When a bank decides a deposited check needs more time than its normal schedule, federal rules do not let the hold happen silently. Regulation CC requires a written notice that names five specific things, and the rule’s own wording is short enough to quote in full. The same section sets the dollar thresholds that let a bank invoke the extra time, and the current figure for all three of them is $6,725.
The five items the hold notice must carry
The list sits in 12 CFR 229.13(g)(1), the part of the Electronic Code of Federal Regulations that governs exception holds. The notice must contain:
- “A number or code, which need not exceed four digits, that identifies the customer’s account”;
- “The date of the deposit”;
- “The amount of the deposit that is being delayed”;
- “The reason the exception was invoked”; and
- “The time period within which the funds will be available for withdrawal.”
Read together, the five items let a depositor test the hold against the rule. The account code and deposit date tie the notice to a particular transaction. The amount shows whether the whole deposit or only part of it is delayed. The reason names the exception the bank relied on, and the availability period says when the money is due to be usable.
When the notice is due, and the next-business-day backstop
The default timing is “at the time of the deposit.” The rule carves out two cases. A deposit not made in person to a bank employee, such as a mailed check or an ATM deposit, cannot be answered across a counter, and a hold can also rest on facts the bank learns only after the deposit. In those cases the bank must “mail or deliver the notice” as soon as practicable, “but no later than the first business day following the day the facts become known.”
The Federal Reserve Board’s Regulation CC compliance guide puts the same obligation in plainer language for banks: a notice at the time of the deposit explaining why the funds are being held and when they will be available, and for deposits not made in person, a notice mailed or delivered no later than the first business day after the banking day of the deposit.
Why a bank can hold a deposit at all: the standard clock and the exceptions
A hold notice only arises when a bank departs from the ordinary schedule. Under 12 CFR 229.12, funds from a local check must be available no later than the second business day after deposit, and funds from a nonlocal check no later than the fifth. The exceptions in 229.13 are the rule’s permission to run past those dates.
Three of them turn on dollar amounts. For a new account, defined as the first 30 calendar days after the account is established, the first $6,725 deposited on any one banking day follows the normal schedule, and the excess is available no later than the ninth business day. The large-deposit exception applies to amounts “in excess of $6,725 on any one banking day.” The repeated-overdraft exception carries the same $6,725 figure in 229.13(d)(2). The regulation also permits the extra holds themselves to be reasonable in length, with extension periods the sources read here describe as one, five and six business days depending on the exception.
$6,725 replaced $5,525 on July 1, 2025
Older consumer guides still print the earlier figure of $5,525. The Federal Reserve Board and the CFPB adjusted the new-account, large-deposit and repeatedly-overdrawn amounts together, in a final rule stating that “this final rule is effective July 1, 2025.” The agencies tied the change to inflation, citing a 21.8 percent increase in the CPI-W between July 2018 and July 2023, and the arithmetic holds: $5,525 raised by that share lands at about $6,730, which is consistent with the $6,725 figure after rounding.
Because the amounts are adjusted on a schedule set by law, the figure can move again. For anyone comparing a bank’s disclosure with the regulation, the eCFR page above is the place to check the current number, not a decade-old summary.
Using the five items against an actual hold
A notice that arrives with an account code, a deposit date, a held amount, a stated reason and an availability date is complete on its face. A notice missing one of the five has not met the wording of 229.13(g)(1), and a held amount that exceeds the thresholds above can be compared with the reason the bank gave. A depositor who gets no notice, or one that does not name the exception, can ask the bank in writing which exception it invoked, quoting the regulation’s list. The sources read for this article describe what the notice must say and when; they do not describe a penalty for a missing one.
The regulation’s text, as published in the eCFR, is the controlling source for every item here: the five contents of the notice, the timing rules, the 30-day new-account period and the $6,725 threshold.
Keeping a deposit-hold notice and its dates together
A hold notice is only useful when its account code, deposit date, held amount, stated reason and release date can be compared against what the bank later does. Households that receive one often juggle the notice, a few phone calls and a bill that is due before the hold lifts. Writing those pieces down in one place makes the comparison simpler.
The Bank Account & Debt Protection Kit is a 10-page kit that includes a protected-funds and dispute log for recording a held deposit, its notice and each conversation with the bank.
Log a held deposit, its notice items and each bank call →
An AI model assisted with drafting, and the regulatory wording was matched against the eCFR text.
