When people complain about slow ACH transfers from certain banks, what are the big disadvantages that this causes? Is it simply a matter of not being able to make a move as quickly as you would like to if the need/desire arises? Is it a matter of actually potentially losing several days interest every time you transfer money in? Is it something else I missed?

A second question I have is about getting accounts that allow you to push or pull or both with ACH transfers to other accounts. Is it common for a FWer to look try to have one of these type of accounts so they can move money around more easily without checks or having to jump through several banks? Or is there really not that much advantage in this?

Try reading the GMAC and Fidelity discussions... there's been some good info on ach "hubs". Try using "hub" as a search term.
Fidelity and GMAC bank seem to be popular ach hubs with the FW crowd. I have no experience with GMAC, but I do have a fidelity mysmart cash account which I use as an ACH hub. One consideration you should know about is the "hold". If I use the fidelity site to pull in money from myOtherBank, I can use that money at Fidelity immediately. I must wait 4-5 days before I can push the money out of Fidelity (or pull it out of Fidelity from somewhere else).

By the way, Treasury Direct can be used as a hub to some extent. For a variety of reasons its not the best hub for most people, but it does have one quality that has given me some satisfaction in the past... It Can Not Be Resisted! I used to have an account at emigrant bank and emigrant lowered their rates, made it difficult to set up ACH links with other banks, and would not allow themselves to be targeted by other banks ACH. This happened at a time when 28-day t-bills were paying 5%. So I bought some 28 day bills and had Treasury Direct pull the money from emigrant. Emigrant could not resist the pull. 28 days later I had TD push the money into notEmigrantBank.

Slow ACH times are generally a huge pain in the ass for people with gambling problems.

silverdeals said:hejustlaughs said:Slow ACH times are generally a huge pain in the ass for people with gambling problems.Because they can't lose their money fast enough? Or because they might lose their kneecaps while waiting for the money to arrive.