Ask and Ye Shall Receive

I had some checks to deposit at the bank. I deposited the checks at the bank. All was well. However, almost immediately afterward, circumstances arose that I might've needed to withdraw those same monies in cash.

How long would they hold those checks before clearing them for withdrawal? I thought then. I had just recently changed banks, and wasn't familiar with the new one's holding policies.

An hour later, I was at a healthcare clinic. The waiting room had a rack of magazines. I was waiting, so I picked through the magazines, of which there were several dozen in high stacks. Of the many choices I thumbed through, one stood out: an issue of Consumer Reports, a publication I'd heard of but never read.

I stopped there: this copy of Consumer Reports was crying out to me, demanding to be taken. I knew at once, without a doubt, that I had to comply, despite my falling outside the magazine's targeted demographic, being neither much of a consumer nor a fancier of reports.

So I chose the magazine, and though it wasn't the most thrilling or appropriate of reading material, it did serve as occupation. However, that soon changed, about halfway through, when I skimmed an article about mobile banking.

Mentioned offhand in this article was the fact that normal banks hold deposited checks differently than most purely mobile banks. As an example, the article quoted the hold times for one such normal bank, which held deposited checks for only one business day, the shortest of all banks, lending it a bit of a reputation.

That one quoted bank was mine, that which I'd just deposited my checks into an hour ago, then wondered about how long they would be held before clearing. As it were, my circumstances would require that I have the deposited money available for withdrawal on the next business day.

Ask and ye shall receive, said a jovial voice in my head. I agreed, then I laughed out loud.