With all of the advancements made in the past 5-10 years, I would like to think that financial institutions would be able to make transactions clear faster than they are currently occurring.
I have a checking account with a debit card and I belong to a bank with branches located nationwide. If I used my card as a credit card (say, at a restaurant, where the debit option is usually not available), it typically takes about 3 days but it can take UP TO 5 BUSINESS DAYS for the transaction to clear my account. When I use my card as a debit card, however, it still takes about a day for it to clear, sometimes two days.
The same is true for deposits made into my account. My paycheck gets direct-deposited into my account every two weeks on the same day of the week. The transaction shows as "pending" until the next business day after it has cleared.
Places like fuel stations irritate me that it sometimes shows up as a $1.00 charge and then another charge for either the remainder or the full amount of the transaction - that's right, TWO pending transactions until it clears! Another example is when restaurants run the card before the tip and the charge shows as "pending" for the original amount (prior to the tip) until it clears, then it shows up as the full amount.
Why do we have to wait a day for the transaction to clear? Why can't the transactions clear instantaneously, or even within a few hours? I feel like these things should take much less time to "clear" than what goes on right now. Pardon me, but I want to know exactly what I have in my account at all times, and not just an approximation of what might be in there.
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