French cheque into NatWest bank account?

GustyGardenGalaxy

Someone from France is due to send me a cheque (French of course!) - can I easily pay this into my UK NatWest current account, or will NatWest make a charge?

Thanks

soolin

I am assuming the cheque has been written in euros? It can go through your UK bank account but you are likely to be charged between £7 and £12 to do that plus the funds can take a while to fully clear against recall.

Best to talk to your bank beforehand and see what is the quickest and cheapest way of doing this. Also if you have any other banks ask them as well as the prices can vary between banks.

dzug1

GustyGardenGalaxy wrote: »

Someone from France is due to send me a cheque (French of course!) - can I easily pay this into my UK NatWest current account, or will NatWest make a charge?

Thanks

This outfit: http://www.auctionpix.co.uk/misc/money.html will do it for virtually no charge - but you will take a bigger hit on the exchange rate than with Natwest. If it's a lowish value cheque they may well be better.

GustyGardenGalaxy

Thanks for the replies. Yes, it will be in Euros.

How on earth do the banks get away with charging so much? I mean, is it just greed or is there a lot of effort involved to bank a foreign cheque that's paid in Euros into a UK account?

Do any of the high street banks charge less than NatWest?

jonesMUFCforever

GustyGardenGalaxy wrote: »

Thanks for the replies. Yes, it will be in Euros.

How on earth do the banks get away with charging so much? I mean, is it just greed or is there a lot of effort involved to bank a foreign cheque that's paid in Euros into a UK account?

Do any of the high street banks charge less than NatWest?

What do you think the process entails?

The bank first of all has to post the cheque to their French agent bank who will process the cheque and arrange for it to be debited to the french bank account. Then if paid the funds have to be sent electronically back to UK and put in your account.
Any paper transaction is labour intensive hence the charge for the service.
Think yourself lucky that you do not have a french bank account because they charge you for having one!

GustyGardenGalaxy

Good points there, I just assumed that in this computer age it would have been far simpler for the banks.