Two Week Hold on a Business Check

Problem with bank playing the float with my money

[Jane_Doe]

I recently made a deposit to my business account at a certain major bank in the U.S. They put a two week hold on the check for the funds to clear. (It was a local check - from a different bank in the same shopping center.) The bank rep handling my accout said they even put two week holds cashiers' checks because they have had problems with forged cashier' checks.

I mentioned it to my husband who used to work at a bank, and he pointed out they were just playing the float - that the checks all cleared electronically these days, usually within a few days at most.

I looked up the regulations on on FDIC web site and found out that my bank was actually not only beeing greedy and playing the float with my money, but they were violating consumer protection laws on funds availability as well.

I took a copy of the laws on funds availability to the bank and the bank manager told me the two week hold was correct until I pointed out that I had the print out of the law from the FDIC web site in my hand. So then he agreed to remove the hold altogether.

Anyway I'm going to close the account and do my banking elsewhere, but since they are one of the larger banks I thought I'd post my experience here in case it might help anyone else who has had a problem with long bank holds on checks in the U.S.

The laws on expedited funds availability can be found here:

[fdic.gov...]

[JohnKelly]

So, which bank was it?

[Jane_Doe]

I don't think Brett wants us to name specific places we've had issues with, but they are one of the larger banks in America.