Paying by cheque

Madmel

Due to a !!!!-up by Barclays Bank, I paid £6000 in cash to our solicitors' bank account in August so that the money would go through in time for our sale. They didn't like it much, but it was quite a small proportion of the total cost, and they knew the rest was coming by CHAPS.

The Bank was really worried about me carrying the money out of there and across the road to the other bank. I put it in my 5 year old's jacket pocket - people don't tend to mug little kids and we got there fine

courtjester

As the solicitors are referring to 'completion monies' then this would be a substantial amount for most properties, hence I can understand they are not interested in a personal cheque that they cannot guarantee the funds with. Even personal cheques that clear into the account can later bounce so are not worth the paper they're written on really.

For our part, we don't accept credit card cheques - these things are a bl**dy nuisance. We have never had a customer personal cheque bounce on us. The only two occasions we had problems with cheques were 'credit card' cheques that the issuing bank refused to honour - something to do with the account not being 'activated' for use or closed before the cheque was presented.

Our customers paid us without problem subsequently, but it still cost us bank charges and administration, so we no longer accept these for payment.

Frankly, I think credit card cheques are a big con - the banks rely upon the fact that people don't understand how to use them or what they really cost in terms of interest etc., ... don't get me started :mad: