How Long are cheques valid for

Del_Boy_Gupta

I have recently found two cheques from Carphone Warehouse that are dated 30/04/04. They do not have a 6 or a 12 month date by which they have to be cashed, but can I still pay them into my bank account. The reason I ask is that they have told me when I phoned that cheques are only valid for 60 days and that they will not reissue a cheque.

I read somewhere that cheques can be valid for up to 6 years.

Am i still able to pay them in or is it more than likley that they will be refused.

rog2

As far as I am aware, cheques are only valid for six months. I tried to bank a year old cheque, that had fallen down the back of my desk, last year and was told this by HSBC. This may be an HSBC 'rule', but they assured me that this is the case with all banks.

That said, I spoke to the customer, who had originally give me the cheque, and he re-issued a new cheque for the same amount. Perhaps you could do the same with Carphone Warehouse?

Horace

I think that cheques are only valid for 12 months (I could be wrong of course). I know that HBOS re-issue cheques because I found a dividend cheque that fell down the back of the sideboard in 2004 and somehow knew that it was out of date and they reissued it.

HTH

redsquirrel80

As far as I know, it's actually at the discretion of the banks involved and there is no official/ legal time limit. However, if they're that old, it's possible that Carphone Warehouse may have cancelled them - I know we do that every so often at work with cheques over a certain 'age' that haven't been cashed.

peb

It is at the descretion of the bank. I had a building society cheque that went AWOL but they stated that it could be cashed for up to 6 years! All you can do is try but I would think with a national firm they will automatically cancel any cheques after a certain time.