Reply to: Bank lost an important cheque - now what?

[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.

[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

[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.

[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.

[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]

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]

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.

[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.

[vwdan]

Isn't your best bet looking for the pay-in receipt. Once you have that, it is HSBC's responsibility if they lost the cheque. Surely, they should reimburse you as long as you can prove you've paid it in correctly. Their incompetence shouldn't be your problem

Have a read at this...

banking transfers, payments and cheques

Also, if you've got the deposit receipt from the other cheque your wife paid in, you could get the time it was paid in which would make it easier when going through CCTV should you go down that route

I'm a bit embarrassed because I'd actually forgotten my wife had used the Paying In Book (This is the first time it's been used and the first time I've used one in a decade or so), so I was looking for a literal receipt (Like you get from the machines). Anyway, I managed to dig it out of the storage unit and returned to the bank triumphant. They did seem a little more concerned this time round and she said she'd get onto the relevant teams so we'll see I guess. There's no question now that they had it at some point.

As for the check nonsense, frankly, it's been a bone of contention since the bloody start. I even set up and a proper Paypal account and got the limits removed to give me the ability to take non bank transfers before discussing payment types but they insisted. Believe it not, the customer is a bank too! (I was able to sneak in the guesstimated PayPal payment charges though, so there's that at least)

[SueEllen]

I'm not American, does that mean I passed?

Nope.

Your American client gave you a check, and you presented that cheque to your UK bank.

[FrontEnder]

American check.....

I'm not American, does that mean I passed?

[stek]

ContractorUK

American check.....

[FrontEnder]

Surely it's a check not a cheque if it's from US and A?

ContractorUK

[stek]

Surely it's a check not a cheque if it's from US and A?

[FrontEnder]

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.