Cheque paid into wrong bank - what happens now?

mountainofdebt

Basically a cheque was paid into a Barclays Bank Branch even though it was accompanied by a natwest paying in slip (in a natwest paying in book)

what happens now - will the money reach the natwest account ordo we have to ask the payee to cancel the cheque and get a replacement?

TheBanker

There is no technical reason why banks can't accept credits for other banks, provided they're accompanied by a bank giro credit slip. Most banks refuse to accept such credits because they're the ones carrying the risk if the cheque bounces, rather than the bank the account is held at. The official policy in most banks is not to accept such credits, but they do sometimes accept them if they know the customer. When I used to work for Barclays, I used to pay all my family's cheques in by this method even though they banked all over the place.

There are a few things that could happen:

1) Barclays might not notice, and process the credit through their clearing. It will arrive as normal with Natwest (or as normal as can be at the moment!)
2) Barclays will notice and will post the cheque to Natwest or take it to a local branch for them to process.

Either way I wouldn't worry, give it a few days and if nothing happens then make enquiries. Did Barclays give you a receipt for the cheque?

xylophone

Did Barclays give you a receipt for the cheque?

Wouldn't the cashier have stamped the counterfoil in the paying in book?

mountainofdebt

Thanks for the quick response

Yes the paying in book is stamped - thank goodness !

Here's hoping it appears quickly......a) it wasn't mine b) it took HMRC long enough to send it in the first place lol

Oh well lesson learnt - always go to the bank yourself and not ask someone to pay it in for you!

TheBanker

xylophone wrote: »

Wouldn't the cashier have stamped the counterfoil in the paying in book?

They should have (which acts as a receipt). They were probably on auto pilot and didn't notice it was the wrong bank.

Without worrying the OP, I'm not sure Natwest are processing clearing in at the moment so it may take a few days to be processed and show on your account, whatever happens.

Under normal circumstances it would show on the account on day 3, i.e. if paid in today would show on Thursday. May show as uncleared funds for a couple of days after that but I'm not sure how Natwest work.