Banking paradox

Yesterday I discovered one of those banking paradoxes.  If you have a check and you want to get the money the same day, but I don’t want to turn the whole amount into cash, then you still shouldn’t go for “deposit check” operation.  The thing is that depositing the check to an account takes two to three days, because check needs to be cleared.  However, you can cash the check and then deposit cash to the account.  Both of these operations are imeediate.

Puzzled.

4 thoughts on “Banking paradox”


  1. That’s how I solved this puzzle always. Althow, you are loosing some extra percent.

    Also, there is a good lifehack with immigration – if you need to get confirmation letter, you are coming to the bank with needed amount of money, put it into your account, ask them to make you the confirmation letter, finally, got you confirmation letter, taking your money back and leaving. Profit.


  2. tiamat,

    this immigration lifehack used to work in Limassol immigration a few years ago. But the last time I was there, they weren’t asking for the balance confirmation letter. Rather they needed an account statement for the last six month, which lists all the transactions in and out.


  3. In the UK, all cheques are marked “account payee only” meaning that they can only be deposited to the account of the person/organisation stated. No banks do “cashing of cheques”. Some other financial organisations do but they charge for taking the risk.


  4. Alexey,

    if the cheque issuer is in the same bank, then what are the risks? His account balance can be checked within a couple of moments. And they still require the ID of the person who cashes the check.

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