Internation draft cheque in maiden name

salman79uk

Hi,
I need some urgent advice.

My wife who is Canadian has recently closed off her Canadian account. Her Canadian bank have sent her a draft cheque for the funds that were in her account. This is a substantial amount ie over 17000 Canadian dollars.
This cheque is in her maiden name, however her joint account with me here is in her married name.
All her UK IDs are in her married name but her passport is still in her maiden name.
We do also have the marriage certificate with us.
Nationwide where we have our account have refused to cash in this cash to our account as the account name and name on the cheque are different.
We also checked with Barclays bank and they refused as well.

So my question is what are our options for cashing this?
The account in Canada is now closed so we can't get back to where we started from yet we have a cheque which the banks are refusing to cash in?

Voyager2002

First thought: with her passport she should be able to open at least a 'basic; bank account in the UK in her maiden name.

However, in order to maximise the pounds sterling she gets for her Canadian dollars, a better strategy would be to bank the draft in Canada somehow and then use a currency exchange service to convert and transfer the funds.

salman79uk

Voyager2002 wrote: »

First thought: with her passport she should be able to open at least a 'basic; bank account in the UK in her maiden name.

However, in order to maximise the pounds sterling she gets for her Canadian dollars, a better strategy would be to bank the draft in Canada somehow and then use a currency exchange service to convert and transfer the funds.

Banking in Canada is too much of a hassle at the moment!

In terms of opening a bank account, I though one of the requirements was proof of address, but all her UK IDs are in her new name.
Also, where do we stand on this from a legal viewpoint as we would effectively end up with 2 accounts one in the maiden and the other one in the new name?
Its just that we dont want to be done for fraud or anything.

dzug1

My experience with international cheques is that the are not crossed payee only and that you can countersign on the back and pay them into any account.

However that was some time back - things may have changed.

If you can persuade a bank that your ID is sufficent there is nothing unlawful about having two accounts in different names.

Anther possibility - send the cheque back to the Canadian bank and ask them to reissue in the new name (the marriage certificate ought to be enough evidence) or send the funds electronically.

If the Canadian bank has a UK office (if it's a large one that's likely) they may be able to help

AnxiousMum

Will the bank here not accept the cheque along with a copy of the marriage certificate and passport as ID?

If they won't, is the cheque from one of the larger banks - I know that both Scotiabank and The Royal Bank have no problem issuing monies from a maiden name account there to a married name account here electronically.

Sounds like a good excuse for a quick holiday home to sort it out

salman79uk

AnxiousMum wrote: »

Will the bank here not accept the cheque along with a copy of the marriage certificate and passport as ID?

If they won't, is the cheque from one of the larger banks - I know that both Scotiabank and The Royal Bank have no problem issuing monies from a maiden name account there to a married name account here electronically.

Sounds like a good excuse for a quick holiday home to sort it out

Unfortunately not, I had a big argument over at NAtionwide yesterday!

The cheque is from TD Bank