Bank lost an important cheque - now what?

[vwdan]

As others have said, it doesn't matter if you get proof that the cheque was paid in. It's not a guaranteed method of payment, so they'd need a new cheque to pay in.

I used to work in the foreign dept of a bank. Cheques are a nightmare, the process was awful. Basically, the branch don't do anything with it other than send it to the central department for processing. Once they get it, then have to send it to a partner bank to go through their cheque clearing cycle before they get the cash.

It's a very manual process, unlikely to be automated much at all. So there were often backlogs. If it's only been a few days (or even a couple of weeks), chances are it's sat in a big pile waiting to be looked at.

Thanks for this. To be honest, I don't care if it's a pile so long as I know it's safe.

[m0n1k3r]

Thanks for this. To be honest, I don't care if it's a pile so long as I know it's safe.

Foreign cheques/checks can take several weeks to clear, if not months. Those paper slips are very complicated things.

[Lance]

Foreign cheques/checks can take several weeks to clear, if not months. Those paper slips are very complicated things.

And..... any cheque... can bounce 10 days after it's cleared

[m0n1k3r]

And..... any cheque... can bounce 10 days after it's cleared

Or, in my case, 3 years. Received a letter from the world's local money launderer last summer while on holiday about a cheque credited to my account in 2012 where the sending bank wanted their money back. When I hadn't responded to it within 2 weeks, they blocked my account, cancelled all direct debits and then sent me another letter that they would take the money from the account one month later, and my account would be blocked until then. It was for another 2 months. A phone call would have cleared things up. Luckily, I have accounts in other banks, but bounced direct debits did affect my credit rating.

Avoid cheques at all costs.

[Lance]

Or, in my case, 3 years. Received a letter from the world's local money launderer last summer while on holiday about a cheque credited to my account in 2013 where the sending bank wanted their money back. When I hadn't responded to it within 2 weeks, they blocked my account, cancelled all direct debits and then sent me another letter that they would take the money from the account one month later, and my account would be blocked until then. It was for another 2 months. A phone call would have cleared things up. Luckily, I have accounts in other banks, but bounced direct debits did affect my credit rating.

Avoid cheques at all costs.

ouch.
At least we knew this one would bounce as it was from Nigeria, for £11k worth of printer cartridges and the cheque was for £15k and from a Bank that went bust 2 years before.
The result was that the cheque didn't bounce for £15k, it was just £6k that bounced. We trousered the £9k, emailed Nigeria, and received another stolen cheque

The banking system is screwed basically.

[FrontEnder]

The bank I worked at had 2 process for clearing foreign cheques - the first was used for people with good accounts and cheques at US/European banks the bank would basically credit the money to you before they received it, so the bank viewed it as a lending facility.

The other would be the slow way - which was for less common countries and if your internal credit rating was poor. They wouldn't give you the money until they had it from the foreign bank. Would take weeks usually and it wouldn't be unusual to lose the cheque as it's basically just being sent in the post to the bank.

I'd do everything I could to avoid being paid by non-UK cheque. Should just ban the things.

[MrMarkyMark]

ouch.
At least we knew this one would bounce as it was from Nigeria, for £11k worth of printer cartridges and the cheque was for £15k and from a Bank that went bust 2 years before.
The result was that the cheque didn't bounce for £15k, it was just £6k that bounced. We trousered the £9k, emailed Nigeria, and received another stolen cheque

The banking system is screwed basically.

Was it signed by the King or the Prince

[vwdan]

Well, got absolutely nowhere with this. They closed the complaint/investigation today - chucked me £200 for my trouble, but that's it. So now I get to compose a begging e-mail to my client.