Bank insisting on sending massive scarey cheque in post - any options?

fablad75

It's a cheque, not cash, and will have your name on it, which means it can only be deposited into an account with your name. To anyone else it's just a useless piece of paper.

In the event that someone a) finds your cheque b) and happens to have your name c) and is dishonest enough to cash it, the transaction can still be traced and the money will be clawed back to you, as you can prove that you are the rightful owner.

Annisele

I don't want to worry the OP unnecessarily, but I think he's right to be concerned.

The Financial Ombudsman Service has published some case studies for cheque conversion. That note is fairly old, but I think that's just because the legal position hasn't changed rather than because fraudsters have given up targeting cheques. It's not impossible to persuade a bank that you really are the person named on the cheque!

The bank certainly should scrutinise the cheque; that doesn't mean that it will.

somethingtypical

cashferret wrote: »

That sounds reassuring - does the "outclearing" bit you mention mean that the issuing bank will check that the cheque is being paid into an a/c in my mother's name?

Maybe it is just all the responsibility getting to me and I am being overanxious!

The teller will check it, if like in my branch large cheques are double checked at the end of the day and any cheque over £5000 is checked at outclearing as far as I am aware

Blackpool_Saver

could you write a cheque payable to the destination bank?

rb10

Blackpool_Saver wrote: »

could you write a cheque payable to the destination bank?

No, you can't make any cheques payable to a bank any more.

The reason for this is because it's not at all secure. Imagine you could make a cheque payable to a bank, say, Halifax. Then, if I stole/found your cheque, I could pay it into my Halifax account.

At the end of the day, if the cheque has the name of the payee on it, then no one else can pay it into their account.

HouseHuntr

cashferret wrote: »

. Bank insisting on sending massive scarey cheque in post - any options?

Yea, don't be so massively, scarily, over melodramatic and paranoid ! :mad:

alanq

rb10 wrote: »

No, you can't make any cheques payable to a bank any more.

You can't make cheques out only to a bank. They can be payable to a bank so long as the payee's name and / or account number is also referenced.
http://www.bsa.org.uk/mediacentre/press/cheque_sept.htm

So for added security one can write a cheque to XYZ Bank, re J Jones, account number xxxxxx. That way no other J Jones (or person claiming to be him) can pay the money into one of his accounts.

Blackpool_Saver

I can write a cheque from one account to another, maybe where you are phasing out of cheques is further forwards.
I meant write the cheque, take it to the receiving bank personally, and watch them credit it into a/c then put your card in hole in wall, and see it in there

rb10

Blackpool_Saver wrote: »

I can write a cheque from one account to another, maybe where you are phasing out of cheques is further forwards.

Yes, and you make the cheque payable to the account holder, and not to the bank that holds their account.

This is the rule that holds throughout the UK.

Blackpool_Saver wrote: »

I meant write the cheque, take it to the receiving bank personally, and watch them credit it into a/c then put your card in hole in wall, and see it in there

But as the initial poster has explained, Yorkshire Bank need to write the cheque, and they are giving no option other than posting it to the customer.

sabretoothtigger

Cheques can be altered to pay another individual. For 70k or whatever, its worth their trouble altering the cheque. If they can forge 20 pound notes, they can alter a cheque much more easily I should imagine.

The main protection is the anonymity of the recipient.
The 70k case I read about was a business where it was more expected. Ive worked in mail sorting and at least a couple workers monitored which parcels were higher worth and removed them for personal gain, stuff like insurance cover notes used to be quite commonly intercepted