How Much Can I Deposit at One Time in a Bank?

Banks do not impose limits on the amount of money that you can deposit in a single transaction. However, when you make a large check deposit your bank can place a hold on the funds. In addition, if you make a large cash deposit you may have to contend with processing fees.

The Federal Reserve's Regulation CC allows banks to place seven-day holds on checks that exceed $5,000. Your bank must make $100 of the check available the next business day and $4,900 available after two business days, but the remaining funds are subject to the seven business day hold. If you deposit a check in excess of $5,000 into an account that you have held for less than 30 days then your bank must make $100 available the next business day but can hold the rest of the money for nine business days.

If you deposit more than $10,000 of cash into your account within a single business day then your bank must complete a "large currency transaction report." Bank business days typically end at 2 or 3 p.m. and Saturday and Sunday do not count as business days. Therefore, cash deposits from late on Friday, all day Saturday and most of Monday are added together for reporting purposes. A large currency transaction report includes your personal information, such as your Social Security number, and details such as where you obtained the money.

When you deposit large quantities of cash into an account your bank can assess a cash handling fee. Banks assess these fees based on the number of bills rather than the dollar amount that you deposit. You only normally incur a cash handling fee if you deposit more than 100 bills. Typically, banks only charge processing fees on business accounts but most bank depository agreements do allow banks to charge fees when consumers deposit large amounts of cash in a single transaction.

The Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., or FDIC, guarantees bank deposits up to $250,000 per customer, per bank. If you deposit in excess of $250,000 into an account and your bank happens to go bankrupt that night, then you stand to lose the money you deposited that exceeded the insurance limit.

To avoid hold times and cash processing fees, you can have large dollar deposits wired into your account as funds from wire transfers are immediately available for use. However, some banks charge wire transfer fees when you send or receive a wire transfer.