The cheque cleared & bounced!

TDIfurby

Had my first apparent ebay conning recently, and I'm unsure what to do about it, other than send a couple of people I know around to his house to extort the money from him.

Basically I sold an item, got a cheque for £51, I banked it, it cleared on a Friday and I posted the same day. Then I get the cheque back in the post saying the account holder had requested the chq to be stopped. :mad:

So, I email the bidder, no response, email AGAIN, no response. Now I'm fuming I'm £51 down, and this person's got away with it. He only had 1 feedback point too. I figured once a cheque clears, thats it.

Can I info local Police in Kegworth (oh, I'd love to publically name,address and shame this guy) or shall I simply try and do my own DIY bailiff action?

Help. :mad:

megazoid

How long was the cheque in the bank as it acctually takes 5 working days for a cheque to fully clear but normally shows after 3, allso it a good idea to check with the bank that it has cleared ok.

If you go into advanced search you can select on the left menu "Find Contact Information" which can give to a persons phone number should this be fake i would try a few times to get in touch with them then failing that report him to ebay and police.

Regards

Megazoid

soolin

I know everyone knows I have a problem with cheques but I have to say that I have not heard of a situation where someone has been able to stop a cheque once it is in the clearing sytem.

I have had cheques reversed (not bounced) after several weeks due to an error on the cheque, and I once did have a cheque bounce after 9 days when it showed cleared for funds after 4, but that was unusual.

How long after paying it in did it get stopped? If it was well after 4 or 5 working days then take it up with your bank, they should be there to protect your interests not allow cheques to be withdrawn just because the issuer wants it.


Soo

Tojo_Ralph

I think Soolin first pointed out to moi that "cleared" cheques can in fact "bounce", and that the only defence against this was to call your bank and get the bank to confirm cheques have cleared, and record the whole conversation. (At least that's what I recall the advice being)

(Edit: I guess I must be a real slow typer as Soolin sneeked in before me )

MissG_2

:eek:

megazoid wrote:

How long was the cheque in the bank as it acctually takes 5 working days for a cheque to fully clear but normally shows after 3, allso it a good idea to check with the bank that it has cleared ok.

It can take up to 10 days to clear with your bank. This happened to me once, i spoke to a customer service advisor at my bank who told me it had cleared then i got the cheque back in the post :mad: . I phoned them and complained and after a couple of phone calls the bank did a good will gesture and gave me the money:j

soolin

Tojo_Ralph wrote:

I think Soolin first pointed out to moi that "cleared" cheques can in fact "bounce", and that the only defence against this was to call your bank and get the bank to confirm cheques have cleared, and record the whole conversation. (At least that's what I recall the advice being)

(Edit: I guess I must be a real slow typer as Soolin sneeked in before me )

Just call me quick draw McGraw <smile>

There is a difference between cleared for funds and cleared in the system and it seems that even call centre staff don't know the difference.

However, stopping a cheque on a whim is a different matter and entirely different to bouncing through an error or lack of funds.

If banks are now saying that cheques can be stopped on a pure whim even after cleared for funds then that is something new. When I have had cheques bounce or get reversed there has always been a reason. The cheque that I had actually bounce after 9 days was due to a problem with the way it was issued. As far as I recall the cheque was written on a joint account and that account had been closed. However it was a recent closure and for a while cheques had been diverted to a new account that the issuer had in her 'single' name. My cheque was wrongly debited and only reversed once the issuing bank realised that they had acted incorrectly in accepting the cheque. In that case the buyer was mortified and sent me a new correct cheque within days.

My 6 week one and a couple of others were due to errors on the cheques, one guy had post dated a cheque and it was accepted but he complained to his bank and it was reversed. Another one had written the wrong year entirely and again it wasn't until he complained that it was reversed and another one had words and figures that differed.

I would still be interested in knowing from the OP how long the cheque had shown as cleared, or how long it had actually been in the account before it was stopped.

Soo

Tojo_Ralph

On the subject of "stopping" cheques.

I have only ever had to stop one cheque, (lost in post) and when I called to ask what the scoop was, and weigh up cancelling it against bank charges, I was advised, (Note: This info is not in anyway verified) that banks do not charge for stopping cheques lost in post, apparently all part of some deal with the Royal Mail, and the banking folks.

calleyw

I hate to tell you all this, It was on radio 4's moneybox about 6 months ago.

That payment by cheque is never guaranteed at the moment. And money can be clawed back at any time.

For more info:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/moneybox/3727162.stm

Makes interesting reading.

But that article links to another one saying the banks are going to do something about it. But when it comes it to effect is another matter.


Yours

Calley

megazoid

calleyw wrote:

I hate to tell you all this, It was on radio 4's moneybox about 6 months ago.

That payment by cheque is never guaranteed at the moment. And money can be clawed back at any time.

For more info:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/moneybox/3727162.stm

Makes interesting reading.

But that article links to another one saying the banks are going to do something about it. But when it comes it to effect is another matter.


Yours

Calley

Well i'll have to say that rather sucks i was just reading about cheques on https://www.apacs.org.uk which was interesting reading about clearing process's but not very helpfull, looks like its cash only for me lol.

Regards

Megazoid

soolin

Calleyw thanks for posting the actual link, that is useful.

According to the Mail on Sunday Financial writer Tony Hetherington there are plans for the new system for cheque clearance to be in place sometime this year, hopefully by the summer. It won't be before time as it seems the whole cheque malarky has become silly with even bank staff not knowing the rules.

I have worked on and off in banks for many years and it wasn't until my last branch that one of the managers actually confirmed to staff that we should not be using the word 'cleared' for cheques, only 'cleared for funds'. We were asked to make sure that we never gave the impression to customers that a cheque was safe after showing as cleared for funds.

However, as I said in a previous post I was not aware that a cheque could be stopped by the issuer on a whim after being cleared for funds.

As Tojo Ralph says it is easy to stop a cheque that has not been presented and if you tell your bank it was lost in the post they rarely charge. However stopping a cheque already in the system is worrying and the issuer must have had to pay to stop it as it is obviously not lost if it is already in the sytem!

Soo

scheming_gypsy

Back to the subject, although it was lovely reading about how cheques work.......


you could try phoning the police but they might not do anything about it. Send them a letter by registered post so you know they get it telling them that if they don't return the goods or pay for them then you'll seek action to get the money back, whether it's naming and shaming in the local rag, going to the police, small claims court etc..

if that doesn't work just send the boys round but don't put that in the letter.