This is one of my pet peeves. It is a scam, if Walmart can run a check through a scanner and get their funds transferred immediately so can a bank. Back in the day they had to wait for the mail, now clearing, approval, and transfer is instant.
I just recently went through this with opening a new account at a different bank with a check from myself to myself. She told me the funds were not going to be available for 3 days. I told her BS, then I will go somewhere else. She told me to hold and went and ran the check. Done and cleared 2 minutes later and they had the funds in my account and available.
It is an ancient “control” practice scam that needs to be corrected, don’t put up with it. It was originally to protect the person who wrote the check to make sure it was not a stolen fraudulent check. Handwriting, signature verification etc. And this used to take time because of the mail, now they run it through a scanner and the software detects any anomalies immediately and approves it immediately.
“This is one of my pet peeves. It is a scam,”
It’s likely profit. They probably hold those funds in an interest-bearing account, kept at a high balance by all the additive ‘check holds’.