If I transfer money from my account at bank A to my account at bank B, using a free multi-day ACH transfer, is it common that I would not be paid daily interest for the balance while the transfer executes?
I don't care which bank pays me interest or whether I can withdraw it immediately but it would be great if bank B started paying interest the day after bank A stopped.
If different banks have different policies here that would be good to know as well.
Yes, it is common to lose interest during a transfer.
It won't happen with all combinations of banks, and it also varies with which bank starts the transfer. If you do a "pull" transfer, many (but not all) banks will credit your account and pay interest during the transfer, but the funds are on hold (unavailable) until the transfer completes. Others won't give a credit until the transfer clears.
In some cases you will even get lucky and have both banks paying interest for a couple days.
It's probably a good idea to do a test transfer of just a few dollars, and see how much gap, if any, there is between debit and credit.
Yes, you lose. Even though there is very little info about lost interest during a bank to bank transfer, it happens. For example, a ACH transfer (electronic) of $100,000.00 with a two day transfer time costs about $22.00 at 4.00% interest. On the other hand, if you have relatively large accounts, some number of wire transfers are free, and wire transfers are "instantaneous." If would be good if the banks at least counted the lost interest as a 'penalty' as reported in 1099-INT Box2, So, check it out.
