Anyone know the answer to this question

RegoR

Could anyone advise me on a letter I received today from my bank re my current account.

It says that a cheque I paid into my account in June 2008 has been lost in the clearing process and that this means it has not been debited from the account on which it was drawn.


The money was credited to my account then and as far as I know is still in there, now they want me to ask the person who gave me the cheque for a replacement, a year on I don't know who gave it to me ( I don't think they have any idea ether) all I have is a receipt showing it was paid in.

What is my position on this, if I cant tell them who its from or if I find them and I'm refused a replacement, can the bank reclaim the money from my account.

Any ideas..?

never-in-doubt

RegoR wrote: »

Could anyone advise me on a letter I received today from my bank re my current account.

It says that a cheque I paid into my account in June 2008 has been lost in the clearing process and that this means it has not been debited from the account on which it was drawn.


The money was credited to my account then and as far as I know is still in there, now they want me to ask the person who gave me the cheque for a replacement, a year on I don't know who gave it to me ( I don't think they have any idea ether) all I have is a receipt showing it was paid in.

What is my position on this, if I cant tell them who its from or if I find them and I'm refused a replacement, can the bank reclaim the money from my account.

Any ideas..?

Hiya

Weird scenario to say the least but hard to answer as unsure of a few things...... you mention 'a year on' - can you confirm is this a year since you paid the cheque in or a year since you were given it? A cheque is only valid for 6mths.

If however, you banked it a year ago and you have had the funds then no, the bank cannot touch the funds. They may have lost the cheque but you handed it in and paid it so it became their responsibility after this.

Cheques go through the clearance cycle and after the last day of return, it cannot be refunded. Someone will be able to confirm the cheque cycle but I hear 2-4-6 a lot so maybe after the 6th day.....?

I'd just ignore the letter, pretend you never even got it. The bank can;t touch the funds if it is say a month old - it would be impossible and like you say, you have a receipt confirming the credit.

dc110

After 6th day is correct.

They will be able to find out who it was from if necessary - it is possible to obtain a photocopy cheque for cheques credited (as well as debited which is more familiar to most of us).

Having said that, as never-in-doubt says, its not clear why this will be necessary.

Give them a ring and ask them why its required and if they need to determine who the cheque came from they can do so themself.

RegoR

Hi,

The cheque was paid in and credited to the account June 2008, I'm amazed its taken a year for them to ask me for this information.

They have said if I would prefer for them to contact the drawer to sign and return the authority form provided with the drawers name, address, and phone No, now I don't know if this means they have lost all records of the original cheque?

If they did have the drawers details then why didn't they go straight to them, and can they go back one year later and expect them to write another cheque.

kalaika

Sound to me like they know they've cocked up and are trying to get you to fix it for them.

I had a similar problem once - paid in about a dozen cheques totalling about £200. When the amount hadn't appeared in my bank after a couple of weeks I enquired and they said they had lost them and could I go back to the senders and get replacements. I refused on the grounds that me and the senders shouldn't be inconvenienced for their mistake. After a lot of back-and-forth between us over the next few weeks they gave in and credited my account with the money with £35 as a goodwill gesture.

In this case, you should double check that you were actually credited with the money at the time and that it wasn't reversed. Then I would ask them why they need the info now after 12 months. I would argue that if there is a mistake/problem with it then you shouldn't be inconvenienced now as they've had a year to sort it out and should have contacted you about it before now.

kalaika

Alternatively, have you paid in any cheques over the last couple of weeks? If so, could it be that the letter saying June 2008 is actually a typo and actually relates to something from June 2009?

Pee

Cheques are valid for longer than 6 months, so beware. If they are older than that, do not just write a replacement, cancel the first one.

They should be able to send you a copy of the cheque... get a human their end looking into it.

Good luck.

RegoR

I guess they have to try to get their money back somehow, but this will have to be written off, someone will get a slapped wrist.
Well lets hope I don't lose any money and the drawer of the cheque is probably £1,000 better off, I will certainly keep an eye on my bank account from now on, if they can lose a cheque what other careless things can they do????

Thanks to you all for your input, will keep you informed.