Barclays cheque clearing times?

Standard time for a cheque to clear is three full working days. This does not include the day you pay it in. So yes, if you pay in on a Monday the funds will be available on Friday. However, this is only if you pay it in before the Bank's official close of business or else you will need to add an extra working day. Barclays close of business is 3.30pm (close of business refers to the banks computer systems, not the opening hours of the branch, just to clarify). I.e if you pay in after 3.30pm on Monday, the funds will not be available until the next Monday.

There is an exception though, if you are paying a Barclays cheque in which is drawn on the same sort code as the account it is paid into, then funds are available the same day.

If you take a look on Barclays' site here http://www.personal.barclays.co.uk/BRC1/jsp/brcucontrol?task=internal&value=http%3A%2F%2Fbarclays%2Emetafaq%2Ecom%2Ftemplates%2Fbarclays%2Fmain%2FanswerPage%3F%5Fmftmfenv%3AlinkEntryCategory%3D%2524day2day%5Fbanking%26%5Fmftmfenv%3AlinkEntryClient%3D%2524barclays%26%5Fmftmfenv%3AlinkEntryName%3D%2524chequeclearing%26%5Fmftvst%3AmoduleID%3D%2524day2day%5Fbanking&target=_blank&site=pfs then that states their policy, which is pretty complicated, frankly. It looks like the cheque 'clears' in terms of interest after 3 days, and after 5 for withdrawal from a cash machine/branch. Note that they should allow you to withdraw the money from the day you've paid it in (subject to limit/status apparently) though.

If you are talking about savings accounts (other than the Regular Saver), you should be getting interest from day 1.

Any cheque, it seems, as long as it's paid into a Barclays branch.

See the link above and http://barclays.metafaq.com/templates/barclays/main/answerPage?_mftvst:answerRef=%24http%3a%2f%2fapi.transversal.com%2fmfapi%2fobjectref%2fEntryStore%2fEntry%2fhttp%3a%2f%2fwww.metafaq.com%2fmfapi%2fMetafaq%2fClients%2fbarclays%2fModules%2fday2day_banking%3a7606%3a11&_mftvst:moduleID=%24day2day_banking&_mftvst:topicID=%24&id=R4TSJ79ECKFJ7ERALMS6I66RUQ.

Incidentally, it looks like the amount you can withdraw of the cheque instantly is £200 for Student/Grad accounts, £1000 for personal accounts, and £2500 for premier current accounts.

How can banks in the UK possibly defend their 5-day clearance idea when some Scandinavian countries have an Early/Late; Late/Early system where, if the cheque is paid in early in the day it is cleared later on the same day and if paid late in the day it is cleared early the next!