Cashing a Foreign Currency Cheque

Alcollick

Hi
I'm new to this! Can anyone advise me the best way to cash a foreign currency cheque please? My mum has sent me a cheque from Canada for $4000 CAD if I pay it into Natwest it's takes forever to clear and the exchange rate is poor meaning I get £200 less than is shown on the currency converter xe.com. I've got a feeling I am going to be stuck with the bank but just wondered if there were any other companies out there offering this service with better rates?

dazza.mk

Well respected on ebay
http://auctionchex.com/about-s.html

You could see if they could help (know they deal with USD don't know about Canada)

glider3560

Could you ask your mum to send a bank transfer instead of a cheque? She should be able to do this at her branch and will probably pay a smaller fee than cashing a cheque (plus the money should clear more quickly).

noh

Or use the services of a fx broker such as xe.com ?
http://www.xe.com/fx/

Alcollick

Hi,
I would like to thank you for your replies and advise. Unfortunately the FX companies do not cash cheques however after speaking to Moneycorp they advised me to open a foreign currency account through HSBC so I could pay the cheque in then I could do the transfer through Moneycorp to get the best rate. Makes sense! Unfortunately HSBC didn't want to help as I am not a regular customer of theirs and they kinda treated me like I was money laundering or something! So I went off to Natwest who were very helpful and I now have a Canadian dollars bank account! The cheque will clear in the normal timescale as a sterling account and when it does I can use Moneycorp to transfer it to my sterling account gaining me an extra £205 and that's after I take the £15 off that Moneycorp charge which in my book is still a good deal! Natwest don't make any charge for having a foreign currency account and my mum can do a bank transfer to it at any time or send me a cheque to pay in and I just use Moneycorp to transfer it at a better rate! Obviously I didn't tell Natwest this!!! I would recommend Moneycorp they were really helpful! Thanks again for your advise.