I deposited a check in my checking account last week and the bank placed an 11 day hold on my deposit. they said i could use $4,9000 of it within 5 days and the remaining $17,200 in 11 days. i understand the need to give the bank time to see if the check will clear, my question is this:

If the check clears in 7 days, is the bank required to give me quicker access to my remaining monies? fyi, i'm not a problem customer, but will be needing to pay my contractors and don't want to get into an insufficient fund status.
thanx

If the check clears in 7 days (early), the bank may have in place procedures to release a hold early, but there is no requirement.

You should talk to the branch manager and see if they can work with you.

Good Luck!

Tex is right, that they may remove the hold early if they can confirm that the check has cleared. Something to keep in mind is that as a matter of course, banks don't receive any sort of confirmation when a check clears.

That said, Builder Chick's suggestion is a good one- ask your bank to attempt to verify if the check has cleared. If the check is drawn on a bank that is willing to provide such verification (not all banks do this) then your bank may (if its within their own policies and processes) be able to release the hold.

And just remember a very important point - just because the hold has expired or the bank has received provisional credit for the item - it doesn't mean that the check is actually good.