Cheque Clearing Times

mazza25

I'm wondering if anyone knows about cheque clearing? Are there any guidelines around this? I'm trying to understand why a cheque would take 6 working days to clear from one RBS account to another RBS account. The cheque isn't a business one, just one from my dad to me.

Rafter

This link from the British Bankers association may help you:

http://www.bba.org.uk/bba/jsp/polopoly.jsp?d=263&a=367

6 days for clearing with the same bank seems unusually long. Maybe it was held up by bank holiday or additional random checks?

R.

rb10

By 'clear', I assume you mean 'is available to spend'.

Most banks operate on a 2-4-6 timescale, which means that you earn interest after two working days, they make it available to spend after 4 working days, and it can be bounce any time up to 6 working days.

This means that if you pay in a cheque today (Tuesday), you can't normally be able to access the funds until four working days later, i.e. next Monday. This procedure is standard across most banks (although some will allow you to withdraw money slightly earlier).

I'd expect them to be able to do it instantly if it's coming from one RBS account to another, but you may have to specifically request it - I know that's (generally) how it works at Halifax.

jonesMUFCforever

There may have been insuffucent cleared funds on the dad's account when you paid it in so it goes round the clearing cycle.

mazza25

thanks for the replies, there is definitely cleared funds in my dads account lol.
it's not the first time RBS have taken so long to make the funds available, we assumed before it was because the cheque was from a different bank, but as this is the same one we were surprised.

Twister84

An RBS cheque only clears overnight if 3 conditions are met:

- The branch that the cheque is being drawn on
- The home branch of the payee
- The branch where that cheque is paid in

all have to be the same branch

Otherwise, it's T+2-4-6 for cheques