Q. I have a house I rent on the Mainland. A management company collects the rent and deposits the money into my account. I usually receive an e-mail from them about three business days later saying the check has cleared. However, my bank, American Savings, consistently holds on to the money for a day or so longer.

— Jack G., Honolulu

A. You've hit upon a complaint leveled at banks, not only here, but elsewhere in the country.

The issue is big enough that there are regulations that limit how long banks can hold a deposit until making the money available to you.

You also probably were told about the bank's check-holding policies, or at least received an information sheet on them, when you opened an account with the bank.

You can look the regulations up by going to the Federal Reserve's Web site. The address for these specific rules is www.federalreserve.gov/pubs/regcc/regcc.htm.

To save you some time, here's a short answer: If you've got a "nonlocal" check under $5,000, the bank must make the money available to you about five days after the day it is received.

There's nothing saying they can't make it available to you sooner and they are required to make available the first $100 of the deposit the first business day after the deposit.

So if you submit a check drawn on a bank in North Carolina on a Friday, you can get $100 of the money on Monday. The remainder of the money should be available at the latest by the following Friday.

That's the answer that generally applies to your situation.

But you'd be amazed how many different rules the Federal Reserve has on this issue, including minor exceptions that involve certain checks deposited outside the continental United States.

Without knowing more about your situation, it's difficult to say if the five-day rule applies specifically to you.

There are different holding periods if the check is written on an account at the same bank, if you just opened an account or have an account that's repeatedly overdrawn. You probably can get your money faster if it's a check written by the U.S. Treasury or is a U.S. Postal Service money order.

"It's not a simple answer," said Nick Griffin, state commissioner of Financial Institutions. "Each case is basically different because of the different dynamics involved."

That includes how your bank goes about processing the check and where the originating bank is located.

At American Savings, other factors can come into play, such as the amount of the check and how much is in the account. For checks more than $5,000 the hold can be up to 12 days, said Gwen Omori, vice president of branch operations.

If it's in Hawai'i and you deposit the check at your bank in person, you may be able to draw on the money the next day. The same goes for state government checks you deposit, or electronic payments such as direct deposit payroll checks.

A check from the Mainland can take days to clear because most banks are shipping bundles of checks to be processed by Federal Reserve locations. Once on the West Coast it may take more time to get the paying bank to remit the funds, especially if they are located across the country.

A hold allows "enough time to clear at the paying bank," Omori said.

American Savings spokeswoman Dawn Dunbar said she would be happy to talk with you about your check holds if you wanted further explanation.

If you are like me, you may be wondering why, in this age of online banking, clearing checks can't be done faster.

It turns out they can be, and efforts are under way to speed things up. The Federal Reserve has issued rules allowing banks to transmit pictures of checks that can be processed.

The rules were issued two years ago, and not all banks have invested yet in the equipment or processes to get the electronic processing systems up and running.

For now American Savings and many other local financial institutions are still processing paper checks, Dunbar said. American Savings is working toward installing an electronic check-transmitting system.

"It probably will be faster in the future," Omori said.

Do you have a question about personal finance, taxes or other money matters? Reach Akamai Money columnist Greg Wiles at 525-8088 or gwiles@honoluluadvertiser.com