Banks are skimming off large amounts of interest on your money that sits in their vaults as they carry out your payment instructions.
In some cases you lose out on potential interest but in other cases you are merely denied access to your money. This is despite the introduction of computer systems that can undertake immediate transactions.
Banks have fiercely defended these in-transit periods and some have denied that they derive any benefit from this money.
"Banks have a duty of care and must make sure that the funds are available to meet payment because we can be held accountable," says Erik Larsen, a Standard Bank spokesman.
He also initially denied that banks gain anything by the millions of rands sitting in a bank's suspense account but later admitted that the banks received a benefit from these in-transit funds.
Delays take place particularly with stop orders (instructions which you give to your bank to pay a third party) and cheque payments.
At Standard Bank and First National Bank money paid via stop order will take two working days (including Saturdays, but not Sundays) to reach its destination.
Furthermore, if the day on which your stop order is implemented is a Friday, the recipient of that money will only receive it on Tuesday.
During this hold up neither you or the recipient enjoy the benefit of the money. You and the recipient also lose any potential interest earnings, which go straight into the profits of the banks.
At Absa (Allied, United, Volkskas and Trust Banks) and Nedcor (which includes Nedbank, Permanent Bank and People's Bank) it takes one working day for money transferred from your account to appear in the recipient's account.
When you are being paid by cheque you may wait up to seven, working days (including Saturday) while the cheque is being "cleared".
Although the payment is reflected in your account you cannot draw it until the cheque is cleared.
Banks point out that if the money is deposited in an interest-bearing account, you will earn interest during the clearance period, even if the money is not available to you.
The inconvenience is that you cannot draw that money during this period unless "you are a customer of good standing".
Banks do offer you the facility to "speed up" the clearing process for a fee ranging from R20 to R32.
Retail banks have defended their systems by saying that the clearing period on cheques is necessary because they must be checked for technical correctness and for cheques to be physically moved between banks.
Most banks do not insist on a clearance period where an account holder has an established and proven relationship with the bank.
Banks will allow the drawer of a cheque to stop payment if the cheque is still in the process of moving through the clearance system.