Warning: my regional bank's instant transfer cost me $45 in overdraft fees
Tbh I switched to a local credit union in Austin after my old bank kept delaying ACH pushes. But their "instant" transfer between my checking and savings actually took 18 hours to post. I paid a $32 water bill expecting the money to clear, then got hit with $45 in overdraft fees the next morning. Has anyone else dealt with credit unions that use a different settlement window than the big banks? I'm thinking about keeping both accounts now, but that feels like overkill.
My credit union in Portland pulls the same thing. Transfers between my own accounts sit in pending until the next business day, sometimes 2pm before it actually clears. Big banks post that stuff same day if you do it before their cutoff, usually 3 or 4pm. What I do now is keep a $200 buffer in checking so I'm never waiting on a transfer to cover a bill, and I use the credit union for savings only. Keeping both accounts isn't overkill, it's just how you have to play it with these smaller banks.