>>Conclusion: this actually can get slower, if you're the recipient of the check, because it may take anywhere between two or eleven days for the 1.2 seconds of check check to happen, and for the amount to clear from the transitional account (i.e. your bank holding your money in its pockets) into your account.
>
>My experience with online bill payment has been very similar to Tracy's. My checking account is with a very large bank (Chase) and their bill payment service, which costs nothing, is terrific. You set up payments for a designated date and can then "check" when they are processed. With the exception of a couple of small operations like the village of Round Lake (water and sewage bill), which receive their payments in the mail and take 5 days, everything is processed in a day or two. No paper checks involved with those. The new Check 21 regulations 4 or 5 years ago were a big change in the industry. Basically Check 21 processes payments electronically rather than with paper checks. (It's also why you probably don't get canceled checks in the mail any more).

I was also with a major bank - Wachovia - for the first few years, and have set up electronic payments as soon as I bought a computer and got it connected. But they screwed up royally within a couple of years; one water bill I paid 4 days ahead (so it showed on my statement) but the billing processor got it two days too late (!). I had argued for about a full year with this billing company (who were billing the water for the county), the amount due increased by a fine, which was ridiculous, $7 fine for a $12 bill, out of which $10 was actual water and $2 was the billing service - until I realized I'd better check with the bank. By that time they also didn't have any clue what happened 11 month before, and weren't about to dig either, they actually knew this was one in the series of screwups at the time, and just asked how much. They credited my account for the amount of fines, silently and swiftly.

I don't care how many ingenious ways they find to keep my money on their accounts for a day or two longer, so they can artificially increase their "cash on hand" report and thus claim larger money-emitting rights (i.e. loan capacity), slowing transactions down in this manner is soooooooo slllllooooooow. It's like the banks in Hungary in the nineties - every business was carrying wads of cash around, I actually never saw so much cash - because a bank payment would take a week, and that's from one's account to another's bank, then another week for the partner to actually get the money. Now with all these electronics, 15 years later it doesn't take 14 days, it takes 4 or 6?