legb4rsk

I paid in some cheques today & asked when they would clear.
Next Thursday!!!

Why are we letting the banks get away with stealing our money for a week in this day & age?

Also they don't count weekends as working days.What do they do,go around switching their computers off every weekend?

I am sorry but if I said they have to wait 5 working days before I pay them they would charge me.

The greedy b*stards have been getting away with this scam far too long. It was ok in the days of quill pens & hand written ledgers but now in the days of super-computers & massively fast data transfer there is no excuse for it.

TurboAndy

iTrader: (1)

Dont even get me started on this. Really winds me up.

the hamster

iTrader: (7)

ooooh, this subject is a sore one with me too.

I run my own business but it has a small turnover. Customers pay by cash or cheque which is all banked at the same time. Problem is, a job can pay anything from £25 to £200.

Now I dont mind if I get a cheque on Monday/Tuesday as I know the funds are available within that working week (Friday/Saturday) but as you say, pay one in on a Thursday/Friday and it takes a week to clear. This means that its very difficult to balance things based on available funds if I need to order stock, pay for fuel etc.

What dicks me off is that you can do an internet funds transfer to someone and it arrives in a few hours but actually go in the bank with a bit of paper and it takes ages.

legb4rsk

I remember working on OCR cheque reading machines over 25 years ago.
I would expect they can read the paper work in electronically a lot faster now.

lordharding

iTrader: (1)

Didn't think anyone took cheques anymore
Waste of time taking up to ten days to clear think I have only wrote out 3 cheques in the last year

alcazar

iTrader: (2)

My bank, the Yorkshire, can take up to 5 days to do an internet transfer!!!

ChefDude

Cheques need to be cleared and travel to the issuing bank. The clearing house also monitors levels of domestic clearing assigned to each of the banks too. It makes sense when you understand the process.

legb4rsk

I can uderstand some delay for hand written cheques but surely their can be a system for corporate company issued printed cheques that could be electronically scanned in at the terminal.

Midlife......

iTrader: (2)

I thought the banks sorted out Cheques about 2 years ago.........I go through about 3 cheque books a year LOL

Shaun

billythekid

To the guy who takes small payments have a look at 123 send they do a gprs chip and pin machine. Cost you about 50 quid a month incl merchant account and machine. You will be able to take card payments anywhere and it clears next day if you submit your transactions before 5pm.

Terminator X

iTrader: (7)

Didn't they speed this up a while back? I thought the rule was 2-4-6 as in 2 days to show in account, 4 to clear ie be able to use the funds, then the 6 refers to the bank now taking the risk of it being fraudulent ie after 6 days you can breathe easy.

TX.

scoobeenut

I'm self employed and I email invoices to all my customers and most of them pay me by bank transfer, hey presto no postage costs or delays, no queuing in banks to pay cheques in, bank transfers are pretty instant. Its the way forward, cheques are so yesterday.

CrisPDuk

It takes Barclaycard 6 weeks to set up a direct debit, I dread to think how long it takes them to clear a cheque

Leslie

I presume they are making a profit with youir money until they clear the cheques. They never sell themselves short alright!

Les

urban

iTrader: (1)

My bank clears cash lodgements there and then
Cheque lodgements are available on the third day

ChefDude

historically, between the big banks, clearing is 3 days. with smaller banks, this might increase to 5.

internal transfers, not cheques, will be same day.

if you want same day, use CHAPS (clearing house automated payment systems)

Coffin Dodger

Pretty sure my bank will allow me to draw money against uncleared cheques. Of course it's my problem if the cheque bounces and would then incur overdraft charges etc. if I were in the red. Maybe they don't allow this for business customers.

That said it is a pretty archaic system in this day and age, rarely write cheques, even our builder preferred electronic transfer.

mamoon2

Check this out..... My business bank Santander takes 3 days to clear..... CASH! Yes, cash!

Absolute madness. As their business banking doesn't have counter facilities (you use the machines to deposit) they say it needs 3 days to clear.

Fleetster

Co-op for the winner.... cash is available instantly and if its a co-op to co-op cheque it clears instantly too (in my experiance anyway)

EddScott

Co op business banking is also free if you join the Federation of Small Business.

A mate used to work in Halifax when I banked with them and he could let my cheques go through on the same day. They can do it but choose not it.

I think First Direct allow me to use HSBC cheques straight away.

ChefDude

no clearing necessary within the same organization, ie; same bank cheque and branch.

the clearing is designed for ensuring no bank goes over their domestic limits and, cross bank, this is how it's managed.

Trout

iTrader: (1)

Banks HATE cheques - they have been trying to get rid of them for years.

However those who are so last century in their money management make too much noise about keeping cheques the death of the chequebook keeps getting pushed back.

Banks have NO interest in improving the process as the DON'T WANT cheques.


Also almost all banks in the UK now use Faster Payments which means transfers (usually limited to £10k) are processed in two hours any time of day or night.

Leslie

Nothing retrograde in keeping cheques. There are times when it is the only way for people to manage.

Les