RBS Cheque Clearing

Chadsman

I have recently paid a couple of cheques into my RBS student current account via a Natwest branch which appear to have cleared after 2 days. I always thought cheques took 3 days to clear :cool: ... not that I'm complaining!
Anyone else with a RBS account... how long does it take for cheques to clear? Does it clear quicker being a student ac?

TIA,
Chadsman.

aussielle

Usually 3 days for me, but I'm not a student so I wouldn't know if that would have any bearing on it

davidcampbell

i dont know rbs products but i would be very suprised if it was 2 days and even more suprised if student acc cleared a cheq quicker than a standard current account

are you sure you havent checked the current balance which will show all transactions rather than the available balance which wont include the cheques

(hope that doesnt sound patronising)

DC

chardonnay_2

the cheque will show in your account after two days for interest purposes but will take at least 5 full working days to clear. if it's a large amount they can add additional days of deferment to be on the safe side. a cheque can be returned unpaid upto a week later as banks rely on the postal system to inform each other if a cheque has bounced. hth

Chadsman

davidcampbell wrote:

i dont know rbs products but i would be very suprised if it was 2 days and even more suprised if student acc cleared a cheq quicker than a standard current account

are you sure you havent checked the current balance which will show all transactions rather than the available balance which wont include the cheques

(hope that doesnt sound patronising)

DC

That was what I thought at first or I had paid it in a day earlier or I am going crazy or... So when I next paid in a cheque I double checked when it cleared- it was showing as being in the balance AND as having cleared after 2 days! :eek:

jonesMUFCforever

Could it be that they were RBOS or Nat West cheques?
If so because they were 'inhouse' they might have cleared earlier than other cheques.
Eric

Chadsman

ejones999 wrote:

Could it be that they were RBOS or Nat West cheques?
If so because they were 'inhouse' they might have cleared earlier than other cheques.
Eric

It was from my own Nationwide Current ac that I have my salary paid into and from which I write a cheque every so often to my RBS ac to keep them happy so I get a nice £2k interest free overdraft
I 'thought' Nationwide's Bankers were HSBC but I'm not sure how that works.

davidcampbell

strange....give em a quick ring and they will confirm it . or check your t&cs and it will give you a timescale

ukric

Cheques never clear, they are only made available for withdrawl, the timescale quoted is usually somewhere between 3 and 5 days for this depending on the bank. As for them being made available quicker the account type is irellevent, the only way to make a chq available quciker is to have it specially presented (which bypasses the normal clearing process) this usually costs between 10 and 20 quid, and is only worth it if its important or a large amount.
Having said that there are no hard and fast rules to the clearing cycle, the bank can wait extra time for larger amounts as it sees fit.

Milky_Mocha

ukric wrote:

Cheques never clear, they are only made available for withdrawl, the timescale quoted is usually somewhere between 3 and 5 days for this depending on the bank. As for them being made available quicker the account type is irellevent, the only way to make a chq available quciker is to have it specially presented (which bypasses the normal clearing process) this usually costs between 10 and 20 quid, and is only worth it if its important or a large amount.
Having said that there are no hard and fast rules to the clearing cycle, the bank can wait extra time for larger amounts as it sees fit.

I echo the above reply.

In addition to that I know that RBS send electronic transfers quicker than most other banks. That takes two days. When I make an electronic transfer from my Barclays account it takes at least three days, usually four.

Electronic transfers really should be instant when you think about it. Banks will use any excuse to keep funds in their suspense account for a while so they can earn interest on it while it is "in transit".