I once took out $25,000 from my WF account and asked for it in a cashiers check. I paid the $5 fee for the check (even though they had stated that it would be free) - then I took my money....
I came back ~1month later to re-deposit the check into SAME WF acct.
They stated that they had to put a hold on the check for 14 days until they could verify the funds. For a WF issued cashiers check. From the SAME act the funds came out of.
It is easy to forge a cashiers check. Even if it is real, it is possible to erase the name on it and put something else on. Or you could have a fake id that makes it seem like you are really the person who it was written to. Those are just the types of fraud that come to mind immediately, those who work in banks probably know of more.
Worked in a bank when I was younger (Not WF). Was fairly trivial for us to confirm that the cashiers check was actually issued by us. It shouldn't have been held longer than a day at most, particularly not for a client.
Leaving aside that it's your money and yours to do with as you wish...
Out of curiosity, if you care to disclose, what was your reasoning behind this?
If I'm a bank, I can see a couple of red flags with this (maybe some obscure kiting, or similar), "take five digit sum from account, in a check made out to self - then one month later deposit same uncashed check into originating account"... and "verifying the funds" is not verifying availability, but 'minimizing possibility of sketchiness'.
I came back ~1month later to re-deposit the check into SAME WF acct.
They stated that they had to put a hold on the check for 14 days until they could verify the funds. For a WF issued cashiers check. From the SAME act the funds came out of.
I changed banks that day.