banks commit the sin of usury.

I suggest you burst into the bank at the earliest opportunity and accuse the cashier of being a usurious cunt.

that's not usury, that's just 100s of years of antiquated business practice. In sweden they can clear a cheque the same day you pay it in.

(of course they do commit the sin of usury if they lend you money)

Anthony, five days is the default hold for all deposits (at least at most Canadian banks) because that's approximately how long a standard cheque will take to clear to (and potentially return from) another institution. Unless it's a guaranteed item like a money order, a certified cheque, or a government cheque - a hold rating applies to all deposits, and that rating is based on the status of the payee (you) not the payor. Like I said, five days is a default - you usually have to ask them to look at your accounts and give you a more relaxed rating, and it certainly helps if you have other products with yr bank or a balance that serves as security. I know that seems crappy, but I've seen so many valid reasons that they have to do this (I work in a back office as you know) that I can't really fault the system. There is a TON of fraud and with the amount of facelessness that technology has brought - the old fraud protection adage "know your customer" is virtually useless. Unless the university writing you the cheque, is also a client of your own bank so they can verify that it's a valid cheque, sigs etc, it's going to be at that employees own risk to give you free access to those funds. If you were a bad guy and the cheque was a fake, they'd likely be fired. I don't exactly love the industry, and the fees are fucking sick - but from the average bank telller's POV, they've got little other choice than to try to stick to the rules or eventually screw up big time. If that's helpful at all.

oh, kim--im totally not mad at tellers, its just im poor and the banks seem to be at work against hte poor.

oh, kim--im totally not mad at tellers, its just im poor and the banks seem to be at work against hte poor.

and no one sat down and explained that too me, like you did. it would have been cool.

Didn't you call a teller a shameless hussy once?

Close but I was off.