Waiting on check to clear-Any Advice Please?

I will be depositing a student loan check in the amount of 20k in my account and they said it would take about 2 weeks for it to clear. Is there any way I can get the money faster?? The check has the name Bank of New York as it being their check. Can I just drive there and get my 20k all at once? I will have to drive about 2 hours just to get to one of these banks.Waiting on check to clear-Any Advice Please?
Two weeks is excessive for a check that is drawn on a bank local to the point of deposit - although Reg CC does allow holds of this length for new accounts and for cause (accounts that have excessive overdrafts, check is suspicious for some reason) - it is a long time.





Going to BNY for cash isn't the safest idea - traveling, risk of loss, etc.





I would suggest if you will be getting this type of check repeatedly, open your checking account at BNY and do your banking through them - no hold on the big check from them, the likely have online banking, bank by mail, telephone banking - ways that you won't have to use the branch network.





OR - ask if you can exchange the check you have for a BNY ';Official Check'; - sometimes called cashier's check, or teller check - basically, you exchange the check from the loan provider for one that is written on the BNY checkbook. Likely you will have to go to the branch for that, and the will likely charge a modest fee. An official check should clear your bank much quicker - most often the next business day - check with the teller or better yet the teller manager as to the specific rules there for holds on official checks.





For the future, can the loan provider transfer your funds to you by direct deposit? no holds, and no travel if they can.Waiting on check to clear-Any Advice Please?
I don't know if you can walk out with 20k, but if you could go to a BNY, if I were you I'd open an account, put the money in, it ought to be available immediately, and then you could write smaller checks off of it that would probably clear faster.





Most banks will clear checks under a certain amount (maybe $5k) fairly quickly, particularly if they know you, with the exception of Bank of America which insists on 5 days regardless.





You'll probably have to wait 5 business days to clear no matter where you are, unless you have a long relationship with your current bank, but two weeks seems excessive.





In theory, though, you might be able to get 20k at once.
Don't do that. Too much stress to carry cash with you and your bank will have to do a Currency Transaction Reporting for cash amounts of over $10,001 deposited into your bank account. Have your bank call the drawee bank after a couple of days. They should be able to clarify if the funds have cleared the drawee account. Upon the confirmation, the bank manager should be able to make an exception and waive the hold for you.