Bank Accounts & Cheque Books

cbassno3

TopKiddy wrote: »

Recently I applied for a Nationwide bank account. They put all my details in the computer and unfortunately I only qualified for there Cash Card Account. Which did not come with a cheque book.

I didn't know you needed a credit check for a chequebook! As I had a chequebook with my HSBC account when I was 16!

Is there any banks where you get a chequebook as standard? And also can someone tell me about the Guranteed Cheque? Apparantley you can spend upto 50 pounds on a cheque instore.

Thanks, Benny.

Did you apply online for the account?

Dr_Cuckoo3

Bank of Baroda issue a chequebook account without a credit reference search

http://www.bankofbarodauk.com/retail-banking/deposit-products/savings-accounts/

book12

Just use your HSBC account since it has a cheque book with it.

coolesticeking

If you opened your HSBC account at 16 or before, the reason why you got a cheque book straight away was because you are too young to be credit checked at that age.

If you are 18+ now, the reason why they won't give you a cheque book is because they credit checked you and they feel you are not credit worthy enough for the facility.

The issue with cheques is you could write the full books worth of say £10,000 each - and the bank 'may' pay these regardless if you had the money in your account or not giving you credit source.

Naf

coolesticeking wrote: »

If you opened your HSBC account at 16 or before, the reason why you got a cheque book straight away was because you are too young to be credit checked at that age.

If you are 18+ now, the reason why they won't give you a cheque book is because they credit checked you and they feel you are not credit worthy enough for the facility.

The issue with cheques is you could write the full books worth of say £10,000 each - and the bank 'may' pay these regardless if you had the money in your account or not giving you credit source.

Sort of. The OP clearly said that when they applied they only qualified for their cash card account. It's the account that they have been credit checked for, and a chequebook is not a facility available on anything less than a full current account.
(http://www.nationwide.co.uk/current_account/managing_your_account/cash_card_account.htm)
And whilst you are right that the reason for this is because a chequebook can take you overdrawn and is therefore a (albeit very limited) form of credit facility, the bank is very unlikely to pay cheques that would take an account more than £50 or so overdrawn (or over any arranged overdraft); at least until the use and turnover of the account shows that the holder has the income and means to afford to pay the balance back quickly.
e.g. my Lloyds account won't let me use my debit card for ANY transaction that the funds aren't already available for, even though it is a full Visa Debit card (not electron/solo). This is because the account has very little usage (only £100 goes through per month, and goes pretty much straight out again on standing orders), on the other hand my main current account with Santander happily accepts payments on my debit card that might take me much further over my overdraft (no I have not thoroughly tested its limits, or tried this regularly and I wouldn't recommend anyone does) because the system sees my full salary and everything else goes through this account and I always keep within my overdraft (remember, debit card payments take 3 days to clear from the account, so I only make payments that would take me over on the day before I know money is coming in).
Cash card accounts don't have these facilities.

Dr_Cuckoo3

I am aware of three banks in the UK which will issue a cheque book without a credit reference search

p-ch1982

100% agreed.

p-ch1982

dtsazza wrote: »

This statement really doesn't make sense to me.

It would take less time to click "make payment", type a 14-digit sort code and account number, then "10.00" and click OK - than it would to write out a cheque, sign it and write out the recipient's address on the envelope.

Plus the bank transfer costs you 0p in postage instead of 28p/46p postage. And the funds are usually available to the recipient in a few hours rather than several days for the post to arrive, zero to "a few" days for them to get to a bank to pay it in, and then several more days for the cheque to clear. Oh, and if you're sending these cheques out regularly some are bound to get lost in the post sooner or later.


The situation you've described is an almost perfect example of why cheques are much less useful than bank transfers. It's more hassle for you to send, it's more hassle for the recipient to have to pay in, and it takes much longer to execute (during which time the recipient hasn't got their money and you have to keep remembering how much less money your bank balance really has than it shows).

100% agreed:T:T