Quote:
Originally Posted by disneysteve
I have no idea why in this day and age with everything electronic it takes any time at all to confirm that a check is good. What about those systems that let businesses deposit checks by scanning them in and not even having to go to the bank. Isn't the whole point that the business knows instantly if the check is good? If you can do that, why does it take the bank even 3 days to verify a check?
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I'm wearing my flame retardant suit tonight so I'll take this one...Not all banks are running as "tech savvy" as others, so they are still pushing paper checks through their equipment, flying it to the Federal Reserve, the Fed processes it and then flies it to the originating bank that the check is drawn on. Say the check is bad, then the check has to go back in the reverse fashion to the original depositing bank. Banks aren't necessarily "verifying" the check, they are simply waiting to see if it comes back which can sometimes take several days.
Now, you mention the scanning of checks...yes, that is infinitely faster because instead of moving physical paper from one state to another they are simply transmitting electronic files with the check images. However, not all banks are doing this yet. As of a year ago (when I retired from banking) many/most of the smaller banks were not. However, it's definitely a growing trend.
I see many people saying that the check they deposited was from a reputable business (or something similar) as if to say that the business wouldn't write a check that would bounce. When the bank equipment is processing the work, it doesn't care who's reputable or not. The work is processed the same regardless of who wrote the check. All it sees is a string of numbers and that determines how soon you will receive your credit for the deposit.
When you open an account at a bank you should ask to see their schedule of funds availability. They are not all the same. The bank I used made the funds available the day after they were deposited. Another option is to have things directly deposited if possible, no clearing needed for these transactions.