When you deposit money to your checking account the bank usually puts hold on your funds. Sometimes deposit is released sooner while in other cases it can take longer time. So how long can a bank hold your deposit?

There are many types of deposit and hold time can vary.

Cash Deposits

Deposits of cash and cash equivalents like cashiers checks and money orders should be available to withdraw on the next business day. It means deposits made on Monday should be available on Tuesday.

Paper checks

On the other hand, if you deposit a paper check it gets more complicated. Big banks often clear small checks on the next business day, but smaller banks can hold your funds for up to 12 days. Take Ingo Money as an example. Their terms and conditions explicitly say that funds are going to be on hold for a long time. Make sure to read how to deposit a paper check to your bank account.

Small checks under $225 should become available on the next business day. Checks that are under $5,225 can be released in 2 business days. Large checks that are over the amount can stay on hold up to 5 days. However, in some cases banks can put hold even longer.

Usually the reason to extend hold time for a check is that the account is repeatedly overdrawn or just a new account. Additionally, the paying bank can decline a transaction and the check has to be redeposited.

ACH transfers

ACH transfers when made as a push transaction from a sending bank usually make money available in 2 business days. However, when ACH transfer is made as a pull transaction initiated from a withdrawing bank, it can take up to 4 days.

The time of hold is also called the settlement period. For example, Fidelity usually settles cash within 2 business days.

So the bottom line is that how long a bank holds your funds depends on many factors like the nature of transaction, amount of transaction, and policy of specific bank.

You may find helpful funds availability page on HelpWithMyBank.gov website.

You can also check my video on how long do bank transfers take.