Comments on: Why Is ACH Slower At Some Places Than Others?

By: MoneyCone

MoneyCone — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 15:44:24 +0000

Excellent write up! Though I love ING, ING holds ACH funds for 5 days! Haven’t seen this long a wait at any other bank.

By: anie

anie — Fri, 19 Mar 2010 15:31:18 +0000

Sorry to comment on an old post, but I’ve done my share of this push/pull as well and found that USAA will push and pull the fastest for me, hands down. I can also transfer funds to and from another bank/credit union to or from USAA and they get the money in or out the fastest, whichever benefits me the most. If I push/pulled from the credit union end, it can take 3 business days. Awful.
On a different note, I have an “old” account at USAA and a “new” one (shared) and I do all this from the “old” one, which seems to not have any of these hold type restrictions. The new one does, however, put holds on most any deposit. Very easy to work around, no doubt, but also very strange. Still love them the best!

By: Random Poster

Random Poster — Tue, 09 Feb 2010 15:56:46 +0000

As others have noted, the float time really only benefits the banks.

I’m particularly annoyed at how it takes Fidelity several days (2 or 3 days, is it?) to credit my account after the sale of a stock (i.e., make available cash for withdrawal), and then take an additional 2 or 3 days to actually deposit the cash into a designated checking account. Clearly, someone is making money from my money off of that 4 – 6 day float process, and it isn’t me.

Likewise, I have no love for banks that feel the need to place a “hold” on deposits. In one instance, upon opening a new money market account and funding the same with a $92,500 check, the bank puts a hold on the funds for 10 days and then only credits me with interest on the same after such 10 day period has passed. I can partially understand not allowing me to withdraw the $92,500 for a period of time, but to deny me interest on the same? That I don’t understand.

Too many people are, without my consent, making money off of my money. It has got to stop.

By: Ted

Ted — Tue, 02 Feb 2010 16:36:27 +0000

Money changers are going to get their piece.

By: Ken

Ken — Sun, 31 Jan 2010 05:25:17 +0000

Another issue with ACH transfers is that some banks limit the amount that can be transferred when initiated from their side. I’ve seen the limit as small as $2,000. It’s likely a risk management issue like the transfer delays.

By: CMF99

CMF99 — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 19:50:44 +0000

One thing that isn’t mentioned in your post is the ACH prenote. A prenote is a zero-amount test transfer to ensure that the routing and account numbers are valid and the RDFI account is open and in good standing. These take a day. A prenote is usually done only during the initial ACH request setup, but some institutions do a prenote each time which would delay ACH completion by at least a day, since the 3 day window.

By: Jacques Boutet

Jacques Boutet — Wed, 20 Jan 2010 17:27:23 +0000

I’ve noticed similar variances in the time to complete ACH transactions between Vanguard and Fidelity. Indeed, it gets even more excruciating with their respective 529 plans. My last ACH deposit to a Vanguard 529 account took 2 weeks to execute! I queried Vanguard’s Help Site and was told that because Vanguard is not a full financial services firm, it uses 3rd party banks for the ACH’s and thus can incur multiple settlement periods. No such issues with Fidelity! In fairness to Vanguard, my recurring ACH fund purchases are credited on the day they are are scheduled. I assume Vanguard “trusts” that I will have the funds available to cover recurring purchases, thus executes my monthly buys and waits for my money to catch up. Regardless, I’m drifting into the Fidelity camp, as the vagaries of a non-profit organization such as Vanguard begin to stand in contrast to a sharper, more nimble, profit-motivated Fidelity (who also manages to keep customer costs down!).

By: Alex

Alex — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 21:54:51 +0000

Great article, and it confirms my suspicions on this stuff. I used to use Countrywide Bank as an online savings account before they were bought out by Bank of America (which added a whole host of fees to the account). They used to do next-day ACH transfers. After Countrywide went under, I opened an online savings account with Discover Bank. Their rates are good, but ACH transfers take 3-4 days. What’s amazing is that no matter whether I’m pushing or pulling money from Discover Bank, funds always leave the source account by the next morning. They just don’t show up in the destination account for a few days. I called their customer service number and asked who is earning interest on my money during the four days it’s in transit. His suggestion–use our $4 expedited next-day ACH transfer service.

By: KD

KD — Tue, 19 Jan 2010 18:10:22 +0000

A Capital One guy was touting his company’s ingeniousness at a career fair by claiming that Capital One delays release of funds to the customer by 2 days to deny them interest. It is within their legally alloted time to complete the transaction. They also do the reverse, take the funds from the customer but not transmit it to the other party for next two days. The originator is very critical here. If you pay credit card from the credit card’s website, you can pay next business day. Try doing that using Capital One’s push/pull it takes much longer. Needless to say, I stopped using Capital One after that.