Company cheques...

doom

Hi all.

Can anyone tell me how to find out if a cheque is from a company or private individual?

If it is a company cheque will it ALWAYS have the company name at the bottom whereas a private cheque will have the person's name?

Does it make a difference if the company is 'ltd' or not.

eg, company name is bubba gump shrimp company, owned by Mr and Mrs Gump.

Cheque says Mr and Mrs Gump, no mention of company name anywhere. They say it's a company cheque. Could it be, or are Mr and Mrs Gump lying?

Thanks for any help....

Pills44

I have my own business, and my business account is in my name and not a specific company/business name.

Also, I know of someone who has a business but uses a personal account instead of a business account and that is in his own name.

Is it a large company or an individual with a small business?

Mics_chick

doom wrote: »

Hi all.

Can anyone tell me how to find out if a cheque is from a company or private individual?

If it is a company cheque will it ALWAYS have the company name at the bottom whereas a private cheque will have the person's name?

Does it make a difference if the company is 'ltd' or not. Imo this is the answer to your question...

eg, company name is bubba gump shrimp company, owned by Mr and Mrs Gump.

Cheque says Mr and Mrs Gump, no mention of company name anywhere. They say it's a company cheque. Could it be, or are Mr and Mrs Gump lying?

Thanks for any help....

Somebody can be in business but not a ltd company this is called being a sole trader - so they will have a business account but in their own name rather than the name of the company

Why does it matter whether it's a business cheque or not?

LittleVoice

It is is a limited company (Ltd or PLC) it will be noted as such on the cheque - the cheque will be in the name of the company.

If it is a sole trader or a partnership (in the case of the OP's cheque it could be a partnership of two people), then if they don't use a business name (like Gump Fisheries) then it would be in their personal names as that would be how they are trading.

It may also be that they are trying to avoid bank charges and are using a personal joint account instead of a business account.

Don't know why you are concerned about this.

Monty_Carlo_2

Don't know why you are concerned about this.

The concern is that a business account is not issued with a cheque guarantee card AFAIK. A personal cheque with a card guarantees you payment no matter what, as long as you follow the rules (within limit, no split sales, etc.)

But if you take a business cheque and, as has happened to me recently, the cheque writer decides to stop a large payment for no reason, you have lost your money and your goods.

In my case I had Transax cover, so I was reimbursed (oh, the revenge!) But only after a lot of arguments and discussions with my bank, since I had authorised the cheque as a business cheque (that's what my customer insisted it was) with only "Mr Joe Bloggs" printed as the account holder.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I have been told by my bank (HSBC) that you simply cannot distinguish a business cheque from a private one (if there is no Ltd or T/A which makes it obvious.) So if the customer says it is business, and therefore there is no card available, you have to take it on trust (or refuse the sale). You cannot tell from the sort code or account number. You cannot phone the issuing bank since they will not discuss the customer's account with you, even to confirm a such a basic detail.

Lunacy.

HTH.

NickyBoy

I have a cheque guarantee card for my busines account.

I'm not sure, but I have a vague recollection that cheque guarantees are pretty meaningless anyway.

Savvy_Sue

NickyBoy wrote: »

I have a cheque guarantee card for my busines account.

I haven't ever had one when the cheque needs two signatures - for me that would be part of the distinction (although not foolproof) - if there were two signatures, I'd be more likely to accept it was a company cheque.

NickyBoy

Our cheques only require one signature.

Pinklady_3

A lot (although I'm not sure if all) of business cheques are larger in size than personal cheques.

Savvy_Sue

I think what I was (not very successfully) saying is that if only one signature is required, you're more likely to have a cheque guarantee card made available to the business account. If two signatures are always required, then a CGC becomes less useful, because you rarely have two signatories when you go out to buy something.

But you said it was a 'large' payment, so surely it wouldn't have been covered by a CGC anyway?