A paycheck, a tax refund or a cashier’s check for a car sale all land in a bank account the same way, but the rules do not treat them the same. Under Federal Reserve Board Regulation CC, seven kinds of check deposit must be available the next business day, and the list includes a Treasury check and a cashier’s check handed over in person. Everything else on a household’s deposit slip may sit on hold for longer.

The seven check categories, counted off the regulation

The list sits in 12 CFR 229.10(c)(1). Banks must make funds available by the business day after the banking day of deposit for these seven:

• a check drawn on the U.S. Treasury, deposited to the payee’s account;
• a U.S. Postal Service money order deposited in person to the payee’s account;
• a Federal Reserve Bank or Federal Home Loan Bank check deposited in person;
• a state or local government check deposited in person, within the state that issued it;
• a cashier’s, certified or teller’s check deposited in person;
• a check drawn on the depositary bank itself and deposited at a branch in the same state or check-processing region as the branch it is drawn on;
• the lesser of $275 or the aggregate amount deposited on any one banking day by check to all of the customer’s accounts.

The first six are defined by who wrote the check and how it arrives. The seventh is different: it is a dollar floor that applies to checks that match none of the others.

For a household waiting on a Social Security payment, a Treasury refund or a federal benefit check, the practical question is which category the money falls into and how it arrives. A paper Treasury check falls in the first category. A paper check from a private employer falls into none of the seven, apart from the $275 floor. Direct deposit counts as an electronic payment, which the regulation treats separately.

For readers asking when a benefit payment will actually be usable, The Social Security Check Protection Kit includes the 2026 payment calendar and a first-24-hours plan for a late or missing payment.

See the payment calendar for next-day deposits →

The $275 is a cap, not a flat entitlement

The wording is “the lesser of” $275 or the total deposited, so a customer who deposits a single $90 personal check has $90 covered next day, and a customer who deposits $1,200 in ordinary checks has $275 covered. The figure is the inflation-adjusted amount published in the Federal Register at 89 FR 43738 on May 20, 2024; the older rule used $225. The eCFR’s own “last amended” banner for Part 229 is inconsistent, which is why the Federal Register citation is the safer reference.

The seven categories are checks only. Section 229.10(a) separately requires next-business-day availability for cash handed to a bank employee, and 229.10(b) does the same for electronic payments such as direct deposit. Counting those would give nine items on a wider list, but they are separate subsections and not part of the seven.

What sits below the next-day tier

Checks that miss all seven categories fall under the schedules in 12 CFR 229.12. A local check must be available no later than the second business day after the banking day of deposit. A nonlocal check must be available no later than the fifth business day. Under 229.12(d), a bank may extend the cash-withdrawal timing by a business day, but it must still make $550 of those funds available for withdrawal in cash or similar means by 5:00 p.m. on the business day the funds become available.

The result is a ladder. Cash and electronic payments move on the next business day. The seven check categories move on the next business day as well, with the $275 floor catching ordinary checks. Local checks follow on day two, nonlocal on day five. A customer who deposits a county tax refund check in person at a branch in the same state sits near the top of the ladder; the same check mailed in from another state does not.

Where a bank can still hold funds

Availability rules set the latest dates banks may apply, and a bank may release funds sooner. Regulation CC also contains exceptions that let a bank extend holds in specific situations, and those are separate from the standard schedules above. The key point for a budget is that the next-day tier describes what the rule demands for ordinary deposits; it does not describe every account, every deposit date or every exception.

The date of deposit also matters. Each rule counts from the banking day on which the deposit is made, so the clock starts on the bank’s own calendar rather than the day a customer walks in.

Why the in-person condition matters

Four of the seven categories turn on the deposit being made in person. A cashier’s check handed over to a teller falls squarely in the fifth category. The regulation’s wording ties that category to in-person deposit, so a person who needs the funds quickly for rent or a closing can ask the bank how it treats the same check when it arrives by another channel.

The Treasury check category is the broadest of the six defined ones, because the first item is not limited to in-person deposits. It requires only that the check be deposited to the payee’s account. That is why a federal tax refund check or a benefit check mailed by Treasury gets faster treatment than a private check of the same size.

Reading the bank’s own availability policy

The free official route is the regulation itself. The text of 12 CFR 229.10 and 229.12 is public and searchable, and a bank’s own funds availability policy should map to it. Find the line in that policy for the check type being deposited, then compare it with the seven categories above.

Before a deposit that matters, note the check type, whether it will be handed over in person, the deposit date and the bank’s cutoff time. Compare those with the policy, and ask the branch to confirm the expected availability date for that specific item.

The Social Security Check Protection Kit is an 18-page kit that holds the 2026 payment calendar and a first-24-hours plan for a late or missing payment, which can sit beside a bank’s own schedule when a benefit deposit seems slow.

Get The Social Security Check Protection Kit for next-day deposit rules →

This piece was drafted with AI assistance; the figures and dates were checked against 12 CFR 229.10 and 229.12 on the eCFR, and the Federal Register citation, linked above.