[Performify]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
So I finally got my WSEX check and deposited it at the bank, but they said they had to put a hold on it for 5 days. They've never done this before and the amount is nothing obscene (2K), I've been banking with them for about 6 months now.

They said I can talk to the branch manager to get the hold off earlier, but I don't want to end up looking shady or lying too much about where the money is from. Suggestions?

[/ QUOTE ]

no suggestions, but this really scares me

[/ QUOTE ]


There is absolutely zero to worry about. Banks routinely place holds on the funds for any sort of check they consider suspicious, especially overseas checks. All this does is hold the deposit of funds until the check actually clears on the back end. That's all they're doing here - they will place a hold on the funds until the check is processed ("settled") on the back end by the originating bank. Because its a foreign bank, it will take a while.

Most people don't realize this, but almost all of the checks that are written (currently so close to 100% as to be indistinguishable from it, however recent legislation under the title Check21 is working to change that) are cleared by physically returning the check to the bank of origin. That means, in the case of your international check, the check leaves your bank for the airport, hops a flight to Costa Rica or whever, arrives at the foreign bank, the bank verifies the check, and then issues settlement to the bank in question where it was cashed/deposited.

For international checks this can take several days.

Depending on the situation and the policies and procedures of the bank, these holds can be applied strictly or loosly. Some banks will place holds on any check funds over a certain amount from any non-major bank. Sometimes that means something as innocent as a couple hundred dollars from a check written on a small town bank or credit union. Also depending on policy and procedure, these holds can always be overriden by someone's authority. Oftentimes its a personal banking representative (PBR), i.e. one of the people you see at a desk in the lobby who are there to help you with opening accounts or more serious transactions than the tellers. sometimes, as happened to the OP, its a branch manager.

There is absolutely zero concern about getting a legit check paid (i.e. a check drawn on a real bank account with the funds present). it might take time, but its going to happen.

There is zero in the UIGEA that affects checks, either paying a gambling site by check or receiving a payment by check. There are zero banking regulation in place today which would prevent this, either. There is possible coverage under some of the anti-money-laundering provisions which originated in the USA-PATRIOT act and banking regulations which followed, but they're currently not being used in that way at all - currently the AML and USA-PATRIOT regulations are checking transactions against a blacklist, and to my knowledge none of the gambling sites are on that blacklist (yet).

You can actually write a legal check on a bar napkin as long as it has the requisite information. You won't get the teller to cash it obviously, but you can get the bank manager to authorize it. 99% of the time they'd want to hold the money till the check settled, obviously... but its legal.




Qualifications, if you're curious:

I worked eight years for a major financial institution, in positions ranging up and through Director of Information Security and Chief Technology Architect. I currently do consulting work for a variety of companies today including a wide variety of financial institutions, including some of the largest banks in the US. I'm intimately familiar with bank process and regulatory requirements, including those outlined above.