When credit union protocols go wild!

I ran a bit late this morning, and didn't pack a lunch. This being a few days before my next direct deposit (DD is transmitted on Mondays), I was reluctant to swipe my debit card for a meal because I would start bumping up against my personal "buffer level" in my checking account.

But then I remembered I had a couple of survey payment checks in my wallet. So I went down to my credit union's shared branch to cash them out. I filled out the "deposit" and "returned to you" sections with $10 each, and made my way through the line.

When I got to the counter, I was greeted with a sign that said "ALL checks now being held." So I had to redo my slip.

The teller then proceeded to deposit $10 in my account, only to withdraw $10 one moment later. As I saw when I logged in this afternoon, these transactions processed immediately. However, the network COULD have held the balance for the weekend, if they'd wanted to. And then my available balance would have dropped by $10 even though the funds were right there.

I'm really not sure what purpose this serves. At amounts over $100, I'm fine with a short hold, but for $10! It's almost enough to make me go across town and deposit the checks at my own branch.