ACH processing time of day
It depends on the bank and network. Banks are to provide outgoing data at the certain time for the processing by the central clearing house (the Federal Reserve system, for ACH), which then distributes incoming data back to the banks. All this has to be done between the closing of the business day and the opening of the next one. If the transaction hasn't completed the full path during that time - it will wait at the position it was stuck at until the next cycle - next night. That's why sometimes ACH transactions take more than 1 day to complete (if, for example, multiple Fed banks have to be involved). Each bank is different, so your question needs to be more specific. For instance, I believe Paypal and Chase settles at 7pm EST on business days. Bank of America at 5PM.
eChecks (and ACH) are a (desperate?) try of the US banking system to get into the 21st century. All EU countries (and some others) have direct deposits and transfers as the standard way of transferring money since about 20 years, and since about 5 years it is cost-free and one-day across all the EU. The rest of the world runs mostly country specific system, as there is not that large a demand for cross country shifting, and exchange rates are also an issue in any such transaction. Because they have different ways that work fine since decades, other countries will consider the eCheck idea as a step backwards and will probably ignore it, so your answer is 'none'. International companies work with banks in a different relationship than retail customers, so they can do things you and me cannot do - depending on size and volume. Some large companies get a banking license and then handle their own stuff; medium sized companies make favorable contracts with banks (they are golden goose customers - never an issue, no brick and mortar presence needed, banks love them), or they simply suck up the transfer cost (if you move millions, who cares about a 40 $ fee). Small businesses whine and live with what they get... "You can technically initiate an ACH transaction (debit or credit) with just the routing number and the account number. As a consumer - most banks will not allow you doing this without some sort of verification of authority. But if you have a direct ACH access (like many billers do) - you can do that and nothing will stop you. You can also print checks with the account/routing info on them and use them. That said - these actions are illegal and reversible. People who do this are usually making ""sting"" operations where they deposit forged checks and withdraw the money in cash quickly, before the check bounces back as a fake. The loss is then on the bank that allowed them depositing the checks (that's why new accounts usually have much longer holds on deposits than older established ones)." "It's not usually apparent to the average consumer, but there's actually two stages to collecting a payment, and two ways to undo it.  The particular combination that occurs may lead to long refund times, on top of any human delays (like Ben Miller's answer addresses). When you pay with a credit card, it is typically only authorized - the issuing bank says ""I'm setting this money aside for this transaction"", but no money actually changes hands.  You'll typically see this on your statement as a ""pending"" charge.  Only later, in a process called ""settlement"", does your bank actually send money to the merchant's bank.  Typically, this process starts the same day that the authorization happens (at close of business), but it may take a few days to complete.  In the case of an ecommerce transaction, the merchant may not be allowed to start it until they ship whatever you ordered. On the flip side, a given transaction can be voided off or money can be sent back to your card.  In the first case, the transaction will just disappear altogether; in the second, it may disappear or you may see both the payment and the refund on your statement.  Voids can be as fast as an authorization, but once a transaction has started settlement, it can't be voided any more.  Sending money back (a ""refund"") goes through the same settlement process as above, and can take just as long. So, to specifically apply that to your question: You get the SMS when the transaction is authorized, even though no money has yet moved.  The refund money won't show up until several days after someone indicates that it should happen, and there's no ""reverse authorize"" operation to let you or your bank know that it's coming." "I know of one practical difference between business checks (8"" check) and personal checks (6"" check) dealing with the paper check conversion rule to electronic debit.   The National ACH Association, created a rule that allows receivers of checks without an ""Auxiliary On-Us"" field, to convert your check into an electronic debit via the ACH network.  By default, 6"" checks (personal checks) do NOT have the AUX ON-US field, and are eligible to be converted to ACH debit. If you do not want your paper checks converted to ACH debits, then start using business checks with the AUX ON-US field populated.  You can use business checks for business or personal checking accounts. More information can be found below: http://www.deluxe.com/miscfiles/pdf/AuxOnUsField.pdf http://www.achrulesonline.org/" "As for PC Mastercard like stated by @nullability, VISA Desjardins list the ""Pending Authorizations"" almost instantly (the time it's take to get back home) in AccesD (Their Web portal for managing accounts)." "just tried it and it worked well. However I would like to add more info to be precise: The above steps are correct between 1 and 5. And that's it. It works well, however HSBC says that ""your Credit Card balance won't be updated until the next working day"". Actually it took 2 days for them to process it and I called them perhaps I made a mistake but everything went good and now my balance is zero (so give 48hours for them). thank you for this write up ledeje." I think they're compounding the interest daily. That means you have to look at the number of days between payments to judge how much the interest charge is. From February 3 to March 2 is 28 days (2012 was a leap year). From March 2 to April 3 is 32 days. That's an increase of about 14% in number of days between payments, which accounts reasonably well to the ~$18 difference in interest charge.  Daily compounding also explains the minor fluctuations in the other interest charges. I think if you compute interest/day for each month, you'll find that it is, indeed, decreasing over time. I suspect that the times you are referring to are those times when there is relatively low volumes of foreign exchange trading.  Lower volumes of trading make it possible for large orders to have a disproportionate effect on the market price.  This implies that the times to avoid will be the times with the lowest relative volumes.  This will occur on the cusp between the New York market winding down and the Asia/Tokyo market revving up. This will be in the hours preceding Tokyo's opening at 06:00 Tokyo time, so the time to avoid is about 04:00-06:00 Tokyo time, or about 20:00-22:00 GMT (if I've worked out the time difference correctly). Foreign exchange is a 24 hour, global market.  Although each of the three main trading centres - London, New York, Asia - will operate 24 hours a day, they will maintain only a skeleton staff outside of normal working hours.  The time difference between London and New York is only 5 hours, so there is no period of time when both centres are operating with a skeleton staff.  The time difference between London and Tokyo is 8 hours, so again there is no period of time when both centres are operating with a skeleton staff.  The time difference between New York and Tokyo is 13 hours.  This does include a period where both centres are operating with a skeleton staff, as well as London operating on a skeleton staff.  Thus, in the couple of hours immediately preceding Tokyo's opening for the regular trading day there is minimal coverage in each of the three main trading centres.  As mentioned above, this is the time when large orders can have a disproportionate effect on fx rates and so this is the time to avoid.