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p.1 #1 · p.1 #1 · FS: What is the deal with banks and checks? | |
I deposited a check for a large ticket item I sold here on FM. My bank made the funds available the next day, so I called to just confirm that the check actually cleared that fast. They said no, that doesn't mean the check cleared, it just means they made the funds immediately available because I'm a customer in good standing. So I asked the obvious question, how do I know when the check clears? And they told me there is no way to know. Come again? They said the department which handles the checks does not communicate with other aspects of the bank, and that the only way to know if a check clears is by knowing when it doesn't clear..ie, when the check is rejected for whatever reason and the funds get "un-deposited" from my account. They recommended I check my account daily to see if the deposit is still there to know if there's an issue.
Am I the only one who thinks this is ridiculous? This seems like such a basic function of banking. This was BoA btw. I spoke with my local Wells Fargo manager and he basically told me the same thing. He said the issue is that even if the funds clear, a check can come later for any number of reasons, all of which would cause the deposit to be backed out of the account. He listed reasons like fraud, fake checks, etc... I asked him if that's the case, how can we ever know when the check is actually good and there's no risk of a chargeback? He told me you can't ever know, and it's a dirty little secret of banking. To me this makes checks worthless as a means of exchange.
I'm interested in hearing other FM'ers experience with this.
Edited by Fred Miranda on Sep 10, 2012 at 10:09 PM · View previous versions
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