Banker's Draft query

pinkie84

Hi there, I'm looking for some advice...
At the end of April I raised a Banker's draft which was presented to the payee. I'm with Natwest and the draft cost £12 to raise, and the funds were immediately taken from my account.
As I understood it, the draft should be treated as cash thus i was very careful with it. However a couple of weeks ago, the payee got in touch with me to say that she has lost the draft and could i therefore cancel it and reissue with another, or otherwise pay her the sum of the draft again in cash.

I have contacted Natwest to do the first, but the cashier i spoke to was unsure of the procedure, took my telephone number and promised to call me back. I refused to hand over more cash to the payee for fear of being out of pocket if the draft cannot be cancelled. Moreover since the money has already left my account, i cannot afford a repeat payment.

Natwest have not contacted me, and I have been in touch with them to chase a response. In the meantime the payee has been constantly texting etc accusing me of trying to defraud her of money, and threatening me with the police etc.

I am not handing over cash until the draft is reimbursed into my account, can anyone tell me whether a banker's draft from natwest can be cancelled and reimbursed?

I have been told various contradicting things, such as a draft cannot be cancelled, you need to wait until it expires. Some one also told me that once it has gone, it's gone. Loosing it is like loosing hard cash. The cashier i spoke to at natwest was unsure.

Can any one advise? I'm worrying about the increasingly aggressive messages coming from the payee for something that i believe is her own fault!!!

Thank you.

pinkie84

Also I suspect this in in the wrong area of the forum - i really apologise if thats the case. I wasnt sure where to post.

bris

Hi, A draft is not paid from your account, it is paid from the banks money. You have already paid the bank plus their fee so the funds now come direct from them. You can cancel a draft but you need written permission from the payee, (it's her money now not yours). You need to liase with the payee to cancel this if you don't do it properly then she will get paid twice if she is trying to scam you.
Although a draft looks like a check it's not, it's a big bank note. You will need to explain to her that you will not pay her again and follow the proper procedure to get her funds.

jonesMUFCforever

The bank needs to see if it has been presented for payment.
If it has they will not refund you.
If it has not been presented for payment then a stop instruction may be possible but will take time - only then will they put the money back into your account.

I would then pay by alternative method such as a bank to bank transfer.

Twister84

Ignore the payee - it sounds as if she just wants her money, or even double it!

Advise her that the bank is investigating and that you've done your part. I'm sure that you don't want to end up paying her twice.

It probably can be stopped. I've never personally had experience of cancelling a banker's draft myself, but I'm sure it's pretty straightforward once they check if the payment has debited the suspense account or not. If it hasn't, then they can then just stop draft and credit you from the suspense account.

JuicyJesus

Twister84 wrote: »

It probably can be stopped. I've never personally had experience of cancelling a banker's draft myself, but I'm sure it's pretty straightforward once they check if the payment has debited the suspense account or not. If it hasn't, then they can then just stop draft and credit you from the suspense account.

Totally and utterly incorrect. Bankers drafts, to be stopped, require the draft to be handed back as a minimum. There is no protection whatsoever if they are lost or stolen.

A banker's draft is issued as guaranteed by the drawing bank. That is the point of them. If they could be stopped it would defeat the purpose.

rb10

JuicyJesus wrote: »

Totally and utterly incorrect. Bankers drafts, to be stopped, require the draft to be handed back as a minimum. There is no protection whatsoever if they are lost or stolen.

A banker's draft is issued as guaranteed by the drawing bank. That is the point of them. If they could be stopped it would defeat the purpose.

No, as Twister said, it is possible for Bankers' Drafts to be cancelled if lost or stolen.

The point of them is that they cannot bounce due to lack of funds, since they are drawn on an account of the bank, rather than the customer.

The fact that they can be stopped in some circumstances one reason why when paying a bankers' draft into an account you should wait until the 7th working day before counting it as cleared.

Twister84

JuicyJesus wrote: »

Totally and utterly incorrect. Bankers drafts, to be stopped, require the draft to be handed back as a minimum. There is no protection whatsoever if they are lost or stolen.

A banker's draft is issued as guaranteed by the drawing bank. That is the point of them. If they could be stopped it would defeat the purpose.

Draft's are guaranteed subject to fraud checks & clearance, so I think they can be stopped.


But as I said, I've never cancelled one, so not sure on the exact procedure.

JuicyJesus

Twister84 wrote: »

Draft's are guaranteed subject to fraud checks & clearance, so I think they can be stopped.

Umm... no. Again, they are guaranteed. A valid (as in, not forged) banker's draft, if presented for payment, MUST be paid by definition. If one could stop them or they could be returned, they would have no purpose other than being very expensive personal cheques.

Twister84

JuicyJesus wrote: »

Umm... no. Again, they are guaranteed. A valid (as in, not forged) banker's draft, if presented for payment, MUST be paid by definition. If one could stop them or they could be returned, they would have no purpose other than being very expensive personal cheques.

Exactly. If it's forged, and it goes through clearing, there must be some way of stopping it.

So the draft is guaranteed, but subject to fraud checks & clearance.

For example one of the checks done when processing a banker's draft, is if the account being drawn on has cleared funds. If there are insufficient cleared funds, the draft cannot be made. With normal cheques, the payee does not know whether the funds in your account are cleared or not.

noh

The last paragraph of this Barclays FAQ implies that they cannot be stopped, if lost, and only will be replaced if they consider you credit worthy for the potential liability of the original being presented.

http://ask.barclays.co.uk/help/day2day_banking/bankersdraft