3 ms·

How does it work in the US?

• jolan 16y ago
  The same but not as fast. Usually 3 days to go through the ACH process. I routinely transfer money between my two bank accounts.
  • dredge 16y ago
    Ah, thanks. To be honest, in the UK in my experience the "within a few hours" thing only seems to apply when the transfers are between accounts at the same bank. Transfers to other banks are the same process, they just take days; especially if it's a weekend or a public holiday. I'm sure all of that's just an excuse to hang on to your money for as long as they can.
    • imajes 16y ago
      Actually, the faster payments system make interbank transfers (for member banks) go within minutes, and intrabank transfers shouldn't take more than a few seconds. That, at least, is my most recent uk banking experience...
    • nostrademons 16y ago
      "Within same bank" transfers in the U.S. usually happen by end-of-same-business-day, sometimes within minutes. I always figured that the 3-business-day wait was because of the interbank settlement process. Banks settle up at midnight between each business day: at that point, there's a shuffle where they figure out how much capital they need to meet reserve ratio requirements after the day's deposits & withdrawals, borrow from other banks at the Fed funds rate, or in the worst case, borrow from the Fed's discount window. If you figure a business day to transfer the money internally, then a business day to settle up with counterparties, then a business day for the money to appear in the receiving account, there's your 3 days. (I suspect they also pad the times a bit...when I've transferred money, it's usually taken a day and a half to two days for it to appear, which is consistent with the intraday settlement process. They want a little bit of a cushion in case some employee isn't on the ball or things otherwise get hung up.)