(
1. Wednesday, June 1, 2011 - 12:35 PM
Actually John, few banks will give you 100% of the value of a check, in cash, if that check isn't drawn on their bank. A check is not cash. The bank you're going to, in this case Regions, has to convert it to cash by sending it through the Federal Reserve back to the bank where it was drawn. And if it turns out to be bad, they are stuck. That's why they won't give you the entire check until it has cleared.
The fact that you have an account at Regions doesn't really matter, since that doesn't give Regions any special ability to ensure that all the checks you bring them are good. They still have to clear the checks.
If you really needed the entire check in cash immediately, you probably should have gone to the bank where the check was DRAWN and cashed it there, since they do have the ability to immediately verify that the check is good.
What Regions meant when they told you that you did not have enough money in your account is this:
Let's say you had $1000 in your account and you wanted to cash a $400 check. Regions can do this for you because what they are actually doing is giving you $400 from your account balance and then depositing the check, and waiting for it to clear. So your available balance would go down to $600 even though your total balance would stay at $1000.
But if you only have $200 in your account you can't cash that $400 check because you only have $200 in "good funds". You could probably have got $200 in cash but not all $400. And if you only had 10 cents in your account, then good luck getting cash...at any bank, not just Regions.
The fact that you have an account at Regions doesn't really matter, since that doesn't give Regions any special ability to ensure that all the checks you bring them are good. They still have to clear the checks.
If you really needed the entire check in cash immediately, you probably should have gone to the bank where the check was DRAWN and cashed it there, since they do have the ability to immediately verify that the check is good.
What Regions meant when they told you that you did not have enough money in your account is this:
Let's say you had $1000 in your account and you wanted to cash a $400 check. Regions can do this for you because what they are actually doing is giving you $400 from your account balance and then depositing the check, and waiting for it to clear. So your available balance would go down to $600 even though your total balance would stay at $1000.
But if you only have $200 in your account you can't cash that $400 check because you only have $200 in "good funds". You could probably have got $200 in cash but not all $400. And if you only had 10 cents in your account, then good luck getting cash...at any bank, not just Regions.
5
