New Account Exception Holds: $6,725 Rule and Day 31 Reset

When you open a new checking account, federal rules let the bank restrict access to your check deposits for up to nine business days during the first 30 calendar days, and for ordinary personal and corporate checks there is no federally mandated availability schedule at all during that window. A new account hold on bank deposits is governed by Regulation CC, which carves out specific protections for cash, electronic payments, and certain official checks while giving banks wide discretion over everything else. Knowing which category your deposit falls into is the difference between spending money on Tuesday and watching it sit frozen until the following week.

What Counts as a New Account

Your account is considered “new” for the first 30 calendar days after it is opened. The clock starts the day the account is established, not the day you make your first deposit.¹ On day 31, the standard availability schedules take over, and they are considerably more generous.

There is one carve-out worth checking before you accept any hold. If every person listed on the new account already held another transaction account at the same bank for at least 30 days (within the 30 days before opening the new one), the bank cannot treat the new account as “new” for hold purposes.¹ The regulation looks at your relationship with the bank, not just the account number. So if you have banked there for years and simply open a second checking account, the new-account hold rules should not apply.

One boundary that catches people off guard: these rules only cover transaction accounts, meaning checking accounts and similar accounts designed for frequent withdrawals. Savings accounts and money market deposit accounts are excluded from Regulation CC’s availability requirements entirely, even during the first 30 days.² Holds on those accounts follow the bank’s own policies and your account agreement.

Deposits That Still Get Next-Day Access

Even during the new-account period, two categories of deposits must be available by the next business day after the banking day you deposited them. The bank has no discretion.

The first is cash deposited in person to a bank employee. Hand cash to a teller, and the bank must release those funds no later than the following business day.³ Cash deposited at an ATM is treated differently depending on who owns the machine.

The second is electronic payments, including wire transfers and ACH direct deposits. These transfers carry lower fraud risk than paper instruments, and the regulation treats them accordingly.³ If a new employer sends your first paycheck by direct deposit, those funds must be available the next business day regardless of how old your account is.

The $6,725 Rule for Special Checks

Certain official checks get partial next-day availability during the new-account period, but only up to $6,725 per banking day. This threshold, adjusted for inflation effective July 1, 2025, applies to:⁴

U.S. Treasury checks, as long as you are the payee. Treasury checks do not require a special deposit slip or in-person deposit to a teller.³
State and local government checks. You must be the payee, deposit in person to a teller at a bank located in the issuing state, and use a special deposit slip if the bank requires one.³
Cashier’s, certified, and teller’s checks. You must be the payee, deposit in person to a teller, and use a special deposit slip if required.³

If your deposit of one of these check types exceeds $6,725, the first $6,725 must still be available the next business day. The bank can hold the excess until the ninth business day after the deposit.¹ A $10,000 cashier’s check deposited in person on Monday would mean $6,725 available Tuesday and the remaining $3,275 available no later than the following week, counting business days.

Ordinary Checks Have No Mandatory Schedule

Here is where new-account holds really bite. Personal checks, corporate payroll checks, and other standard checks deposited during the first 30 days are not subject to any mandatory availability schedule. The usual two-day and five-day timelines that protect established accounts simply do not apply.¹ Even the normal rule requiring the first $275 of any check to be available next-day is suspended for new accounts.⁴

Federal Reserve guidance puts it bluntly: “You may choose any availability schedule for deposits of other checks into the accounts of these new customers.”⁵ In practice, most banks hold these deposits for somewhere between five and nine business days, but the regulation itself sets no ceiling during the new-account period. If you plan to deposit a personal check at a brand-new bank and need quick access to the funds, assume you will not have it.

How You Deposit Matters

The deposit method can either preserve next-day availability or forfeit it, and during the new-account window there is less margin for error.

Proprietary ATMs

A proprietary ATM is one your bank owns, operates, or that sits on or within 50 feet of a bank branch.² Cash deposited at a proprietary ATM follows the same next-day rule as cash handed to a teller. A check deposited at a proprietary ATM, however, does not satisfy the in-person teller condition needed to trigger next-day availability on government or cashier’s checks.

Nonproprietary ATMs

A nonproprietary ATM is any ATM not owned by or located at your bank. During the new-account period, the standard availability schedule does not apply, so the bank’s hold authority is even broader.²

Mobile Check Deposits

Regulation CC was written around paper checks and physical deposit methods. Mobile deposits using your phone’s camera do not fit neatly into the existing framework, and how they interact with the availability schedules largely depends on agreements between the bank and its customers.² Most banks impose their own hold policies for mobile deposits, often longer than what Regulation CC would require for in-person deposits. Check your bank’s mobile deposit agreement for the specific terms.

What Changes on Day 31

Once the new-account period ends, the standard availability schedule under 12 CFR 229.12 takes over, and the difference is dramatic. For local checks, the bank must make funds available by the second business day after deposit. For nonlocal checks, the deadline extends to the fifth business day.⁶ The first $275 of any check deposit must be available the next business day, regardless of the check type.⁴

That is a meaningful improvement over the new-account period, where ordinary checks have no mandatory schedule at all. The transition happens automatically on day 31. You do not need to request it or notify the bank.

Available Does Not Mean Safe

Even when a bank releases funds during the new-account period, that access is provisional. The bank is letting you spend money it has not yet confirmed is real. If the deposited check later bounces or turns out to be fraudulent, the bank will reverse the credit and pull the funds back out of your account.⁷

This is where new account holders get burned most often. You deposit a cashier’s check, the first $6,725 appears in your balance the next day, you spend it, and a week later the bank discovers the check was counterfeit. You now owe the bank the full amount, likely plus a returned-check fee, and recovering the money from whoever wrote the check is your problem. The bank will not pursue them on your behalf.⁷ If a deposit looks too good to be true during your first 30 days, wait for the hold to fully clear before spending.

What the Bank Must Tell You, and What You Can Do If It Does Not

When a bank invokes a hold exception, it must give you written notice that includes the reason for the hold and the date your funds will become available. If you deposit in person with a teller, you should receive the notice at the time of deposit. If you deposit through an ATM or by mail, the bank must send the notice no later than the first business day after the deposit or after the bank learns the facts justifying the hold, whichever is later.¹ The notice must identify your account, the deposit date, the amount being held, and the specific reason the exception applies. Keep an eye on the stated release date. If the bank does not release your funds by that date, or if you never received a notice at all, the bank may be violating Regulation CC.

A bank that fails to comply with Regulation CC’s availability requirements is liable for any actual damages you suffer, plus statutory damages between $125 and $1,350 for an individual claim, with attorney’s fees and costs available.⁸ Before heading to court, you can file a complaint with the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which forwards it to the bank; companies generally respond within 15 days, and the complaint and response become part of a public database.⁹ Filing a CFPB complaint does not prevent you from pursuing a civil claim if the bank’s response does not fix the problem.

1
eCFR. 12 CFR 229.13 – Exceptions
2
eCFR. 12 CFR Part 229 – Availability of Funds and Collection of Checks (Regulation CC)
3
eCFR. 12 CFR 229.10 – Next-day availability
4
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Availability of Funds and Collection of Checks (Regulation CC) Threshold Adjustments
5
Federal Reserve. A Guide to Regulation CC Compliance
6
eCFR. 12 CFR 229.12 – Availability schedule
7
HelpWithMyBank.gov. I deposited a third-party check and spent some of the funds
8
eCFR. 12 CFR 229.21 – Civil liability
9
Consumer Financial Protection Bureau. Learn how the complaint process works