Well that’s a pretty nifty account feature. And obviously you know how your particular bank account works. The OP does not, and instead of kicking himself for it, he’s angry at his bank.
I’m sure bunches of people can come in here and announce how their bank’s policies would have prevented the OP’s situation. But normal bank accounts don’t: a hold on a check is perfectly normal.
Or a slick marketing campaign.
That’s terrible and definitely a big mess on the end of the bank.
I was rather happy with what BofA did this last time- the day after I called, I received an automated message verifying that my account had been marked regarding my international travel and that if I had any issues while traveling abroad, to call blahblahblah collect to receive immediate assistance.
Doesn’t matter. My SO’s MIL went to Hong Kong, and warned her bank & credit card she’d be making purchases. She gets there, rings up some money the first day, and bam! they put a hold on the account and call the home number and get the husband. Of course he was all “She’s in HK, it’s Ok to authorize” but fact is, they just don’t listen.
Credit cards aren’t good for everyone. I fucked up pretty big in college with credit cards, and when I finally got that mess straightened out in my late twenties, I refused to own a credit card for years and years, not trusting myself. I finally got one only this year (I’m 35) just to build up my credit again (because this world fucks you for not having any credit just as badly as for having bad credit. Funny, that). But I agree…when I had no CC I always stashed $20 in a secret place in my purse and forgot about it, and when I used it, I replaced it. We also keep a goodly amount of cash money at home in a secret place for the same reason.
I believe it is a Canada thing - I have a personal BMO account that I use near Christmas so my husband can’t snoop at what he’s getting for gifts (we have a joint account for everyday banking). If I deposit a cheque in the ATM I have access to $1,000 immediately, even if my balance was $1.84 before I put it in there. If I deposit the cheque in person I have access to all of it, although I can only spend $3,000 per day on that account.
The thing to remember though is that Canadian banks are country wide and there are only 5 of them (ignoring credit unions for the moment) - I think this makes them a bit less crotchety.
No kidding. I’m generally happy with my bank, but sometimes I wonder WTF is going on over there. Very recently I saw bizarre charges on my account. It looks like I deposited a check, the bank credited it, then removed it, charged me a fee, then credited me with the fee charge, then deposited the amount of the check again. In the end it was all fine and I didn’t need the money at the time, but clearly something weird was going on. I can’t imagine having that happen when actually needing the money right away.
You’re right about the rules in general, but the specifics can vary, as the post you are responding to indicates.
In my case, my bank had a policy that the first $100 of a personal check is added to the “available balance” immediately. But I just got a notice from them that this is increasing to the first $200. This is Bank of America, by the way.
I have a bog-standard checking account at Citibank. It’s fee-free due to me having direct deposit, otherwise it’s a perfectly “normal bank account”. What I’m trying to convey here is that different banks, even the majors, have different policies on check holds, and you can’t say that week-long holds are “normal” across the board.
Direct deposits are not subject to holds. Only checks.
Just because they have direct deposit means they don’t deposit any regular checks?
Another Canadian here chiming in to say I don’t have holds on deposited cheques either. I can deposit a cheque and then withdraw my account down to zero in the same transaction if I want. I’ve even deposited a $68K cheque from our lawyer and was able to withdraw/move the money that day.
BUT, when I was younger and had poorer credit I certainly couldn’t. I was allowed to access up to $500 of a deposit, but had a hold on the remainder (five days or something).
He may deposit regular checks, but in post #53, he said his bank does not put holds on his payroll checks. Then he said that he has direct deposit.
That’s exactly what we do. I flipped a couple weeks ago when my SO said (after his daily accounting of the checking/savings accounts) “We have no money. We need to go over what all has been spent!” After much discussion and visions of power being turned off and trying to figure out what in the hell I spent all that money on, he said “we have money, just not moneymoney. It can never go below $1000.”
It’s good, because when we get close to that I can go on financial lock down and not worry about what happened if I lost a $30 receipt and forgot to count it. Even if it’s just $5 a week, I highly suggest working towards this goal.
As for the check availability - I have had a credit union for years and not had an issue of having funds available to me. In fact, when I had a regular bank account and deposited over $10K I made some specific inquiries about how much was available when and they said “you can go use your card against it right now” - and I did. Things are just different all over and it always depends on where and which bank/credit union a person uses. I don’t think anyone here can claim blanket statements as fact and be 100% correct, and it looks like most are not intending to do so (but I’m lazy and maybe didn’t read so well).
And I also said that they do not hold the first $500 of personal checks. And I get payroll checks in addition to my direct deposits (different sources, off-cycle payments, etc.). Why is this so difficult for you to believe?
And I’m a she, although you had no way of knowing that.
You’re trying too hard to be “right”. She said that she had a checking account that was fee-free because she had direct deposit, i.e. she was stating the reason why her checking account had no fees (just like the reason my checking account has no fees is because I always keep at least $1000 in it) not that her only deposits were direct deposits.
Regarding holds being placed on check deposits, weekend ATM deposits can be particularly troubling if you’re living paycheck to paycheck (like much of my own life) because the deposit isn’t considered to have been made until Monday… which means the Federal Law, Reg CC requires only that the bank make the first $100 available to you on Tuesday, and the remainder of the deposit available on Wednesday. (That’s unless one of the exceptions applies, which can result in a longer delay). Also, it’s nice that many banks will make all of a payroll check available immediately, but it’s their own policy that allows this, they’re not required to treat them different under Reg CC. If they wanted to, they could theoretically enforce a normal hold on payroll checks (first $100 available next business day, the rest available the day after that).
Uh, no. Many banks have a funds availability schedule.
Like this one for my bank (PDF FILE)
https://www.chase.com/cm/crb/rfs/file/document/FundsAvailabilityLayout_RFS_Final.pdf
Many people get a few extra bills tucked in their wallet or glove compartment so that they have cash on hand in case something goes wrong. Preparedness is part of being an adult. Tuck $40 or $50 in cash behind a photo in your wallet and another $40 or $50 in your glove compartment.
What would have been your plan if instead you got to the gas station on fumes and realized you lost your wallet or ATM card? You still would have been stuck with no way to put gas in your car.
I would recommend against keeping large sums of cash (maybe this marks me out as being riff-raff, but I consider $40-50 to be a large sum of cash) in the glovebox of your car unless you are 100% certain your car will never be broken into. The few times we’ve had a break-in, the thieves ransacked 1) the ashtray, 2) the glovebox, and 3) the stereo, when we had an aftermarket stereo.
That said, keeping emergency cash around is of course a very good idea.
We keep it inside the manual for one of the kids’ car seats, which is stowed under the car seat itself in a special slot.