Is a cashiers check really that much better than, say, a money order?

• transfer money online to bank account
• send money online using bank account
• send money online to bank account
• order business checks
• atm fraud prevention
• investment fraud

Someone sent me a cashiers check for an item they bought from me, and I just assumed, hearing all the good things about this thing that I had, that it was just like a money order - instant cash, and guaranteed not to bounce.


But as I was out trying to spend some of this money and the cashier told me my card was declined, I later found out that the bank held the check for a day before cashing it.


I later found out that it really took eight days to totally clear, and if it didn't clear at the end of that time, if it bounced, I was responsible for paying back all that cash I had spent that was given to me after the first day and up until that eighth day. Again, if a cashiers check has the possibility of becoming a scam check after 8 days - I didn't know this guy, he won this thing from me over this auction site and had a 100% feedback rating, but otherwise, I knew nothing about him, yet I took this check from him thinking it was like cash - how much better is it than a regular check or a money order, which is instant cash?


And that is my question.

Is a cashiers check really that much better than, say, a money order?