Cheque clearing time

ceredigion

In this day and age with electronic transfers , where i can transfer money from one account to another account instantly . Why does my bank still need 5 working days ,thats a whole week to clear a cheque?

grumbler

>> Are cheques clearing faster now?

dalesrider

ceredigion wrote: »

In this day and age with electronic transfers , where i can transfer money from one account to another account instantly . Why does my bank still need 5 working days ,thats a whole week to clear a cheque?

Because it a paper based item....

Sadly too many old grumpies wanted to keep them. When it was mooted to get rid of them.

You do not have to use cheques... You can use faster payments.

grumbler

dalesrider wrote: »

You do not have to use cheques... You can use faster payments.

Have you tried paying by FP, say, to HM Passport Office?

marlewuk

ceredigion wrote: »

where i can transfer money from one account to another account instantly .

Telephone banking - providing you have registered with security token (all banks use these - a number or alpha numerical password)

Internet Banking

failing that chaps in a branch - usually a charge though

dalesrider

grumbler wrote: »

Have you tried paying by FP, say, to HM Passport Office?

Depending on how you apply, you can pay by:

• debit or credit card
• cheque or postal order (made payable to the correct organisation)
• cash

In fact you cannot use a cheque to pay for a passport at
At a Regional Passport Office or Post Office Passport Check & Send service.
Only when applying via post can you use a cheque

Back on form again

grumbler

My point was that you can't pay by FP in the first place.

willo65

grumbler wrote: »

My point was that you can't pay by FP in the first place.

Then pay by card? There a various alternatives to cheques, at the end of the day a cheque is a cheque and will always take the same length of time to clear.

Wywth

Your application for a passport will not be delayed if you pay by cheque ... but a quicker cheque clearing time would mean you get debited the amount quicker from your own bank, meaning you lose out.

agrinnall

To go back to the OP's question - there's no real reason why it takes as long as it does, when I worked in banking IT in New Zealand over 25 years ago cheque clearing was done in 2 days (albeit with a much smaller volume). However, given the desire of the banks to get rid of cheques there is no incentive for them to spend many, many millions of pounds on the changes required to reduce the current processing time.

jonesMUFCforever

grumbler wrote: »

My point was that you can't pay by FP in the first place.

Why would you need to pay for a passport by FP anyway?