My bank has taken hostage of my money-now what?

Question

aparently no one understood or i didnt explain it well enough in my last question

my account was negative roughly $150

got my $500 paycheck friday and took it to the atm

so its not gonna be credited to my account till the next buisness day i understand that (dont like it, but thats how it always is, so i get it)

the next buisness day rolls around (4 days later:tuesday) and its not there

now they say there was a hold placed on it and it wont be credited for ANOTHER 8 days

they automatically credited $100 of it as they always do but what f*ing good does that do me?! im still $50 in the hole till they decide to put the other $400 in.

the reason it makes me mad is i have had this account for almost 10 years and they never just held my check hostage for almost two weeks after i gave it to them! and they TOLD me it would be available the next buisness day, when i called saturday! am i just screwed? am i gonna have to walk to work and feed the cat dry cereal for the next week now?

Answer 1

Go to the bank and speak to a manager.  They should be able to take care of this.  It doesn't take 10 days to verify a check.  They tell everyone 10 business days for checks to clear, but it probably wouldn't take that long even if you did not speak to a manager.

If you have a good history with the bank they will probably cut you some slack.  Heck, the manager might even waive any fees that will come about due to this overdraft.  It can't hurt to ask.

Answer 2

Often banks hold checks to ensure they clear when there isn't enough money in the account to cover the check.  Your account was overdrawn by $150 already so they shouldn't have to take the chance that your pay check would bounce or be stopped and they would then be out by even more.  They are just covering themselves.

Answer 3

Banks can take a harder stance when an account is not in good standing.  That is something you really want to avoid.  For now, your best course of action is to talk to a manager in person and ask to have the funds released--at least part of them.

You may find it works better to cash your check in person rather than use the ATM if your schedule permits.