Banking and Bad Customers

[wagegoth]

Considering that my company has been electronically depositing checks for the last decade or so, I'm not sure what took so long in getting that technology into ATMs.

Deposits to ATMs still have to be manually pulled and credited to the accounts. Deposits are made in envelopes and there is no way to verify the contents of the envelopes except by people.

My main bank pulls everything the following morning and credits it, so even if something came in that might have left me short from the previous day, they will apply the credit first, and clear the insufficient funds. I love them.

My other bank is not so cool. I'm only still with them because that's where my VISA is. They pull from the ATM, but don't credit deposits in the branch. They send them to centralized service centers, so the deposits don't show up for an extra day. They suck.

[Ghel]

"Check 21" doesn't have anything to do with hold times for deposits. It has to do with check truncation - turning a physical check into an image, to be cleared through the computer system. It's supposed to speed up how fast checks clear, since banks no longer need to mail the physical checks to the bank on which they're drawn. In theory, this could mean that a check could clear the bank within hours of when it's written.

[EricKei]

I stand corrected ^_^ I was thinking of the EFAA, which sets the time limits on holds. (It was linked to within an article I found about c21).

[bsaana]

Electronic deposits are very common. As is the electronic clearing of checks. I've had direct deposit of my paychecks ever since 1967. I don't know if it was electronic back then or not. I probably been at a half dozen banks since then.

I think that person is referring to one of USAA's banking products. Very good company if you can get its services (limited to military members, their family, and I belive now former military members).

My wife has a checking account with them, and even though we are far from any of their offices and no ATM of theirs around we do not have to send physical checks to them for deposit. Deposit@home is nice. They even have it as an iPhone app, and now available for Android phones. Scan/picture both sides of the signed checks and it will be deposited in your account.

I have yet to see signs of any holds placed - such as pending deposit and such.

[Midorikawa]

I think that person is referring to one of USAA's banking products. Very good company if you can get its services (limited to military members, their family, and I belive now former military members).

Limited banking is now open to anyone, although insurance and all the perks of USAA banking are still restricted to former/current military/families. I must say, I've loved having USAA as an insurance provider, although I don't use them for banking, so I can't judge on that one. I do know, however, that their customer service is among the best I've seen, if not the best I've ever worked with. None of my calls to them has lasted more than 5 minutes, and has always fixed whatever problem I've had and then some.

[underemployeed]

Deposits to ATMs still have to be manually pulled and credited to the accounts. Deposits are made in envelopes and there is no way to verify the contents of the envelopes except by people.

My main bank pulls everything the following morning and credits it, so even if something came in that might have left me short from the previous day, they will apply the credit first, and clear the insufficient funds. I love them.

My other bank is not so cool. I'm only still with them because that's where my VISA is. They pull from the ATM, but don't credit deposits in the branch. They send them to centralized service centers, so the deposits don't show up for an extra day. They suck.

I actually know of a place that doesn't put a hold on the check if you put in the ATM so in theory you could lie, say you deposited $20,000 in checks, withdraw the cash and go bet it all on Black in Vegas, which is why most banks don't trust people because I say it as a joke, but you know at some point in time someone would do it.