Why does the bank hold checks for so long?
Banks can hold deposited checks for anywhere from two weeks to over two months before releasing the funds. This leaves business owners and individuals completely without access to necessary cash for their daily operations and forces them to wait weeks even on smaller deposits.
What people tried
Every workaround mentioned in the threads below. We haven’t tested any of them — and nobody here is claiming they worked.
Found another way around this?
Share your steps and trade-offs so fellow engineers don't have to reinvent the wheel. No account required.
- 1Opening another business account with a different institutionDid this help you?
- 2Switching to a local credit unionDid this help you?
- 3Using alternative institutions like Amex Business CheckingDid this help you?
In their words
Unedited, grouped by where they were said, most upvoted first within each place, each linked to the thread it came from.
“Chase is holding the funds for as long as nearly two weeks.”source ↗
“i don’t have an LLC account but i know chase held my $37,000 check for over two months and said “there’s nothing we can do!”. even held my small checks (under $2k) for three weeks every time i deposited.”source ↗
Where this came up
People with this problem also raised
- 9Why are bank transfers so slow for time-sensitive payments?
- 12Why won't contractors take credit cards for large deposits?
- 5How to pay for POD orders when Etsy holds your earnings
- 2Why is my car rental hold higher than expected?
- 2Why does a long wedding engagement take so long?
- 3Why is my Etsy payout missing or locked?