how do you cash in a USA dollar cheque?

celtic1888

hi my wife cashed in her shares in sunmicro systems
we are due a cheque for $9000 USA dollars

we have been to the royal bank of scotland and HBos both couldnt give me a commicion price for cashing it in (not too worried with the conversion rate)

both started to warble on a lot of rubbish, anything from £7 to £77 with them having to send it away to be processed taking 2-3 weeks to be done and the other bank taking acharge that they couldnt tell us how much it would be

anybody cash these things regularly or have any idea the best way to go about doing it
thanks
william

auslaender

Most of the personnel at the banks are f***ing clueless.

If I remember correctly, Barclays charges 9 pounds max. And it should take 5 working days.

I suggest you phone call center of your bank and ask to be connected to foreign currency transactions dept. All these banks charge a percentage of amount (with a Minimum and Maximum). They should tell you the definite number for maximum and minimum.

And 77 pounds !! No way!

sandollar

Hi
I had a similar problem a few weeks ago. Had a $ cheque only worth about £100. Nationwide wanted to charge me £20 and take up to 6 weeks! I asked for help here and was directed to Eddie at auctionchex.com. I received a cheque for £96.27 five days later.
Hope this helps

Twopints

I think it depends on whether the cheque is drawn on a UK dollars account (i.e. an account in US dollars but held at a UK clearing bank) or an overseas account. There are probably other factors.

I had a cheque for US$ 90 and paid it into First Direct. I had to send it in the post. They charged me £5, but said it would have been more if it was not drawn on a UK-based account.

jonesMUFCforever

auslaender wrote:

Most of the personnel at the banks are f***ing clueless.

If I remember correctly, Barclays charges 9 pounds max. And it should take 5 working days.

I suggest you phone call center of your bank and ask to be connected to foreign currency transactions dept. All these banks charge a percentage of amount (with a Minimum and Maximum). They should tell you the definite number for maximum and minimum.

And 77 pounds !! No way!

Oi not all of us are clueless!
I shall try to explain to you the procedure.
If a cheque is negotiated you will get the proceeds with recourse within 5 or so working days and the bank will charge you around 25p per £100 with a minimum of around £8 and max of £40.
However if the bank do not think it appropriate for the cheque to be negotiated then it will have to be collected - this can take around 20 working days in the case of US cheques and the charges will be far higher starting at around £20 with a max of £80 + associated costs like postages etc.

So you see for a large amount cheque it is quite possible for the charges to go to £77 or more.

Far better IMO if the money could be sent electronically to your account as you then get cleared funds immediately.

PBA

auslaender wrote:

f***ing clueless.

Charming!

I can only speak for the bank I work for, but Abbey will charge you £10. We would have to wait for funds to arrive from the US before letting you have access to the money, and the international banking system rules say this is a maximum of 8 weeks. This should usually be a lot quicker, but this is down to the bank that issued the cheque. The US bank (and any other bank involved in the miiddle) are perfectly entitled to charge their own fees, which of course are impossible for the UK bank to estimate.

Auslander, thanks for saying I'm f***ing clueless. I would advise you to check facts before posting on a public forum to avoid looking f***ing clueless.

auslaender

I said most of the bankers (NOT all of them). And there's a difference in explanation provided by PBA and ejones999.

While ejones tries to explain all the possible outcomes with important numbers (they may vary bank to bank), PBA offers international banking rule of 8 weeks...8 weeks!!!

When I deposited my first US bank check, I categorically asked the banker - what will be the fees ? Is it a percentage and is there a minimum or maximum ? She replied that it's percentage based (with NO minimum or maximum) but I could sense some doubt.

When I deposited another check (it was only $600) and noted the lesser pounds than expected, I called the call center. I was informed of the minimum and maximum fees by someone dealing with foreign banks. He also told me that checks for less than $50 (or maybe $100) don't attract any clearance fees.If I had known the maximum fees, I would have written one check for a larger amount and would have been spared the fees for extra checks. The banker was clueless.

And PBA you don't have much clue either. Admit it.

jonesMUFCforever

Something tells me that auslaender isn't British.
He/she had the opportunity to apologise for undeserved remarks but declined to do so.

May I suggest that if he/she is not happy with our banking system then they can toddle off home and use their own.

central

ejones999 wrote:

Something tells me that auslaender isn't British.
He/she had the opportunity to apologise for undeserved remarks but declined to do so.

May I suggest that if he/she is not happy with our banking system then they can toddle off home and use their own.

mmmm, probably not the wisest thing you have ever posted:eek:

celtic1888

please dont hijack my thread
i asked a very reasonable question, people have tried to help
other people have then tried to disrupt the thread within it

leave the fights to the playground please

on the cheque issue, as i though i may have to bite the bullet and deposit it without a concrete amount going to be charged to me

ill try the RBS no wonder they make a fortune.....
why if they are a global bank...they say so! do they have to send it away?
cant understand that....

william

rosysparkle

You could try auctionchex http://auctionchex.com/exchangedp-s.html