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Checks Taking Long Time to Clear

I recently wrote a check against my credit union for $14,000 to buy a new car. I was amazed to see the check take 2 weeks ( or maybe even

3 weeks) to clear. Or the dealer, for some reason, held onto it for a long time.

Next big check was $2,000 for property tax, which was due on the day I handed it in to the city. That one cleared right away. A couple days, I think.

Next big check was for auto and home insurance, for $1,100. That one has been at the ins co for about 4 days without clearing.

I just heard an anecdote about someone who wrote a $4,000 check last week and the bank stated they were going to pay the check slowly over a period of 22 days !!! ( Not me, someone else's check). This bank is allegedly not having problems, but why would it take so long to pay the check??? Weird.

But back to my credit union. It is rated only "2" by bankrate.com. I wonder if they are also doing the "slow pay" thing with large checks. I thought that is what happens when a bank is taken over after defaulting.

This happening to anyone else? Checks taking a long time to show as cleared on your statement???

Thanks

Reply to
TheHorror
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People can usually stop payment on a check for 10 business days. After you have been burned by this once you probably won't consider a check cleared until 10 business days after it is deposited. Etrade just recently made me wait this long for my deposit to clear even though it was a cashiers check.

Reply to
Cam

SNIPPED

I've noticed that the larger the check, the longer it takes to clear. Not too long ago I deposited a $15,000 check into my checking account and was told that it would take 15 business days for a check that size to clear. When I inquired about why it took so long the bank said that there has been a high rate of fraud on larger checks and they no longer credited the accounts until AFTER they had received the transfer info from the issuing bank AND sufficient time had passed to ensure that the check could not be recalled.

I asked about "recall" and was told that even if my bank cleared the check the issuing bank could hold or refuse to clear the check for any number of reasons.

So lately I've taken to hand carrying checks to the issuing bank and cashing them directly whenever I can, especially if there might be a problem with the maker. Its a bit of a pain but I don't get too many and I consider it cheap insurance.

Gene E. Utterback, EA, RFC, ABA

Reply to
Gene E. Utterback, EA, RFC, AB

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