dukeynorton

BOA are still holding my cheques (checks to all the US gang) and I want to know WHY? I have to pay in my salary every month as I cannot get direct deposit (dont ask!); its a significant amount of money obviously, but everytime they place a hold on it. It used to be a week but now it is a couple of days, which is still not acceptable to me as my rent is due no later than the 4th! I get the hold removed every time but have to see a manager for this so in reality it is more of a minor inconvenience to me, but no-one seems to be able to tell me:

a) Why they are holding the cheques - I have passed the 90-day period (I have been here 4 months) and keep my account in good standing with a fair bit of dosh floating around in it, except towards the end of the month

and

b) When they will stop doing it - This is the biggest pain because not even the manager has a clue. She even told me it could be a year or so before they stop holding them - WTF!!!!

Should I just go to another poxy bank or am I just being impatient? It's doing my head in though, the banking is soooooooooooooooooooooooooooo ancient here.

angelman

get out of BOA fast.. they are a bunch of shysters.. total crooks. Few if anyone has anything good to say about them. Charge you up the wazoo for everything and anything. Join a credit union. Banking here is still stuck in the stone age. one day they may even get the hang of electronic transfers rather than still relying on these mysterious bits of paper they call checks. I too get paid by cheque weekly. Every week I have to make a trip to the bank to deposit the stupid thing. I feel like I am working as a paper boy or something taking my little envelope around with me. Always losing the damn thing too. They only do direct deposit to their chosen credit union and not any bank/credit union. Fortunately though I never had the hold problem. If I deposit it directly in the bank it clears immediately, if I deposit it in the ATM it takes about 2 days.

dukeynorton

This is my point really, although I appreciate your points on BOA (bit of a circular argument I find cos they're all bastards really). Why me, not you? Is it because of the amount ($1,000,000 a month)?






(p.s. that is a typo! )

NC Penguin

Have you asked why your checks are on hold? If so, what was the answer?

surly

Go with another bank. I Have never had those kinds of problem.

Kaffy Mintcake

By holding your check, do you mean that you are unable to spend it for a few days? I've never heard of such a thing. My check is deposited directly into my account and once it's there, it's there. In fact, I'm technically paid on Friday's ... but the money is usually in my account by Wednesday night.

I would ask for an explanation too. Are you alone in experiencing this at BOA? Do their other customers?

Jerseygirl

Not so with Chase Manhattan Bank...it may show on your account but it takes about 10 working days to clear. The greater the value of the cheque the longer it takes to clear.

Kaffy Mintcake

Maybe I need a bigger check! I'm starting to think that all British are rich ... 24 years old, owning an apartment with $20K in the bank? I wish!

Sally

We found Citibank to be really awful - we couldn't get hold of any money for weeks when we first got here despite being assured it was all being taken care of, it was quite a panicky time. We're now with Wells Fargo.

Holding onto your cheque sounds totally unethical. As with many things here, I find, there isn't the consumer pressure to make them improve. There was such an outcry in Britain a few years ago that the banks had to shape up and credit your account the day you paid the cheque in.

Redlippie

dukey, find yourself a credit union as your main account. I'd keep my BOA account as a backup - when you travel, etc...you will have easy access to ATM's.

BOA took over a large bank called NationsBank about 8 years ago or so. They were such shysters that they lost a class action suit.

What were they doing? You had 1k in your account. You wrote checks for 1.5k but had a deposit of 2k. They'd put the checks through first, sending your account into o/d - charge you for every check 'bounced' and then put the deposit through.

Kaffy Mintcake

Getting overdraft protection with another account (ex: savings) is a good idea too - I have that for free ... just in case.

rincewind

Depends who your work banks with. I'm lucky in that my company use the same bank that I use so my pay checks are cleared the next day.

If your company bank elsewhere, this is why there is a delay for a transfer. A couple of days isn't anything to complain about. Some can take longer.

dukeynorton

Bingo! This is one of the explanations given to me and I was hoping to hear something similar from you guys. I still think its outdated!

And I have to be honest and say that apart from that, I dont have any other gripes with them. Their online banking is a big bonus I think it compares well (if not better) with some english banks (e.g. HSBC).

austin_d_powers

The bank you are depositing the check into has to send the check (or legally correct electronic image/data ) to the paying bank, and the paying bank then has to process and send funds to your bank/account ( presumable by electronic ACH payment ).
This takes time, 1 to 2 days for instate checks and up to 5 days for out-of-state checks.

Since bank transactions are not real time, the hold on the check is really your bank saying that they will not give you the money until they get it from the paying bank (1 to 2 days for your bank to actually recieve the cleared funds ).

For larger amounts the hold period may be longer, this is your bank saying wow this is alot of money so we are going to wait to make sure we get this money before we give it to you.

On the other hand your bank could and sometimes does (depending on their rules and your account status) make the deposited check funds available to you immediately (i.e. they give you the money before they have recieved it from the paying bank).

As is the case for most things in life, the people who do not need the deposited funds immediately get the funds immediately.

USBound

hmm... this is definitely NOT my experience... We moved to Chase after many issues with BOFA holding checks for extended periods...

Chase have thus far cashed every check we've given them within 1 day.