why do cheques take so long?

ttaylor

put a cheque in from barclays to santander on tuesday, still hasn't cleared this morning? are they always this slow? no wonder they're being phased out!

jewelly

I paid a cheque into Santander yesterday, and it's showing credited to my account online today. No complaints here.

antrobus

jewelly wrote: »

I paid a cheque into Santander yesterday, and it's showing credited to my account online today. No complaints here.

Crediting and clearing are two different things.

ttaylor wrote: »

put a cheque in from barclays to santander on tuesday, still hasn't cleared this morning? are they always this slow? no wonder they're being phased out!

Cheques normally clear on a 2-4-6 timescale.

You paid the cheque in on Tuesday, Day 0. The proceeds will be available for withdrawal on Day 4 which, due to the weekend, I calculate should be Monday.

So, yes they are always that slow.

ttaylor

Thanks, well it's showing but just has not cleared. I will wait til monday then, just surprised it takes so long!

derrick

antrobus wrote: »

Crediting and clearing are two different things.



Cheques normally clear on a 2-4-6 timescale.

You paid the cheque in on Tuesday, Day 0. The proceeds will be available for withdrawal on Day 4 which, due to the weekend, I calculate should be Monday.

So, yes they are always that slow.

It is about time the banks came into the 21st century and stopped these "non working days". I wonder how the banking staff would feel if, for example, the phones, electric. gas etc stopped over the weekends?

The computers work 24/7, cheques and BACS are auto systems and should be clearing and transferring on weekends!

How come FP works 24/7 but BACS only works 5 days a week? Isn't it the same principal?

Most of the world are now a 24/7 culture, the banks should accept it and join in, if not they should be forced to do so by legislation, they where compelled to bring in FP, so why not take that extra step and make them do the same as the rest of us, after all it would not mean them working any more, just allow the computers to do their jobs 24/7!
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Hominu

derrick wrote: »

Most of the world are now a 24/7 culture, the banks should accept it and join in, if not they should be forced to do so by legislation

That's fine, but it would cost them significant expense to upgrade all the systems to handle your new way of banking, and who is going to be paying for it? Us of course, with higher charges and less interest on your savings.

I'm sure its not costing you that much to wait an extra day or 2 for a cheque to clear or a BACS to complete, so the ideal situation may be to simply leave it as it is.

matttye

Hominu wrote: »

That's fine, but it would cost them significant expense to upgrade all the systems to handle your new way of banking, and who is going to be paying for it? Us of course, with higher charges and less interest on your savings.

I'm sure its not costing you that much to wait an extra day or 2 for a cheque to clear or a BACS to complete, so the ideal situation may be to simply leave it as it is.

Let's not upgrade anything then! All upgrades will cost money.

I'd rather they focused on something like 24/7 banking than contactless payments, given that hardly anywhere supports them yet.

derrick

Hominu wrote: »

That's fine, but it would cost them significant expense to upgrade all the systems to handle your new way of banking, and who is going to be paying for it? Us of course, with higher charges and less interest on your savings.

I'm sure its not costing you that much to wait an extra day or 2 for a cheque to clear or a BACS to complete, so the ideal situation may be to simply leave it as it is.

It isn't a question of, "its not costing you that much to wait an extra day or 2 for a cheque to clear or a BACS to complete", more a question of why it is still happening!

I can't see why it should cost anything to "change" as the system is already there, it just seems like they switch it off midnight Friday and switch it back on midnight Sunday!

FP is up and running and that is basically BACS, so stop these "non working" days for banks and do like the rest of us and use their automatic systems 7 days a week!

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antrobus

derrick wrote: »

It is about time the banks came into the 21st century and stopped these "non working days"......

That would be a different question.

I suspect that the reason why banking continues to operate on the basis of a 5-day week is because there have been no demands from their customers to do otherwise. I know what you're going to say, 'I'm a customer and I want 7-day banking and I know lots of people that want the same thing', but you're just a retail grunt, and you don't signify:). It's what the likes of Tesco, Vodafone, and so forth want that really matters.

marlewuk

ttaylor wrote: »

no wonder they're being phased out!

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-14122129

chqs are here to stay im afraid

kiebee

derrick wrote: »

The computers work 24/7, cheques ... are auto systems and should be clearing and transferring on weekends!

No they aren't, the clearing process still requires the physical exchange of the paper cheques between banks. A brief summary of the process can be found here if you're interested: http://www.chequeandcredit.co.uk/about_us_and_our_members/cheque_processing_overview/