Ok, im 17 and i just got a checking account, so bear with me here 
Someone wants to pay me for something with a $475 check. I dont have $475 in my account…in order for the check to clear will I need that much money in my account? I know i have to wait for it to clear either way…but do I need that much money in my account BEFORE I deposit the check and wait for it to clear?
I dont know if this is universal. I use NBT bank. please reply asap. thanks. and sorry for being stupid
No, it probably won’t affect how much time it takes to clear, in my experience. However, some banks have rules about how much cash back you can get if you don’t deposit the whole amount. That might be based on how much there is in your current account.
Clearing time used to be based on what type of check it was (personal, payroll, different bank, etc.). In these days of electronic verification, I’m not sure the rules are the same.
A call to your bank could have answered this. Regardless - no, you don’t need to have a matching amount of cash in your account to deposit a check. You’ll need to wait for it to clear before having access to the money though.
Read up on cheque fraud before accepting payment by cheque.
Incidentally, I followed similar issues for years on a now-defunct discussion forum for bankers.
There is ZERO way for anyone besides your bank or another customer of your bank to know.
Their options, depending on “certain other factors” that the bank is sole judge of, consist of refusing to cash it at all, providing immediate access, or sitting on it for 90 days… or anything inbetween.
Edit: Some banks will allow you to cash banks drawn on their account holders IN THAT BANK. Less and less common nowadays, but near universal 10 years ago. You may wish to call their bank’s local branch up and ask if that would work for them.
The best way to get your money fast, as stated above, is to go to the bank that the check is drawn upon (that is, the bank of the person who wrote the check) and cash it there. They’ll probably want ID, maybe a thumbprint, but they should let you walk out with cash in hand. Barring that, you can deposit it into your account and wait for it to clear.
Banks usually have a policy about checks, though, such that you can immediately receive cash up to $100 from a check that you are depositing. Ask about it when you go to deposit it. You’ll have to wait for it to clear before you can access the rest of the money, but in the meantime, you’ll at least have something.
As long as you’re not withdrawing more money than was in your account before you deposited the check, you’re fine. A deposited check clears (assuming it’s good) no matter how much money you have in your account.
Issues arise when you want to write a check. If you write it for cast at the bank where you deposited the check, the funds you deposited may not be available. However, if you write the check to pay for something, by the time the check you write gets back to the bank, your deposit will have cleared. The time it takes a check to clear is standardized (three business days, I think), so if you pay by check any time after you deposit the $475, you will not be overdrawn. The check you deposited will clear before the checks you write on it come back for payment.
It may depend on your relationship with the bank – how long you have had the account, what your typical practices are, average balance, how often (if ever) your deposits bounce, etc. If the bank values you as a long-term, good customer, they may bend the rules a bit even if they take a risk. New customers may have to abide by the stricter rules.
And if you have overdraft protection, or whatever name they decide to call it, where a credit card or savings account is linked to your checking account, to be drawn upon just in case – you won’t have a problem up to the credit limits.
I don’t understand - why would you need any money at all in the account in order to receive a check? Surely you don’t need the money in the account to clear the check - the money is put there by it clearing. 
Mangetout,
I’m going to say that the OP has never made a deposit this size before, and simply has no clue how these things work.
Truth be told, I was pretty ignorant of banking at his age.
UK teens may get a better education about banking than US teens do wherever this young poster is living.
In many places, your financial education from the school system is ZERO… it’s only recently that SOME US schools have started offerring this kind of material.
As far as I’m concered, it should be stone mandatory, then again, like sex ed, your parents SHOULD teach you anyway. Should doesn’t help if your parents are unbanked, and about 1/3rd of Americans don’t have chequing accounts anyway…
thanks for all the help!