I've just received my first paycheck in four months (yay!). In the meantime, my bank account went about $150 negative. That's one of the reasons I deposited my paycheck into that bank account - I wanted to pay them.
Instead, the bank has placed the funds on hold for five days!
From the bank's point of view, why does that make sense? What sorts of argument could I use to convince the bank to give me my money sooner?
Update: After speaking to a manager, I found that the hold was due to the fact that this was the first time I'd deposited an item from this company. It still doesn't quite make sense - this is a check from a nation-wide company, drawn on a nation-wide bank. But apparently, they only count that sort of thing per-account (like, maybe the company paid me, but decided against it and put a stop payment on the check).
I spoke to a manager, and asked her to release some of the funds, so that I could get to work this week. She released about US$300, after taking the US$150 that I owed (which is fine).
Thanks for the answers.