Cheque - Cashed, but not out of my account yet

JMcC

I wonder if anyone knows the facts with this one.

I paid for an item by cheque around 6 weeks ago. Having not seen it debit my account, I spoke to the person I gave the cheque to. They presented the cheque shortly after I handed it over and it seems to have cleared into their account.

I have double checked and cannot see the cash leaving my account. I asked the person to check again and they are quite happy they have the money.

This doesn't involve unusual banks or circumstances of any kind, just normal everyday banks.

How long could it take for the money to leave my account and should I talk to my bank about it, or just let matters run their course ?

billericaydicky

If I were you I'd keep quiet and hope the money never leaves your account.
:beer:

ShelfStacker_3

billericaydicky wrote: »

If I were you I'd keep quiet and hope the money never leaves your account.
:beer:

Wrong. If the cheque debited someone else's account by mistake, they will/should complain, the bank will investigate (or, indeed, may already be investigating) and take the OPs money by force.

OP: Don't spend it. At the most, stick the value of the cheque in a savings account and leave it there for a while.

JMcC

My biggest concern really is that the person who cashed the cheque actually got the money. I'm still not totally convinced. It is possible that they have lost track and think they have the money, but don't.

I'm sure the bank will eventually get it right, so will have the money ready and waiting.

Paul_Herring

Treat it as if the money *has* left your account. Legally (IIRC), you're liable for up to 6 years after the date of the cheque.

If you want peace of mind, contact your bank stating the situation, and getting their opinion.

How much are we talking here by the way? Few quid? £10's? £100's? £1,000's?

JMcC

Thanks Paul. The cheque is for £345. Not a huge amount, but I do need to remember to keep that amount in the account for when the cheque does appear.

I'll give it another week or two then contact my bank and ask them.

Thanks.

Mikeyorks

Your suspicion that the payee has 'lost track' is probably the right one. Cheques do get paid / credited to the wrong account - but inevitably it's the wrong payee account. If a cheque is processed all the way through Clearing - it's extremely unusual it's debited from the wrong drawer account.

The scanning devices that read the MICR line on the bottom of cheques are remarkably accurate ...... and it's only if there's human intervention that it occasionally goes awry.

andromache_2

I've had a similar thing with my debit card; a transaction for £110 (a lot of money to me!) showed up on my online banking the day after, and has now disappeared and not been debited. Obviously I'm not going to spend the money and have just left my account with £200 available in case it comes out but does anyone have any idea what's going on??

JMcC

I need to own up to this one.

I've found out what happened........ My wife had paid by cheque for this event. However, she unfortunately used her mothers cheque book by mistake. She is not a signatory on the cheque, so really shouldn't have, but she did totally in error.

Anyway, she was writing out another cheque for her mother (with her mothers cheque book) and noticed that the cheque we thought had come from our account had been written on this one.

So it was all a mistake. I've now put the money into her mothers account with a box of chocolates to her by way of apology.

My wife and her mother are not as disciplined as I am with accounts !!!

Glad I eventually found out what had happened though.........

The fact my wife was able to sign a cheque where she really shouldn't have, is simply a reminder to us all to keep an eye on money in and out. Mistakes can and do happen. Not all caused by the banks........

Extant

JMcC wrote: »

The fact my wife was able to sign a cheque where she really shouldn't have, is simply a reminder to us all to keep an eye on money in and out. Mistakes can and do happen. Not all caused by the banks........

If anything, it's a reminder that cheques are a horribly antiquated method of payment and horribly insecure by this time.

They were fantastic when they were processed in branches, and the signatures manually checked - but that all died out a good few years ago.

These days, however, the volume and cost of cheque processing has led banks to adopt different processes to before - only checking signatures over a thousand, only checking business signatures, specialized optical scanning to check if it's a real cheque and nothing else, etc.

I can't stand the damn things.

ShelfStacker_3

Not as bad as cash bill payments, surely, BM? Goddamn those things get on my wick...