how to cash a $ cheque the MSE way ?

oops_a_daisy

please will anybody with more knowledge in this than me give me some advice. I have some shares that have to be sold in the US and I will receive a cheque in $ so I need to know the cheapest way for me to cash this cheque to keep the charges down. The amount in $ will be no more than $3500.00. Many thanks for any help given.

MikeP_5

Hi

2 options that I know of - you could ask your friendly neighbourhood bank to negotiate the cheque for you - for a fee (probably best to approach your own bankers first).

Alternatively, given the amount of the cheque is reasonable (i.e not 50p's worth!) you could open a US dollar currency account and negotiate the cheque that way.

Probably best to approach your bank first - I never thought I'd advise someone to go to their bank, I suppose there's a first time for everything ;-)

Joscar

I have tried cashing dollar cheques at 2 high street banks and 1 building society. The charges and rules seemed to vary a lot so it is worth shopping around. One bank made me sign a form to agree to keep the money in the account (low int current account) for a month as uncleared funds as it takes them much longer to clear and advised there would be additional penalties compared to a UK chq if it bounced.

They will probably charge you a admin fee and give you a bad exchange rate. If you are likely to get USD cheques often then the foreign currency account is a better option as you can wait for the exchange rate to improve before withdrawing the money - many of my work colleagues do this.

Jorayner

Given the pool US - UK exchange rate at present, why not open Citibank $ and £ accounts, and pay the cheque in. You can then exchange the $ for £ when the rate is better.

Paul_-C-

I have a US$ account with Clydesdale and get charged $10 per cheque.

PrincessPieface

Do you have to be a customer of that particular bank to cash a cheque there?

sabretoothtigger

Maybe not if the cheque is with that bank branch

Biggles

I've usually found the admin charge to be around £6-7, and the exchange rate, surprisingly, not as far from the interbank as I would have thought (that's usually with LTSB). Certainly the exhange rate they use is a great deal better than you would get changing money at a high street bank or bureau de change and, from anecdotal evidence, better than Citibank's charges for moving money from $ to £.