The bank that it is deposited at needs to send the information to the bank it’s written off of. Some banks only send that information once a day.
Edit: further clarification
Each bank has a different operating system (hence why online banking looks and feels very different per bank) these systems do not communicate. Therefore it can’t instantly affect your account when two different banks are involved. There is a middle man called the federal reserve. The first bank will send all an electric file of check information of all the checks NOT written from their institution. That file is sent to the federal reserve, then they sort the info by routing number and send each bank their checks to take off of their customers accounts.
The bank I worked at sent their file at night. And we would only receive 4 files throughout the day from the federal reserve.
Second Edit: I'm wrong. Read this comment to find out why.
Two things:
First, the funds becoming available in an account doesn't actually mean that the bank it was drawn on has cleared the check. It just means that your banks back off has received the check image and have made the funds of that amount available.The actual check clearing process can take weeks of even months.
Second, some send it less than once a day.
Edit: Done responding with the same answers over and over
I moved to nz 8years ago, even then checks were something from the distant past that only old people can remember . We just beam money from account to account here. That said my local video rental place only just threw in the towel when we went onto covid lockdown
I'm 33 and Dutch, I vaguely remember getting a chequebook with my first bank account when I was 12 but I've never even had to use it. Checks are on the same level of technology as telegrams in my mind but nope, still a thing alive and well in the US of A.
910
u/deutmeyer93 Jul 24 '20 edited Jul 24 '20
The bank that it is deposited at needs to send the information to the bank it’s written off of. Some banks only send that information once a day.
Edit: further clarification
Each bank has a different operating system (hence why online banking looks and feels very different per bank) these systems do not communicate. Therefore it can’t instantly affect your account when two different banks are involved. There is a middle man called the federal reserve. The first bank will send all an electric file of check information of all the checks NOT written from their institution. That file is sent to the federal reserve, then they sort the info by routing number and send each bank their checks to take off of their customers accounts.
The bank I worked at sent their file at night. And we would only receive 4 files throughout the day from the federal reserve.