09-27-2011, 10:51 AM
quote:
The incident that really made us decide to switch is when our worker's checks bounced after we had transfered money from our mainland bank to BOH. The BOH on line information told us the money was in our account, never said a thing about a hold put on the money so we felt confident in writing pay checks to the workers. There were fees and penalties not only for us to get it all straightened out but for our workers as well who's checks bounced. Maybe that could happen with any bank.
Great point about "holds" on mainland funds, Sandy. Just want to quote it and bring it up more, because anyone starting out here might have to deal with it -- especially if the account is relatively new.
Those fees are a real drag and they sure add up.
Definitely something for new residents to be aware of ...
The laws on placing holds are federal laws. Here's a page that summarizes them:
http://www.bankrate.com/brm/news/chk/20020802b
and another
http://www.msmoney.com/mm/banking/articl...dcheck.htm
a hold can be placed hours after your deposit.
If I think there is a chance of a hold, I take the deposit in and ask for a decision from a supervisor so that I don't get surprised.
The online banking at BOH has an available funds balance that subtracts hold amounts, but if you check it and the hold goes on afterwards, you wouldn't know, and keep in mind that bank computers do full updates only once every 24 hours, and not at all on weekends.
If you think you will be dealing with much in the way of mainland funds, you might want to keep your old account until the "new" smell is off your Hawai'i account. Accounts less than 30 days old are a special category (by law) when it comes to holds.