£77 to cash a USD cheque worth £350! Surely that's wrong RBS!

neilb1974

++++++++++++++++++++

JuicyJesus

o 5 weeks have passed and I receive a letter stating that I would be credited £272. The charges that I have incurred are $90 'charges from the remitting bank' and £20 RBS commission charges. This is absolute daylight robbery in my opinion! I have had over 20% of MY money taken from me for a cheque that took 5 bloody weeks to clear. Surely this cannot be right?

That is correct. All banks charge a processing fee on cheques which are sent for collection - £20 is on the light side for this. Moreover, that extra $90 was levied on RBS by the bank that the cheque was issued by - RBS merely passed them on to you. As, really, they have every right to (why should they stand the loss?). I will also bet you that the £20 fee was mentioned in the letter you received after paying the cheque in.

At any rate, foreign cheques do take a long time to clear. They do indeed have to be physically sent to the drawing bank, which takes time, and then a reply has to be received the funds are available and the cheque can be processed, and then the funds actually remitted from the USA to the UK. This all takes time. If you wanted the money quickly and cheaply, you should have opted to receive an electronic transfer instead.

You haven't got a leg to stand on.

neilb1974

+++++++++++++++++++++

JuicyJesus

neilb1974 wrote: »

The waiting I don't mind, I have since switched over to wire transfer for this payment, but I do have another USD dollar cheque in the process of clearing for $1454, perhaps I may see enough of that to pay for a cup of tea. And anyway RBS were clearing USD cheques for me in 5 working days at the beginning of the year for a fee of £7, now it takes 5 weeks and £77. Hmm how does that work????

Collection is a different process to negotiation, which is usually quicker and cheaper. However negotiation is also a lot more of a risk, both in terms of exchange rate spread and also in the credit risk that the cheque will be returned unpaid and leave you in overdraft. Usually you have no say in how it's processed, and in some cases with some banks neither does the branch. Which method is used can depend on your history and account conduct with the bank concerned (not saying that's the case, just that it's one measure they might use. Irregardless, the £20 is likely to be a flat fee, and probably makes RBS little or no profit. £20 is, as I say, on the light side for foreign cheque collection.

Regardless, £57 of that charge is out of RBS' hands, and was levied by the foreign bank. In large part, your complaint is with the foreign bank.

CleanShirt

neilb1974 wrote: »

The waiting I don't mind, I have since switched over to wire transfer for this payment, but I do have another USD dollar cheque in the process of clearing for $1454, perhaps I may see enough of that to pay for a cup of tea. And anyway RBS were clearing USD cheques for me in 5 working days at the beginning of the year for a fee of £7, now it takes 5 weeks and £77. Hmm how does that work????

I'm guessing, as with my Bank, it depends on the size of the cheque. How much was the cheque that only took a couple of days to clear?

Foreign Cheques can be cashed in two ways, either by funds retrieval which takes up to six weeks and costs a fortune, or by negotiation- which basically means they cash it without confirmation, at my bank that's for foreign cheques up to £250, only takes a couple of days and is cheaper.

At the end of the day, the services they provide a clearly laid out, its up to you to find out how the account works and the charges levied for non standard transactions.. Calling in to have a go at some poor advisor for your lack of understanding is ridiculous.

pmduk

I suspect this highlights the relative efficiency of the British banking system in comparison to the US system. The fact that most of the charges were levied by the remitting bank would underline this.

inmypocketnottheirs

OP if regular $US payments are expected, you should consider opening an account with Citibank. You can have a dollar account that is linked to your sterling account with a debit card that you can switch between your accounts have a look at https://www.citibank.co.uk.