Seven places get a longer wait on out-of-state checks under federal banking rules: Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam and the U.S. Virgin Islands. Banks there may add one business day to the normal limit when a deposited check is drawn on a bank in another state. Everywhere else, the ordinary deadlines apply without the extra day.
Section 229.12(e) adds a business day for seven places
The rule sits in Regulation CC, the Federal Reserve Board’s rule at 12 CFR part 229 that carries out the Expedited Funds Availability Act of 1987. The Fed’s Regulation CC page says that law “establishes maximum permissible hold periods for checks and other deposits.”
The extension is paragraph (e) of section 229.12, titled “Extension for certain deposits in Alaska, Hawaii, Puerto Rico, American Samoa, the Commonwealth of the Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, and the U.S. Virgin Islands.” It says the depositary bank “may extend the time periods set forth in this section by one business day.”
Two conditions must both be true. The deposit has to be made at a branch located in one of the seven places, and the check has to be drawn on, or payable at, a bank located in a different state. A check from a bank in the same state does not trigger the extra day.
The word is “may.” Section 229.12(e) sets a ceiling on how long the bank can wait, not a hold the bank must apply. A bank in Guam or Anchorage can release the funds on the ordinary schedule if it chooses.
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The schedule the rest of the country gets
The comparison starts with section 229.12(b), which covers local checks and certain other checks. A bank must make those funds available by the second business day after the deposit. Section 229.12(c) covers nonlocal checks, and the limit there is the fifth business day.
An out-of-state check deposited in Honolulu, Anchorage or San Juan will typically be a nonlocal check. For that deposit, the usual fifth business day stretches to the sixth. A retiree depositing a check from a family member’s bank on the mainland is the typical case.
Business days exclude weekends and federal holidays, so a Friday deposit does not start the count until the following Monday. The extension works the same way: one more business day, not one more calendar day.
Some money is not touched by the extension at all. Section 229.12(e) applies to deposits “other than a deposit described in” section 229.10, the next-day rule. That rule covers cash deposited in person with a bank employee, electronic payments, U.S. Treasury checks and Postal Service money orders deposited in person into the payee’s account, and cashier’s, certified or teller’s checks deposited in person.
Section 229.12(f) adds a separate limit for deposits made at ATMs that the bank does not own or operate. Funds deposited there, whether cash or check, must be available by the fifth business day. That ceiling is the same one the nonlocal check rule uses.
The availability schedule in section 229.12 has been in effect since September 1, 1990. The Expedited Funds Availability Act behind it was passed to address the long holds banks placed on check deposits, according to the Fed. Regulation CC also covers the speed of check returns and electronic check processing, in subparts C and D.
How the extra day plays out on a real deposit
Take a check drawn on a bank in Ohio and deposited at a branch in Hawaii on a Monday. Counting business days, the fifth business day after that deposit is the following Monday. With the extension, the bank may wait until Tuesday. The same check deposited at a branch in Ohio would not get the extra day.
The section also sets a floor that the extension does not remove. Under section 229.10, a limited amount of other checks, the lesser of $275 or the total deposited that day, must be available the next business day. That small amount is not held up by the added day.
Retirees who rely on a mailed check, such as a payment from an out-of-state insurer or a relative, may feel the difference most. A bill due on the fifth business day can still be missed if the funds arrive on the sixth. Planning the deposit date around the longer window avoids an overdraft.
The extension comes from the regulation text, so the same limit applies whichever bank is involved. What differs from bank to bank is whether the bank uses it. The deposit receipt and the bank’s own funds availability disclosure are the places that say which date applies to a given check.
The question a depositor in these seven places is left holding is concrete: was the check drawn on a bank in another state, and is a bill due before the sixth business day arrives?
Is a bill due before an out-of-state check clears?
A hold of one extra business day can turn into an overdraft fee or a bounced payment when rent or a utility bill is timed to a deposit. The story here is a bank rule, but the money question is what the account can cover while a check is still pending.
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This article was produced with AI assistance and edited for accuracy against the sources linked above.
