This is the second blog in one week about current bank life. Ever since my bank was taken over by another, it has been an unmitigated nightmare. Don’t worry, I’ll spare you the real depressing details and instead just share the entertaining stuff, today focusing on a new bank policy. Actually, this rule of thumb is becoming common with many banks, but it’s new for our cozy little tight knit checking/saving clubhouse. All deposited checks (unless they come from the same bank) have a one day hold put upon them. OK. Not as convenient as before but no big deal really. Who can’t handle waiting just one day until his funds are available? Small stuff, right? Piece of cake. Of course, there are just a few, minor, harmless qualifications to keep in mind:
-The one day hold means “one business day” so anything deposited on a Saturday, counts as a deposit on a Monday and now your funds are not available until Tuesday.
-Oh yes! I almost forgot. All deposits after 4:00 PM are credited to the following business day. This means any check deposited after 4:00 on Friday counts for the following day, which is Saturday, which is not a business day, which means anything deposited late on Friday counts as Monday, and then with the hold, has funds available on Tuesday. Of course, if Monday is one of those many three day holidays, then anything deposited Friday after 4:00 is not available until Wednesday, because now we have to pretend the deposit took place on Tuesday. Clear?
-Oops! One more thing. Sometimes the bank just puts a hold on your check for any old reason. How fun is that? Your receipt tells you the funds are there. Your automatic teller even tells you the funds are already available because you only transfered money from a business account to your personal account. But then, if some higher up had difficulty reading the computer image of your check, they simply put a flag on your account and you never find out until you make another deposit, look at your receipt, and see about 3000 dollars less than what was there the day before. But don’t worry. There’s a long line of other disgruntled customers, just waiting for you to take your place so that in an hour or so, those morphing funds can get released again. Besides, it could have been worse. Instead of catching the deposit slip discrepancy right away, I might have tried using some of my own money in my own account. For what? Well, you know, to buy something or maybe pay a bill.
Once, when getting an inappropriate hold straightened out, funds were accidentally released twice, which meant (being the honest guy I am) I had to return the next day to explain that now too much money was in my account.
Who says you need to chase treasure around the world for an adventure? Just walk into your own, humble bank and life will be as thrilling and as dangerous as the latest installment of Indiana Jones!
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