What the floor limit before you get interigated on paying in a cheque Lloyds

DocProc

With Lloyds TSB, I think the limit is/was £5k.

I think the general idea is for the cashier handling such a cheque is to kick off an immediate introduction of the particular client, whose cheque it is, to one of the bank's Financial Advisers. This being an absolutely ideal time to initiate a conversation, with questions, as to what the client is doing/going to be doing with any largish amounts of his/her cash.

This is nothing more than a 'Lead generation' exercise, IMHO.

The excuse will be to the client that all this is in the interests of 'security' or 'money laundering' and is an 'instruction from head office' or some such rubbish.

Well, that's a hard one to argue against, isn't it?

Here we have a situation where the cheque is being paid into the bank 'in person'.

Compare it with the situation when the cheque is sent to the bank through the post with a paying-in slip - or even popped into the 'Cash Point Deposit' postal slot situated inside the bank, which customers can use instead of waiting in line for the cashier. There is no opportunity for such a 'Security check' then, is there?

Yes. All this is merely 'Lead generation' for the bank's Financial Advisor Team.

They can charge you, getting on for 6%, for handling/managing your money for you. Furthermore, they can hit you for it every year they are managing it too. And they don't have to guarantee making you a decent return either!

Just think about it. Just how on earth do you think these massive bank profits are made?

rb10

DocProc wrote: »

I think the general idea is for the cashier handling such a cheque is to kick off an immediate introduction of the particular client, whose cheque it is, to one of the bank's Financial Advisers. This being an absolutely ideal time to initiate a conversation, with questions, as to what the client is doing/going to be doing with any largish amounts of his/her cash.

This is nothing more than a 'Lead generation' exercise, IMHO.

The excuse will be to the client that all this is in the interests of 'security' or 'money laundering' and is an 'instruction from head office' or some such rubbish.

This is incorrect, at least for LTSB and Halifax.

Both of these banks operate this in the same way (except Halifax has a higher limit, as they receive more high-value cheques than LTSB), and it is a genuine security check.

DocProc wrote: »

Compare it with the situation when the cheque is sent to the bank through the post with a paying-in slip - or even popped into the 'Cash Point Deposit' postal slot situated inside the bank, which customers can use instead of waiting in line for the cashier. There is no opportunity for such a 'Security check' then, is there?

Cheques paid in through the post, an ATM or immediate deposit machine are subject to other security checks - obviously the conversation part is normally excluded here.

7sefton

rb10 wrote: »

This is incorrect, at least for LTSB and Halifax.

Both of these banks operate this in the same way (except Halifax has a higher limit, as they receive more high-value cheques than LTSB), and it is a genuine security check.

Why do Halifax receive more high value cheques? I'd have thought LTSB would be the one more likely to be dealing with large cheque values because it is a more traditional high street bank (as opposed to Halifax, which is a converted building society that has limited capacity to handle business banking in their branches, despite being owned by the same group).

Niksan

meer53 wrote: »

Moving money on the internet is also subject to internal checks by your bank

This is true, I've seen money laundering checks on my experian report.

Evilm

Yes there is a floor limit but if someone is suspicious they can do the same checks on a lower value if they like.

When I was a Legal Cashier for a solicitor and I dealt with fund receipts for clients I was told that should it be considered I hadn't done the necessary checks and reports on a suspicious reciept then I could be jailed for 10 years. I believe a bank employee could be subject to the same legislation so they do have to be careful.

sueeve

When I had a large transfer in on line I was rung by Lloyds for a general chat which started something like 'Can we help you with plans for this money?' Odd but not offensive, and I realised afterwards it was for the above purpose. It was actually to go from 0.1% into a vantage, and i just said transfer to better interest. No problem

rb10

7sefton wrote: »

Why do Halifax receive more high value cheques? I'd have thought LTSB would be the one more likely to be dealing with large cheque values because it is a more traditional high street bank (as opposed to Halifax, which is a converted building society that has limited capacity to handle business banking in their branches, despite being owned by the same group).

No idea why, but they certainly do.

Remember that although, as you point out, LTSB is bigger on business banking than Halifax, it's the other way around for personal banking. Halifax branches see very large numbers of personal customers with high value cheques.

pinkdalek

What has anyone got to be afraid of or trying to hide? In fact the more obnoxious or awkward you become the more suspicious the bank will be of you!

Cashier is doing their job, they are legally obliged under money laundering regulations to ask irrespective of amounts. Majority of times nothing is suspicious, also you'd be amazed how many people are oblivious to other savings accounts out there and the cashier is probably trying to promote other accounts to get the customer a better return on their money.

The staff member can face imprisonment you know if they do not adhere to money laundering checks, sounds harsh, but it is the law.

ChiefGrasscutter

pinkdalek wrote: »

What has anyone got to be afraid of or trying to hide? In fact the more obnoxious or awkward you become the more suspicious the bank will be of you!

ah,
but this is all part of the great "game".
The more of their time you waste the less they will bother you in future once they realise you are quite prepared to waste an enormous amount of their time.
I used to get a phone call when I started moving large loads of money by internet transfer wanting to know this and that. I used to have great fun..."Oh yes so there is that XXX coming in to my account tomorrow isn't it....where's it going? well, I don't know at the moment I'll decide later....might be Halifax, might by Barnsley, I might put it in Northern Crock... who knows.......
Strange to report I don't get them calling me anymore, maybe they have raised the trigger sum on my account above the £sums I'm moving.

To take an extreme example of this one person I know, seriously loaded, was stopped by the police some years ago in the street as I recall. When he started being "uncooperative" the police threatened him with arrest. Fine he said - lets go I'm doing nothing (he didn't need/have a job so locking him up for x days was not going to cause him any grief). Surprise to say the police suddenly realised that just maybe this was probably not the best way to proceed as it was going to give them a level of grief out of any proportion. It does require a lot of confidence to carry this one out!
Indeed being cooperative is how you hear of people ending up with a "police caution" and hence a criminal record for something which really should not be an offense when instead they should be saying in effect Fk-u to the police and see you in the crown court.