Cheque not signed?

empfun

A buyer sent me a cheque with amount details filled in, only bit missing is the signature. Will the banks accept it? £15 only.

pcyam

the banks will not accept cheques unless there is a signature, the signature acts as authorisation for money to be taken from the account to pay you.

empfun

LOL. Yeah, I was trying to wing it and hopefully read about somebody who's gotten lucky. hehe. Thanks!

TheHacker

empfun wrote:

Will the banks accept it?

Do pigs fly??

mancitychick

In you are paying in a few chqs the cashier may not notice that one isn't signed. Basically if the cashier doesn't notice then it will go through - unless your buyer has put a stop on it.

My mum paid in a shop once by chq for £75. The assistant had been rude so when she didn't ask my mum to sign the printed chq my mum didn't bother to point it out. Anyway it cleared her account so she queried how it cleared w/out sig and her bank at the time (Barclays) and they told her that as it was under £200 it wouldn't have been checked. This was a few years ago and I believe the checking limit may of gone up even more since then.

empfun

Doing it the long way, I have already emailed the buyer about it and awaiting response. Cheers folks!

martindow

A few years ago I noticed that a cheque had not been signed as I was paying it in. The cashier said no problem if it's under a certain amount (several hundred pounds I recall) and accepted it. This was Barclays - the explanation was that it is all traceable and that the person writing the cheque clearly intended to make the payment and has just forgotten to sign it. I was amazed that they took it but it went through and cleared fine. It might be worth trying to pay your cheque in as it is.

soolin

martindow wrote:

A few years ago I noticed that a cheque had not been signed as I was paying it in. The cashier said no problem if it's under a certain amount (several hundred pounds I recall) and accepted it. This was Barclays - the explanation was that it is all traceable and that the person writing the cheque clearly intended to make the payment and has just forgotten to sign it. I was amazed that they took it but it went through and cleared fine. It might be worth trying to pay your cheque in as it is.

Barclays gave you wrong information, without a signature the person has not agreed to pay you. Anyone can write a cheque on anyone elses account but the person issuing the cheque has to sign it for it to be valid. Any busy bank will almost certainly have a number of customers who need their cheques written out for them, when I worked in a bank we had several. They would bring their cheque books in, we would write out all the details and they would sign it. This was useful for people who had some sort of disability or learning difficulties.

Also, the cheque will never clear properly. It will clear for funds as usual on about day 4 but at any time in the future the issuer can recall the cheque and the bank will reverse it from your account. This is one way that less than honest buyers work the cheque system, they make a mistake on the cheque and hope the seller will pay it in and then they just recall it later. It is unlikely you are dealing with a scammer, but it is best to make sure you know how to protect yourself with any payment methods you take. I once had a cheque recalled after nearly two months as the buyer said they wrote words and figures differently, so it was pulled.

Soo

angelcake

obviously a lot of conflicting information people receiving different reactions to unsigned cheques! I didn't sign a cheque (By accident!) but it still went through and came out of my bank!!

hjb123

Dont send the item until you have got a signed cheque that has cleared! And whatever you do dont sign the cheque yourself!!

HGLTsuperstar

Personally I'd be reluctant to accept any more cheques from this buyer, remember even if a cheque "clears" it can still later bounce. Contact them, explain their "error" and say "to prevent further delays" to send postal order or direct bank transfer