I typically deposit any checks in the ATM in front of my bank. But you can deposit a check anywhere, I’m pretty sure. So how do those checks get from an ATM across town back to my bank? Does the ATM sequester checks from other banks in a special drawer so they are easy to find?
It’s been a while since I managed the ATM department at the bank where I worked, but I am quite certain that you deposit checks only into an ATM owned by your bank. IIRC, you deposit the check into your bank’s ATM and you immediately get provisional credit. When the check is physically received by your bank, then you’ll get full credit.
Unless things have changed drastically in 10 years, you can’t physically deposit a check into another bank’s ATM.
Given that you can now deposit a check with your phone by taking a picture of it, I doubt there is any need to have the physical check sent anywhere anymore. I would hazard a guess that the actual check is destroyed once the deposit is confirmed as legitimate.
This is what I wandered in here to say. I regularly deposit checks into my account by snapping a photo of front and back with my phone.
For all they care, I could wipe my…er…nose with the paper check.
mmm
I think that’s the case as well. And I deposited a check using the phone app last week but then was told that the image was too poor and I need to bring the check to a branch, deposit it in an ATM or mail it in.
Except if it’s deposited into an ATM, the physical check must be verified at the bank’s processing center.
Unless the ATM scans the check and sends an image to be verified, but I don’t think that capability exists inside an ATM.
The question to the OP is why use an ATM to deposit a check when you could be using your phone and the bank’s app?
When I deposit a check at the ATM, a picture of the check is on the receipt.
I stand corrected. Do you know, do you have instant access to the funds from that check?
The actual check hangs around for like 15 days, but the image is saved for at least 7 years.
If you deposit with mobile app, you have to destroy that check within 30 days. And i would hold on to it for that long.
Yep.
That depends on your bank, and your balance.
Note that I was specifically asking @pirviii.
I’m guessing that if you have, say, twenty bucks in your account, and you deposited a check for $100, you would NOT have access to those 100 dollars.
I have never heard you “have to destroy” it after 30 days. My bank adsvises holding on to it for 30 days. But I have never been told to get rid of it after that. I have several years of old checks from mobile deposits.
I have no idea, I deposit maybe three checks a year for a couple hundred into an account with thousands.
I am not sure this is correct. Banks participate in big ATM networks. I believe the credit union (CO-OP) network supports as well as MoneyPass and Allpoint+ provided that your bank has decided to participate in these optional programs. So you need to check with your bank to determine exactly what your options are.
But the whole concept of depositing either checks or cash into an ATM is a bit risky as things can go wrong [machines jam up, etc].
HUH?
Possibly because certain checks can’t be deposited via mobile, including foreign checks & those over the $ threshold that your bank allows via mobile deposit.
(US specific)
Paper checks have been digitized starting about 2003 under the Check 21 Act
Current law is $275 must be available the next business day. You’re right that certain potential red flags may cause a hold for the rest, such as unusually large deposit relative to balance, short history, multiple overdrafts, etc.
I rarely deposit cheques in an ATM, but the first time I did it recently I was pleasantly surprised. Not only does the ATM scan an image of the cheque, but it reads the amount and automatically deposits that amount into your account. These are printed cheques like government refund cheques – I suppose it could have trouble with badly handwritten personal ones.
As for whether there’s a hold on the funds, it depends on the particular bank’s policies, the amount of the cheque, your standing with the bank, and sometimes the type of cheque (e.g.- a government cheque vs a personal cheque). At my bank, clients regarded as “trusted” can deposit fairly large amounts without a hold. I don’t think it matters whether you use an ATM or a human teller in that regard.
For some reason, checks issued by my company can’t be deposited by mobile. Recently, I was sent a check that got rejected when I tried to deposit it at the ATM; I had to go into a branch. They had no problem with it.
But yeah, otherwise the app is the way to go.
If this response means that you are unaware that you can deposit checks via a phone app, you should look into it. I think almost all banks offer this service nowadays. You use the bank’s app to take a photo of the front and back of the check, press a button, and the check is deposited. You don’t need to carry the check anywhere.
Admittedly I do not receive a lot of paper checks (only few in a year), but when I do I use the mobile phone app. Some are better than others at capturing the data, but invariably if it is above a certain amount, there is portion that is available right away and a part that takes time to clear (often just one business day).
Conversely, I have noticed that paper checks I write are deducted almost instantly. That is I write a check and it will often be the case that the total will be deducted from my account the same day, if the person/company I wrote it to deposits it. This used to not be the case in the past where it would take a few days to clear, but these days it appears to be almost instant. You should no longer count on any lag time when writing a check.
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