Visa Officially Says Stores Cannot Deny Purchases If You Don't Show ID

According to The Consumerist, here's VISA's official policy on stores requiring ID for a credit card purchase.

Merchants may not refuse to honor a Visa card simply because the cardholder refuses a request for supplementary information. The only exception is when a Visa card is unsigned when presented. However, "See ID" is not considered a valid signature. In these situations, a merchant must obtain authorization, review additional identification, and require the cardholder to sign the card before completing a transaction.

To report any merchant practices that you feel are inappropriate, please notify the disputes area at the financial institution that issued your card account. Your card issuing bank has access to the appropriate Visa rules and regulations as well as to the Notification of Customer Complaint forms which should be used by your bank to document and file merchant complaints.

As an alternative, you may contact the Global Customer Care Services to report merchant practices that you feel are inappropriate. Please contact the Global Customer Care Services at 1-800-VISA-911 (1-800-847-2911). Please advise them that you were referred to file a complaint. The staff will be able to initiate a complaint form over the phone.

Banking adventure, part 2

I received a response from US Bank today regarding access to my funds. Here it is:

Dear Michael P. Sauers,

When a deposit is made to an account 30 days old or younger, only $100.00 total is available the same business day. The remaining funds are held for five business days. While the hold is in place the funds are not available for paying outstanding transactions. Examples of deposits which are not subject to a hold are: cash deposits with a teller, direct deposit, and wire transfers We will also allow same-day processing for deposits which were issued from another U.S. Bank account, and are deposited with a teller before the cut-off time. Unfortunately, all deposits made at an ATM are subject to being held, if they exceed $100.00. f items presented exceed the available balance, including the first $100.00 of the deposit, the account is subject to charges.

Once the account is 31 days or older, the deposit held pending verification will last for one business night. Information regarding our Funds Availability Policy was provided to you in writing at account opening in the customer agreement titled, Your Deposit Account Agreement. You will find this information in the section titled "Funds Availability: Your Ability to Withdraw Funds-ll Accounts," beginning on page 35. If you are in need of this agreement again, please provide us with your mailing address so e may send this to you. You may also find this agreement online by completing the following:

- Visit www.usbank.com
- Click Checking Accounts from the home page
- Click Apply Now
- Click Account Disclosures, Terms and Conditions
- Select Deposit Account Agreement

I sincerely apologize for the confusion.

Please keep in mind, items on your account are paid based upon the available balance. The running balance online may reflect in blue. The blue balance is a link, and when clicked, will open up a box. In the box, you will be provided with your available balance and the amount of unavailable funds a that point in time. This means there were deposited funds being held or check card authorizations outstanding against the balance.

Please let us know if you have any further questions or concerns. Personal Bankers are available 24 hours a day, 7 days a week,365 days a year. Have a great day.

*For your protection, please send your personal information through our secured email service only. Simply complete the following to reply with sensitive information:
- Point your browser to http://www.usbank.com
- Select "Contact Us" at the top of the page.
- Select the type of account you are referencing.
- Submit your information using the "Email Us" form provided.

Sincerely,

Angie Kreamier
Email Operations
U.S. Bank 24-Hour Banking & Financial Sales

If you need further assistance, please feel free to call 1-800-USBANKS (1-800-872-2657) or go to www.usbank.com and select 'Contact Us' link. If you are out of the country, you may call us collect at 1-503-401-9991.

This isn't really an answer as they've told me I'll have access to the balance of my funds after 5 days, which is what I was not told at the bank. ($4900 after five days, the rest after 10.) I'll try again to get some clarification.

Then, I get a very scary balance alert:

Luckily I have no outstanding transactions.

Banking adventure

Yesterday I deposited a rather large sum into my bank account. The sum was made up of two checks one for $5.99, the other for more than $35,000. I figured there would be a hold put on the funds so I went in to deal with a teller instead of using the ATM. When the teller saw the amount of check #2 she informed me that there would be a hold on the funds as I expected and then asked me if I would still like to make the deposit. Considering that the funds would do me no good in their current form, why would I not want to make the deposit?

The deposit was made and then she had to fill out some paperwork to officially inform me about the hold time on my money. Now that the money was deposited it was treated as a single amount, let's call that amount $35,005.99. I was told that $100 would be made available to me immediately. Wait, shouldn't that be $105.99? There's no hold on the first check as it's too small to have a hold put on it (holds start at $5,000) and I should get $100 out of the check with the hold. Well, since it was all deposited together I just get $100. (I'm not being stingy here but I would have had access to $105.99 if I'd done two separate deposits so why should I get access to less if I saved them some work by doing a single deposit?)

I understand the $100 immediately policy. It's a courtesy to me as the customer as they need to wait for the check to clear before giving me the majority of the funds. Fine, o.k., so as soon as the large check clears I get the rest of my money. Well, sort of...

It turns out that I'll be getting access to the funds in two stages. After five business days I'll have access to an additional $4,900. (Presumably that plus the first $100 equals the $5,000 amount that triggered the hold in the first place.) Then, after ten business days I'll get access to the outstanding balance of my deposit.

What? Either the check has cleared after five business days or it hasn't. If five days isn't enough (which these days should be more than enough) make it ten. Let's say the check isn't good and hasn't cleared after five days, what exactly is the point of giving me $4,900? Or, if the check has cleared within the five day window, why can't I have access to all of it?

Unfortunately I didn't think to ask at the time but I will be e-mailing my bank to see if I can get a logical answer.