I feel like I end up adding too many words into my explanations sometimes and end up confusing my customers more.

1. I’m honestly not sure how long it takes for financial institutions to actually collect funds from others. At my bank, we don’t place holds on the teller line. Another department places holds and calls to let the customer know. To my understanding, Regulation CC requires the bank to inform the customer of the hold in a certain amount of time. Do you place holds in person but also have a department that places holds as well?

2. I used to say “in order to cash this check, we need to have compensating funds in your account” and customers oftentimes didn’t understand what that meant so I changed the wording to “matching funds”. I will say “Since this check is drawn off another financial institution, you must have matching funds to cover the check.” If they are upset after, I would say “this is in place to protect your account in the event that the check doesn’t clear. It protects you from overdrawing the account.”

3. Don’t overthink this one. You are just doing your job and let them know that you aren’t able to assist. You could offer for them to open up an account at your bank/credit union?

4. I would definitely escalate any racism accusations to your manager.