Cashing cheques from USA

boxter_2

I pay monthly foreign cheques into my HBOS current account.

Sometimes the cheques are sent for "Collection", where they send it back to the issuing bank and I have to wait 6 weeks - and sometimes they pay it in by "Negotioation", meaning it's basically in my account in 5 days.

My cheques are in USD, and I've been cashing them monthly, problem free for well over a year. Obviously going for collection is a huge nuisance for me, and there doesn't seem to be any set criteria. I'm told at times by the bank that over 1000 sterling means it's sent for collection, and sometimes they're not. There doesn't seem to be any consistency.

I have a RBOS current account too, and will be looking into their cheque cashing schemes. Does anyone have any advice or experience with this? Wire transfers are not an option - it has to be paper cheques unfortunately.

I've made another post here about opening a US bank account, which would enable me to receive electronic payment. However, until I can manage that I'm stuck with cheques

Olipro

boxter wrote: »

I pay monthly foreign cheques into my HBOS current account.

Sometimes the cheques are sent for "Collection", where they send it back to the issuing bank and I have to wait 6 weeks - and sometimes they pay it in by "Negotioation", meaning it's basically in my account in 5 days.

My cheques are in USD, and I've been cashing them monthly, problem free for well over a year. Obviously going for collection is a huge nuisance for me, and there doesn't seem to be any set criteria. I'm told at times by the bank that over 1000 sterling means it's sent for collection, and sometimes they're not. There doesn't seem to be any consistency.

I have a RBOS current account too, and will be looking into their cheque cashing schemes. Does anyone have any advice or experience with this? Wire transfers are not an option - it has to be paper cheques unfortunately.

I've made another post here about opening a US bank account, which would enable me to receive electronic payment. However, until I can manage that I'm stuck with cheques

why do you need to open a US account? is the sending account not capable of sending SWIFT transfers or something? that would likely be much cheaper than the checks(sic).

kalaika

boxter wrote: »

...I've made another post here about opening a US bank account, which would enable me to receive electronic payment. However, until I can manage that I'm stuck with cheques

Would it help if you had a UK bank account held in US dollars? It may be worth asking at HBOS or RBS about them as I think most high street banks do them so would be surprised if they didn't (you usually have to be an existing customer to get one.)

For example here is a link to the Barclays one (it was the first one I could find.) Don't know if cheques would still have to be referred back to the US or not, but may be easier to accept electronic payments.

Hazzanet

The best bet is Citibank London's US$ account - http://www.citibank.co.uk/personal/banking/international/eurocurrent.htm?merchant=citi

Fiddlestick

I believe the problem is that the cheque if drawn on a US financial institution, not the currency that the cheque or account is denominated in.

As it's a US cheque, a UK financial institution cannot guarantee payment within our usual clearance cycle, hence why it takes so long (and can still be bounced long after it's presented).

boxter_2

The problem I have is inconsistency.. sometimes they're negotiated and sometimes sent for collection.

The teller told me that >1000 sterling means collection, but to be honest I think he just made that up and is able to use his discretion. I cash these every month - sometimes more, sometimes less than 1000 - and some tellers allow >1000 to be negotiated.

Electronic payment is only an option if I have a bank account based in the US, hence my other thread about trying to get one of those!

Thanks again for all advice.