Funds availability for deposited checks. Is anyone worse than IB?

If you deposit an actual physical check into IB, they will hold it for 10 business days until it clears.

This seems insanely long to me.

Can anyone tell me what the industry norms are? Googling doesn't reveal much.

Thanks

 

Fairly common-ish practice. Brokers want you to wire funds. That way they presume/know the funds are "good" and can allow you to use them for trading. (Not good for the broker to credit the funds to your account for trading, then have the check bounce, you know. My local bank tells me that even "bank wires" can be recalled for a few day period. FCMs are required to "stand good" for your trades, even when they end up being not backed by your funds... can't hardly blame them ,can you? FCMs presume a bank wire is "good"... and that's only "highly likely", not 100% certain... until time to clear.... a check? Maybe not.)

 

Thanks, I just thought that at Fidelity, TD, etc. that it was significantly less than 10 days.

 

I've sent checks to brokers, while they say it could be up to ten days, it's usually just a few.

 

When we get a check, after we send it to Wedbush to deposit, it will be available for trading the following day.

 

Isn't it a matter of (1) we believe the check is good, and (2) the ability to "claw it back" if not? Also, "local policy" may be an incentive to wire funds rather than deposit a check? (Checks don't take 10 days to clear these days.)

 

Not the small domestic checks.

 

How small is "small"?

 

Good question, must vary from bank to bank. I think in my personal account at Citibank, any deposit under $25,000 is immediately available. Large deposits are split into blocks of time to clear.

 

Almost LOL! My bank (a regional) puts a 5-day hold on anything greater than $5,000.