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Paper dollar settlement times are fast, if you happen to be in the same physical location as the person you are transacting with.

Everything else you mentioned is a transaction not an actual settlement of cash. When you pay with a credit card, for example, no dollars change hands. The credit card company promises to pay the merchant at some point in the future. I've heard it can take 2 weeks for actual dollars to show up in their bank account. Similar with all bank transfers, though usually more like 3 days.

And of course, in all those scenarios with banks involved, you don't actually have a physical pile of dollar bills in a vault at the bank. You just have a promise of dollars from the bank. And they have all promised more dollars like that then they actually have.



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