Economic Catastrophy....

[Q.]

Which bank witholds money for 24-48 hrs?

I rang my bank to see why funds had not been deposited yet.
I was told the bank releasing the funds (which bank?) has a policy of lag from 24-48 hrs.
I said that was ridiculous.
I can send an email instantaniously, surely funds can be transferred as such?
If the money was taken by horse & cart to Melbourne, I could understand the 48 hr delay.
I'm thinking about invoicing the bank for interest on the monies, plus slapping a late fine on them....

It is apparently common practice. I recently transferred the purchase price of my house in SA.
The staff person at the ANZ suggested the quickest way to get it there was to take an ANZ bank cheque made out to the conveyancer's trust account and walk into the CBA next door to deposit it to the conveyancer's account.

Question is, what are they doing with the money in between the transfer and deposit?

[A Mum]

Question is, what are they doing with the money in between the transfer and deposit?

The same thing as the B-Pay people

[Psyber]

Which bank witholds money for 24-48 hrs?

I rang my bank to see why funds had not been deposited yet.
I was told the bank releasing the funds (which bank?) has a policy of lag from 24-48 hrs.
I said that was ridiculous.
I can send an email instantaniously, surely funds can be transferred as such?
If the money was taken by horse & cart to Melbourne, I could understand the 48 hr delay.
I'm thinking about invoicing the bank for interest on the monies, plus slapping a late fine on them....

It is apparently common practice. I recently transferred the purchase price of my house in SA.
The staff person at the ANZ suggested the quickest way to get it there was to take an ANZ bank cheque made out to the conveyancer's trust account and walk into the CBA next door to deposit it to the conveyancer's account.

Question is, what are they doing with the money in between the transfer and deposit?

They are no longer paying you interest, nor the recipient. Nice little earner if there is enough in suspension like that at any one time. It's a form of hidden fee.

[JAS]

Which bank witholds money for 24-48 hrs?

I rang my bank to see why funds had not been deposited yet.
I was told the bank releasing the funds (which bank?) has a policy of lag from 24-48 hrs.
I said that was ridiculous.
I can send an email instantaniously, surely funds can be transferred as such?
If the money was taken by horse & cart to Melbourne, I could understand the 48 hr delay.
I'm thinking about invoicing the bank for interest on the monies, plus slapping a late fine on them....

There was one of those investigative documentaries here a couple of years ago looking into that very question as well as why some take up to 10 days to clear a cheque. IIRC they found that the banks were using the 'delay' to play the markets and make a fortune...you might think that your transaction doesn't amount to much in the scheme of things but when you add together all the days transactions the numbers are huge.

They then went to Sweden (I think) and showed their system which was changed after massive public demand and pressure from government. Over there if you put a cheque into your account or arrange a transfer of funds in the morning it will be completed by cease of business the same day...after lunch it will be done by the next morning...and if they don't you are entitled to compensation. When they asked the spokesman for all their banks how much they would pay out he didn't know cos they hadn't had to.

Regards
JAS

[devilsadvocate]

Come on banks.

Drop your Credit Card interest...%.....

My bank has 11.39%

Can you do Better...?

Lets get it WAY UNDER 10%

It's a risk v reward thing. Credit card debt is personal unsecured debt, so to the bank, it's very risky as there's no house, car or otherwise to reposess and sell should you not pay.

11.39% is a very good interest rate for a credit card, so count yourself lucky on that score.

But as Psyber said, live within your means and you won't need to worry about what interest rate your cad has. I couldn't care if my card had a rate of a million % as I'd still never pay a cent in interest. Pay it off at the end of the month and you're sweet.

The key is not getting sucked into buying things that you couldn't afford with your following paycheck. It's those that haven't followed this rule that are at the root of the current economic problems. Will we learn? I doubt it. So high interest rates on credit cards etc, gets the thumbs up from me.