I normally put the date that I transact, and then when I reconcile from the downloaded monthly statement comes out I have it updated to the one that financial institution says so.
This way at least I am guaranteed that bank won't get a chance to hit me with insufficient funds fee. Yes I am believer that banks should be paying me interest to keep my money with them; not keep them there for me to pay them to keep my money there. And if there are issues after reconciliation, I can walk with statement to flag it down. Some people do thrive by living on so called "floats" but at the end of the day it doesn't matter in the grand scheme of things for common person like me when financial institutions clears it. IMHO if someone badly wanted to mimic two separate transaction and corresponding dates -- one for sender side and other for the receipt side - of the transactions, then I would think that an intermediary account would be needed such that first set happens from say bank to intermediary, and second set from intermediary to final recipient like a credit card company. This technically would preserve all the correct time stamps from both sides, proper description from each institution side when reconciling against a statement, and the intermediary account would tell you what is in flight if it is not zero. Although I don't know how that would impact reporting in anyway, if any. Yes, banks and other larger financial institutions make monies on overnight -- so called "repos" -- hence feds setting overnight interest rates 😊. -----Original Message----- From: Adam H. Kerman <[email protected]> Sent: Tuesday, March 03, 2026 6:34 AM To: [email protected] Subject: Re: [GNC] Kind of a Philosophical Question about Transaction Dates 8:27pm -0000 03/02/26 Liz <[email protected]> wrote: >This is a problem which is not universal. In Australia electronic >payments are faster and faster, so I can send money through one system >and it takes about a minute to arrive in an account at another bank. >Cheques are part of the past now, with very few banks handling them. >The only delays are when using "tap and pay" (no PIN) with a debit or >credit card, as these are routinely held for a few days before payment >in case of card theft or fraud being reported. However when the item >goes on my statement it will be the original date. I think that is my >bank's choice. >The question has been asked before, and at some time it will be totally >irrelevant. Until then, for those in the USA, it remains an occasional >question. Electronic transactions absolutely occur instantly in the US, same as everywhere else. But transactions in consumer banking accounts are dated as if physical checks have been transferred from one bank to the next overnight after the end of a weekday that's not a bank holiday. btw, the consumer can benefit from this. Typically, banks post deposits before payments, without regard to processing order, and they may give you till first thing the next morning to make up an overnight deficit. The consumer and merchant simply aren't seeing all the steps in payment processing. Banks use a clearing account called uncollected balances. Believe me, monies are lent out overnight, earning a bit of interest the depositor doesn't receive, based on these balances. A check is either imaged or turned into an electronic transaction. It's rare indeed that a physical check would get transferred to the next bank. They are supposed to get destroyed at the earliest opportunity. With a credit or debit card, a hold is placed on the consumer's account, either reducing available credit or making monies in the checking account unavailable. Once the monies are in the merchant's account, the hold is lifted. There is genuine fraud protection with credit cards, and weak fraud protection with debit cards. It doesn't matter if the fraud hasn't been discovered till after the merchant receives payment. The monies can be put into suspense till the dispute has been resolved. With a debit card, which represents a checking account, the consumer is out the monies till the dispute is resolved, if it's in his favor. I have a teller card, a debit card that cannot be used for purchases. I had to insist to my bani that they issue one to me as I refused to use the branded debit card, understanding the lack of consumer protection against fraud. If an account must be credited instantly, then a wire transfer must be used. _______________________________________________ gnucash-user mailing list [email protected] To update your subscription preferences or to unsubscribe: https://lists.gnucash.org/mailman/listinfo/gnucash-user ----- Please remember to CC this list on all your replies. You can do this by using Reply-To-List or Reply-All.
