Seriously why does it take “3 to 5” business days to take the money from my account when it’s all handled electronically?
In: 294
They can and they are but businesses and banks take advantage of old banking laws that allow 3-10 days for transactions. The only way to fix this is state level legislation
They can. I have spending alerts on one of my credit cards and when I’m getting fast food my phone usually chimes with the alert before they can even hand me the food.
When I pay my credit card bills the debit clears my bank in a few seconds. Can click pay on the credit card page and refresh on the online banking page and the transaction has already cleared.
Because the older systems behind payment cannot do it instantly, and no one feels the need to change to the newer ones because the old ones work well enough for those companies that use them.
There is a lot of old stuff in banking that they don’t change because it works and it would cost money to change it to something else.
In the UK, I can send a bill payment from my bank & get an email confirmation (depending on the company) from the recipient company in as little as 5 minutes. If I pay a credit card, I can get a notification from the recipient card app even quicker
It’s about making sure the funds won’t get recalled by the other bank. It’s a system set up to prevent fraud.
There are a few reasons, but mostly speculation:
1. There is a time period in which funds are “available” but not transferred. The system, built a long, long time ago, did “batch” transactions, typically in the evening hours. Everything would be collected and then run through at one time. This ancient system still has its tentacles in today’s world.
2. Banks realized that they can earn a very small amount of interest on the float–the time between your money “leaving” your account, and the money leaving the bank. The amount is so small per transaction, you’d never notice across your lifetime. However, multiply this amount by the millions of daily transactions, and the bank can make a few bucks extra this way.
3. Merchants make crazy money from late fees, penalties, and interest. So, the money leaves your account, but you don’t get credit for a few days and…maybe 1 in 10 times it’s a late fee, or a few day’s extra interest, or a penalty rate. Multiply that times millions of customers, and it’s some real money.
4. There’s some time to investigate fraud and error, in case you were hacked or made a mistake. It’s a million times easier to claw back a transaction if it’s in limbo vs already completed (if you’re a bank, if you’re a mortal, you get to call an 800 customer care line that will politely invite you to self copulate.)
I have bill pay set up, BUT I spend the extra 20 minutes going to the actual website and pay all tge the bills directly. Just for that reason.
Australian here, mine are instant.
Just like transferring money to someones account… instant.
Money can go from your friend’s bank to Venmo to your bank account about as fast as the two of you can clickety-clickety >bonk<, so it’s more an issue of law and custom than the technology isn’t set up.
TIL the way my bills take days and days to pull isn’t normal in the world anymore.
Well thank goodness I’ve got at least 12 more freedoms per Bald Eagle than you foreigners
[insert happy face mask over crying face meme]
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