HSBC £12 to cancel a cheque

Phil_Sheridan

It may not be advisable to wait and see if the cheque arrived at its destination.
I once mislaid a birthday card which had a cheque enclosed for £25.00. It was in a stamped, addressed envelope, and I maybe naively presumed that anyone finding it, would do as I would, drop it into a mail box.
I rang my bank, Santander, for guidance, and they said they'd cancel the cheque, no charge, as anyone finding, and opening the envelope, could simply strike out the payee's name, insert their own, and noting my signature, initial the change and pay it into their account.
I appreciate that Santander could trace that account, but do you really want to go through all that hassle?
A similar thing occurred last week, I bought something online, the vendor did not take cards, so I mailed a cheque to the address on their website.
I called to inform them, and they said that they had a new address and hadn't updated their website, the estate agent who had rented them their previous office space was being obstructive about claiming any mail that had been delivered there, PLUS they hadn't asked Royal Mail to divert their mail.
Once again Santander cancelled my cheque for free, and I rang the company, telling them I no longer wanted what they were selling, as if they were that inefficient, I didn't wish to deal with them.
Apologies, just noticed this thread is 3 years old!