4 ms·

I once asked a bank rep how this worked, and was told that at the end-of-day settlement, all deposits and credits to the account are processed first, then debit

by quesera 16y ago

I once asked a bank rep how this worked, and was told that at the end-of-day settlement, all deposits and credits to the account are processed first, then debits and withdrawals. I believe the bank was Wachovia (now Wells), but it might have been BofA. I assumed then that it was an industry-wide customer-friendly standard, but maybe policies vary?

anigbrowl 16y ago
Well, it does seem to have been industry-wide. Customer-friendly, not so much :-) Seriously, what you describe is how the policies have often been articulated, but how they have been implemented depends on exactly how you define 'processed' - which may not necessarily mean 'applied to your account balance.' I don't want to extrapolate too much from my own experience (which is only one case, and recalled from >2 years ago at that), but the turning point came when I observed that debit/withdrawal times were consistently described in terms of a 12 hour clock, with deposits consistently described in terms of a 24 hour clock. So an outgoing payment took place at '4:30' (pm), but an incoming deposit took place at '16:15', with the implication that since 4 < 16, the debit had happened 12 hours earlier than the deposit. I had receipts and screenshots of my online banking page, so after being given the same explanation - twice - and professing an air of sudden enlightenment, I produced the paperwork and asked to go through the list of transactions one more time but doing them all in the 24-hour format - which led to an abrupt and total resolution of the argument in my favor. Draw your own conclusions. My beef was about the retroactive reordering of the the transactions as listed by online banking from one day to the next, but in the course of their explanation matters took a distinctly surreal turn.
- quesera 16y ago
  Yeah, that's crazy and disappointing. I'm quite sure that if it's legal and not just a bizarre error, it's standard practice for all banks in the US. In my case, I deposited a single large cashier's check (at the teller due to concern about the process), and then wrote a similarly-large personal check to someone else, which I'm quite sure they deposited the same day...so I had a couple of details working in my favor. Otoh, there are lots of scary stories about checks being credited and then a week or two later failing to clear and being deducted from accounts. Standard craigslist warning, etc.

by quesera 16y ago

anigbrowl 16y ago

Well, it does seem to have been industry-wide. Customer-friendly, not so much :-) Seriously, what you describe is how the policies have often been articulated, but how they have been implemented depends on exactly how you define 'processed' - which may not necessarily mean 'applied to your account balance.' I don't want to extrapolate too much from my own experience (which is only one case, and recalled from >2 years ago at that), but the turning point came when I observed that debit/withdrawal times were consistently described in terms of a 12 hour clock, with deposits consistently described in terms of a 24 hour clock. So an outgoing payment took place at '4:30' (pm), but an incoming deposit took place at '16:15', with the implication that since 4 < 16, the debit had happened 12 hours earlier than the deposit. I had receipts and screenshots of my online banking page, so after being given the same explanation - twice - and professing an air of sudden enlightenment, I produced the paperwork and asked to go through the list of transactions one more time but doing them all in the 24-hour format - which led to an abrupt and total resolution of the argument in my favor. Draw your own conclusions. My beef was about the retroactive reordering of the the transactions as listed by online banking from one day to the next, but in the course of their explanation matters took a distinctly surreal turn.

quesera 16y ago
Yeah, that's crazy and disappointing. I'm quite sure that if it's legal and not just a bizarre error, it's standard practice for all banks in the US. In my case, I deposited a single large cashier's check (at the teller due to concern about the process), and then wrote a similarly-large personal check to someone else, which I'm quite sure they deposited the same day...so I had a couple of details working in my favor. Otoh, there are lots of scary stories about checks being credited and then a week or two later failing to clear and being deducted from accounts. Standard craigslist warning, etc.