Why does it take so long for ACH transfers?

Question

Presumably the transactions are all electronic and should be instant, so why does it take 3-5 days for a bank to bank ACH transfer to go through? Do the banks purposely delay it to avoid paying interest for those 3-5 days?

Answer 1

Favorite Answer

Well, think about your question, for a moment, if you were a financial institution, wouldn't you in your lust for greed try to avoid interest payments?

Hint: This ACH process typically takes LONGER with regular BANKS than Credit unions, which take approxamitely HALF the time to process these transactions, AND are not for PROFIT, question, answer.

Source(s): Federal Credit Unions, Banks

Answer 2

It should only take 2 business days. For instance, if a payroll company runs your payroll - 1 day to go from payroll to the feds and 1 day to go from the feds to the receiving bank

Source(s): I used to work for a payroll company.