. However, they are earning money out of it themselves, so its 100% profit for them!
All of these cause delays, which is why it takes the time it does for cheques to clear.
Already, cheques are slowly being phased out, many businesses now don't accept them, and give it a couple of years and they`ll be gone completely. This will speed up the banking system somewhat, but its still going to a while before things happen "instantly". For instance transfers between banks usually take 3 working days, so this will be the new delay. |
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fireblood
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i know all these big concerns are making interest out of you and me .it stinks, 5 working days , they ought to get real |
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cdgrafix
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This is because of so much fraud today. Even if the check is valid and from another financial institution, the bank accepting the check has to make sure it will get the money and the only way to do that is to make sure it will go through before posting it without having the reassurance.
But I am mostly talking large amounts, for smaller checks I don't know why it takes that long. In my experience that has only happened to me for checks over $5000. |
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petes_quirkey_bits
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i am not a banking person but i did find out that the only reason it takes so long for a cheque to clear is becasue the bank makes money out of it in interest. and that is why it takes so long to clear. but really it only takes one day to clear but that is why they do it so that the bank can make more money!! |
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The_Smak_Daddy_SMACK!!
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My bank clears checks overnight....your bank just sucks! |
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Little_Pixie
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I know. Its really irritating but you will just have to wait. Its not long. |
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dels replies
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In this day and age cheques are antiquated and will not be in use for much longer . Hand written cheques need to be sent through the clearing house system to the bank that holds the account and then cleared and the amount credited to the recipients account. This is a legal requirement, To avoid this you need the money to be transferred to your account electronically (BACS) and not by cheque.A written cheque is not part of the modern electronic money transfer system In future decline a cheque as a means of payment. |
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Steve C
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The law allows banks to make money on what's called "the float." The float is the amount of time between when the bank receives money on a processed cheque and the time when it credits the cheque to your account. There are many banks who will favor the customer by not cheating him out of his earnings in this way. |
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BIG D
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Angel dear
Banks don't want the likes of you or I any more.
Cheques are on the way out and many retailers now simply refuse to accept them.
My way of coping is to sometimes go into a petrol station or shop and get items or goods and wait until they are all added up in the register and then get out my cheque book (!!) But then I do have a lot of time on my hands and an old fashioned sense of humour.
And, as London Transport rolls out Oyster Cards to the retailers of coffee stalls and confectioners, I don't suppose simple old cash has much time left either. |
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sarahmains@btinternet.com
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it is for sercurity some banks only take 3 days. They have to make sure they funds are there. |
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Knownow't
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I agree...do you realise that you have to send a cheque to clear your credit card balance at least 10 working days before the due date....ridiculous...don't mind them having the interest for a couple of days, but five days, and in the above case 10 days is robbery. |
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Wade H
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Because someone gets to "use the money" during that interval that has more pull with Congress than you do.
Please consider carefully insulting people with power while conservatives are killing people who insult them.
Yes, killing.
No, I'm not kidding.
They seem to have shot me for trying to join an activist group.
They forcibly drug people with "psychoactive dope" that acts like a date rape drug - as State employees - then turn said people loose to get raped by people who are AIDS infected. Reality - read up on the effects of modern psyche "meds". Observe these drugs alter "libido". This means they act like date rape drugs to at least some people.
So, whenever conservatives are in power they kill.
Don't insult them; instead vote them out of office. Don't listen to their lies, like: "vote for me I'll stop abortions from happening (maybe, 27+ years from now)" Just vote them out. Don't listen to their lies like: "give us the right to jail any man who competes economically for the same job a Mexican drug dealer might take as a "cover" and we will get men to take care of their children (or if less than 27% actually can pay for their child support because we have many of the the rest of them in private prison working for us for free then we will ridicule those we let out and keep them so in the public eye that you consider all deadbeat dads to be just like those we constantly parade in front of you because you Americans are so damn stupid!)" Don't listen to their lies about all those "conservative" prisoners they have "discovered weren't guilty - because of "new" DNA evidence. Assume all those let out bribed their way out and don't vote conservative; if they were really interested in jailing only those "worthy" of such an environment they themselves would inhabit cells. |
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Paul S
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Get a grip - the banks have to make money ! |
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