Why does it still take 5 damned days for a transaction to "clear" when I move money from one account to another? Has anyone actually ever challenged any banks/building societies to justify this delay?
I agree. Same with checks, my mom asked my bank(on one of her many trips to get a cashiers check, Ebay) and they said that they are required to report if the check is good/bad with in 48 hours.
Not the same with checks. The parent referred to a transfer between accounts (at the same institution, not between two banks.) Checks on the other hand, should have their funds verified if they are not drawing from that particular institution. The larger the amount and the 'less local' the check, the longer those funds would probably be held.
OTOH, I've not yet heard of a cashiers check being held, (or cash for that matter, although large deposits have to be reported:) but it wouldn't surprise me if some institutions have a policy for doing so.
It depends on the backend that your financial institution is running, but 5 days is a bit much. You should consider voicing your concern with your feet and taking your savings elsewhere if possible.
It depends on your institution and the type of currency involved. For example, the Royal Bank of Canada allows you to instanteanously wire cash to other client of RBC (via a web page even).
Then again stuff like Credit card and what not, go through this humoungous worldwide database... which I can only imagine is one massive flat text file. But I'm surely wrong =).
And finally, when you wire stuff between two banks, you have to basically have a period where *if* the source bank bails out of the transaction, and the destination bank has already used the cash, there is no floating cash debt - in the end, you have to remember cash is not electronic, there still is the money involved.
Yes, people have, over and over again. The banks' answer was always that they use the interest on your money to cover the cost of the transaction. Thankfully, my bank (ABN Amro) has changed their ways. Instead of delaying transactions, my money is transferred instantly from one account to the other, but the rent date on the account where the money was withdrawn from is back-dated two days. The bank get their rent, and I don't have to wait for my money to arrive in my second account. Suits me just fine.
As for the future of money... I don't see cash disappearing in the next 25 years. Cash is still very convenient for a numbe of purposes and I carry some with me at all times. Cash is useful for person-to-person transactions on the spot, and as a safeguard against overdrawn accounts, broken electronic wallets and the debit card / ATM / CC verification server being down. If any of these happen to you while you're checking out in the supermarket, you'll be glad to be carrying soe cash.
I think we will see a form of Internet (micro) payments such as Paypal coming into being in the next 25 years. It'll be less clunky and more fail-safe than Paypal as it will be run by proper banks and institutions. Most likely it will be seen as a regular banking transaction system, and be subject to the susual government regulations, scrutiny and taxes where applicable.
A rule where I worked was we'd all go out to eat lunch as a group but you had to have cash for your part because there is nothing worse than a table of 6 people all paying with debit cards. See your server in an hour.
A manager would rip you a new one if you constantly paid with a CC/debit card.
I think this is because a lot of the systems that do the donkey work of transaction processing and electronic money-moving are big old legacy batch-processing applications on big old irons. The cost of updating these systems (and the organisations that maintain them) would probably be horrific. I'm guessing that the value - in terms of profit - for the banks that would have to do it, rpobably just doesn't make it worth it.
Why does it still take 5 damned days for a transaction to "clear" when I move money from one account to another? Has anyone actually ever challenged any banks/building societies to justify this delay?
Hm, maybe it's your bank. My banks always state that it may take up to 5 business days, but I've yet to see it take more than 2, and often it happens the next day. Transferring money from PayPal to Washington Mutual, for example, or direct deposit from a credit card processor I use -- both of these generally take 1-2 actual days.
My guess is that some banks have more modern systems, while others do not -- and that they are likely not compatible, thus requiring manual processing/intervention.
"Be there. Aloha."
-- Steve McGarret, _Hawaii Five-Oh_
A bigger question. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:A bigger question. (Score:2, Informative)
Re:A bigger question. (Score:2)
OTOH, I've not yet heard of a cashiers check being held, (or cash for that matter, although large deposits have to be reported
Re:A bigger question. (Score:2)
I was quite agitated.
Re:A bigger question. (Score:2)
Re:A bigger question. (Score:2)
Then again stuff like Credit card and what not, go through this humoungous worldwide database... which I can only imagine is one massive flat text file. But I'm surely wrong =).
And finally, when you wire stuff between two banks, you have to basically have a period where *if* the source bank bails out of the transaction, and the destination bank has already used the cash, there is no floating cash debt - in the end, you have to remember cash is not electronic, there still is the money involved.
Re:A bigger question. (Score:5, Insightful)
As for the future of money... I don't see cash disappearing in the next 25 years. Cash is still very convenient for a numbe of purposes and I carry some with me at all times. Cash is useful for person-to-person transactions on the spot, and as a safeguard against overdrawn accounts, broken electronic wallets and the debit card / ATM / CC verification server being down. If any of these happen to you while you're checking out in the supermarket, you'll be glad to be carrying soe cash.
I think we will see a form of Internet (micro) payments such as Paypal coming into being in the next 25 years. It'll be less clunky and more fail-safe than Paypal as it will be run by proper banks and institutions. Most likely it will be seen as a regular banking transaction system, and be subject to the susual government regulations, scrutiny and taxes where applicable.
Cash is good if you're a consultant (Score:5, Funny)
A manager would rip you a new one if you constantly paid with a CC/debit card.
Re:A bigger question. (Score:2)
The cost of updating these systems (and the organisations that maintain them) would probably be horrific. I'm guessing that the value - in terms of profit - for the banks that would have to do it, rpobably just doesn't make it worth it.
Re:A bigger question. (Score:2)
Hm, maybe it's your bank. My banks always state that it may take up to 5 business days, but I've yet to see it take more than 2, and often it happens the next day. Transferring money from PayPal to Washington Mutual, for example, or direct deposit from a credit card processor I use -- both of these generally take 1-2 actual days.
My guess is that some banks have more modern systems, while others do not -- and that they are likely not compatible, thus requiring manual processing/intervention.