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No cents to me
I found myself somewhere between bemused and mystified today when I stopped in to our local bank to deposit some checks. One of the checks was rather substantial, as on of the things I did on the trip referred to in yesterday's post was to stop at my bank in PA and close out my accounts (I'd kept them open to receive my last couple paychecks--my teaching contract paid September through August even though I wasn't coming back--and to ensure there wouldn't be any problem with making credit card payments and the like during the transitionary period.
So anyway, I've got this big bank check from the bank I did business with not only in PA but also in RI. Not a personal check but one printed out by my old bank. My new bank informs me that, because of the dollar amount and the fact that it isn't a local bank, the funds won't be available for 5 business days (in other words, a full week). Do the Medici have to transfer the gold equivalent from Florence, Italy to make this good, or what? Don't we live in the digital age here? How long can it take for one bank to check with another to verify funds? I mean seriously! Also: bank check!
I commented on my befuddlement to the tellers, how it didn't make sense to me why it should take so long, and they tried to tell me that it "is for [my] protection as much as [theirs], because if the check came back insufficient they would charge me a big fee." Uh, yeah. You're protecting me from... some kind of fraud perpetrated on me by my former bank? Does that really seem likely? If that kind of thing happened, ever, wouldn't it be pretty big news? Wouldn't such a bank be out of business about 5 minutes after the story broke?
I mean, I can understand a hold for a day or so to make sure that this isn't some kind of forged check or whatever, but a full week? No sense to me.