What happens to the money when you transfer it from one bank account to another ?
If I transfer say £1000 from one account to another bank account, both in UK, why does it take 3 to 5 days ???? I know in this computer age that it is a simple computer transaction that takes a second to do so why do the banks hold onto it ?? I know the money is moved around the system to increase the banks profit but that is not what I am asking. I am asking WHY ?? how do the banks get away with it. ??
June 2nd, 2010 at 9:06 pm
Dey put it in dere asses
June 2nd, 2010 at 9:28 pm
Change banks, my transfers are instant.I’m with LLoyds TSB.
June 2nd, 2010 at 9:38 pm
that is how they make their money by investing your for 2 or 3 days
June 2nd, 2010 at 10:00 pm
The transferring bank puts a hold on the money to allow any last second purchases or checks to clear. Let’s say you have a checking account with £1100 in it. You write a £1000 check to Joe’s Autobody on Saturday at 3:00. On your way home from Joe’s, you stop by the bank and transfer £1100 to a new account. Now when Joe took the check, he probably checked to see if you had the money in your account (and of course it was there). But within 20 minutes, you had cleared the account. By holding the transfer for a few business days, Joe has the chance to get the check in and paid, which now means you don’t have enough to make the transfer.
At some point, every business will have automatic check machines which will make the cash transfer on a check instantaneous, but until then, banks and businesses still have to deal with weekends and end of business day.
June 2nd, 2010 at 10:41 pm
they put it in the other bank account. is this even a question?
June 2nd, 2010 at 11:07 pm
Because in that 3,5 or 10 days they have your money, the Bank lend your money out and make a lot of money on the interest.
June 3rd, 2010 at 12:00 am
Good point. If the banks admitted it was easy they wouldn’t be avle to charge us. Basically the money doesn’t actually move. With a cheque it has to go through the clearing system which is checking that the funds are available. In fact if you wire funds by CHAPS it moves immediately.