WTH Bank?!?!

[Tee2072]

So last Wednesday I deposited two cheques into our current account, both local, one from the exact same bank.

They showed as in our account the next day. However, when DH went to take money out of the account yesterday via ATM, it said insufficient funds (for £40!). So I logged in online and while it says the money is in the account, its not available?!?!

I am heading to the bank later today, but can anyone explain why this would be?

Cheques usually take 3 full working days to clear, so they show up in your account as contributing to the balance, but not to the available funds. If they were deposited Wednesday you'd expect them to clear Monday - today.

At least, that's how it works in Australia. Check your bank website, it probably has information about cheque clearances.

tortoise is right, it will show up but not be avaliable.

Sometimes you can ask the bank to give you permanant permission to withdraw funds against your uncleared funds. But they wont always allow this. It depends on your credit rating.

Thanks for the responses.

Hopefully the cheques will clear today.

Next question; the balance which is there but not abailable is actually more than the cheques, so the bank is apparently holding something else as well. Why might that be?

do you have an overdraft facility?

my abbey bank account shows my overdraft as avaliable funds.

have you written any cheques recently or paid for something on a card, sometimes it doesnt go out stright away but the bank show it as gone if that makes sence?

have you had any refunds issued? they often dont come stright in, but will show as funds?

or do you have a pay day soon again sometimes the money is released but takes time to clear in your account?

its so complicated i dont understand why the money just doesnt show up as there or not there. i learnt the hard way about avaliable funds and cleared funds ended up in a lot of debt as i just didnt understand what was happening each month.

I am actually trying to set up an overdraft facility, which I have been meaning to do for ages and just haven't gotten around to.

No, to all the rest of the questions!

I was just at the bank and I got a lot of sympathy 'yes, I see you only have £6 available, isn't that too bad.' and absolutely no offer to release the funds earlier. They claim they'll be available tomorrow at 930. Let's hope none of my standing orders come through before then.

I'm from the US and they don't do it like this. If it says you have $500, then you have $500!!!

When I pay cheques into my Natwest account they are not available funds until the fifth day ( the day the cheque is paid in being day 1). five days is the normal clearing cycle. The funds earn interest from day 3 but, as they can still bounce until day 5 they are not available funds until then.

Therefore the cheques should be available funds on Tuesday.

Thanks everyone for your responses.

Its not the clearing time that bugs me, its the fact that they include those cheques in my account balance, but not my available balance.

Why show them in my account at all if the money isn't actually there?

Anyway, bank agreed to a small overdraft so that's me sorted at least. No longer an available balance of £7!

I think they show them on your account before they are available funds so that you know the cheque has not been lost. Then you know that in a set number of days, you will definitely have the available funds. If they did not show the cheque at all until it was available funds you would not know for five days that a cheque had gone astray in the system. This happened to me once and I was able to get the bank working on tracing it straight away as I knew it should have appeared on my account the day after I banked it.

You just need to get used to looking at both the daily balance and the available balance when you check your account.

However, be careful with telephone banking as I think they usually only tell you your daily balance, but not how much of it is available funds. At least it did last time I used it. Internet banking gives you a lot more info.

Glad you got an overdraft arranged and it is not a worry any more.

I never use telephone banking anyway, but thanks for the tip!