How can money come OUT of my account instantly, but take up to four days to be "received" by a bank?

(Lord, Howard, Fine & Howard, 1943)

One of the interesting effects of recording phone conversations, linking emails, and scanning receipts into Evernote each day, a practice I adopted when I realized my memory is no longer reliable for tracking various responsibilities, is the number of times various companies I do business with get their information wrong because they obviously don't manage their own information as well as I manage mine. 

Two days ago, I scanned a "past due notice" that had me concerned because I did not have the money to pay it immediately. It was at the top of my agenda when there is money to pay things, but just now, I scanned all the receipts in my wallet from last week, and the payment was made before the past due notice was sent.

At my previous job, when merchandise was scanned onto a trailer to produce a bill-of-lading to go with the trailer (using software I had written) the data that comprised that bill-of-lading had been replicated to the trailer's destination (again by data replication software I wrote), usually before the paper document was printed. Bank transactions cannot possibly be as complex to replicate to various locations as data connected with the scheduling, production, and accounting of manufacture of many quantities of many different products with many different components. Manufacturers would go out of business if their accounting systems were as backwards as our those of our National Banks.

And we were replicating that data even back when phone lines and modems connected locations. There is NO EXCUSE for delays in replicating financial transactions. They should be visible across the country, affecting all aspects of their accounting, before the customer leaves the building: not after midnight of the following business day, up to four days later.

Obviously, we have had the technology for reliable instant transfer of money for nearly 20 years, and probably longer. What is the excuse for accounting delays that cause banks to charge interest and fees on "late" money, when they have had it in their own possession the entire time? There is NO excuse. It is a crime. It's called fraud. Regardless of whatever antiquated regulations the practice hides behind, when banks can create fictitious delinquencies, and then charge interest and penalties for those fictitious delinquencies, they are stealing. Their actions are a crime by any common-sense definition, every time they do it. They may think they are getting by with something for the time being, but eventually the Law will catch up with reality, and they won't just have some explaining to do, they will owe a lot of people a lot of money.

Why does our Government put up with such incompetence in our banking system? How far does this corruption go? In this country, it is the duty of citizens to hold Government accountable, and it is the responsibility of Government to hold financial institutions accountable. It is the right, and the duty, of every citizen to pay attention to the injustices around us, to speak up about it, and to demand change.


Image Reference:

Lord, D. (Director), Howard, C. (Performer), Fine, L. (Performer), & Howard, M. (Performer) 
          (1943). Phony express [Short Film]. In The Three Stooges. Columbia Pictures.