The funds availability notice will generally say they can hold it for as long as legally allowable for any reason they please.
It's not a question of legality, of course they have the right. At issue is whether the the time it takes to clear deposits is based solely on the process itself, or whether the banks are intentionally manipulating it to create overdraft fees for certain clients. I think the answer is pretty clearly the latter.
Find two people with a checking account at a major national bank. One has never had an overdraft, one has had five in the past six months. Have them both deposit a check from the same source at the same time at the same branch, and see whose deposit clears first. The customer who has been identified as a fee generator will not see their deposit cleared until at least a few days later than the good customer, if not longer.
The wife and I found the best way to get around it was to simply cash the check, drive down to another branch and deposit the cash. It was pretty asinine that this could make a seven-day difference in availability, but it did.
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