Cheque replacement charges

Daffid

Hi all

My elderly mother let a couple of dividend cheques from her shares to expire, and Capita Registrars who handle the shares want £75 to replace them. (£25 for the £100 cheque, £50 for the £300 cheque) As she's on pension credit and the shares are the only savings she has, that's a lot to her.

If they were a bank I'd challenge them on this immediately, but as a stock-broking firm I'm not sure what if any rights I have to challenge this. Surely they shouldn't be allowed to charge more for a simple CTRL-P job purely on the value of the cheque?

Does anyone have any experience of this or know if I have a way to challenge them?

Many thanks

Torry_Quine

Daffid wrote: »

Hi all

My elderly mother let a couple of dividend cheques from her shares to expire, and Capita Registrars who handle the shares want £75 to replace them. (£25 for the £100 cheque, £50 for the £300 cheque) As she's on pension credit and the shares are the only savings she has, that's a lot to her.

If they were a bank I'd challenge them on this immediately, but as a stock-broking firm I'm not sure what if any rights I have to challenge this. Surely they shouldn't be allowed to charge more for a simple CTRL-P job purely on the value of the cheque?

Does anyone have any experience of this or know if I have a way to challenge them?

Many thanks

I feel your pain as I'm in the same situation and more as my husband inherited 110 shares but the certificate is lost. They have charged to replace the cheques issued since the death, a new share certificate, insurance to cover the old certificate turning up and other numerous charges. It's a scandal. :eek:

Aquamania

Daffid wrote: »

Hi all

My elderly mother let a couple of dividend cheques from her shares to expire, and Capita Registrars who handle the shares want £75 to replace them. (£25 for the £100 cheque, £50 for the £300 cheque) As she's on pension credit and the shares are the only savings she has, that's a lot to her.

If they were a bank I'd challenge them on this immediately, but as a stock-broking firm I'm not sure what if any rights I have to challenge this. Surely they shouldn't be allowed to charge more for a simple CTRL-P job purely on the value of the cheque?

Does anyone have any experience of this or know if I have a way to challenge them?

Many thanks

How long are the dividend cheques valid for? 3 months as a minimum I would expect.

That being the case, your mother can't be too short of money if she can leave them unbanked for such a long period.

As to the suggestion a replacement is "a simple CTRL-P job", don't you think there might be a bit more to it than that, else what is to stop numerous requests for replacement cheques to be issued?

dunstonh

Surely they shouldn't be allowed to charge more for a simple CTRL-P job purely on the value of the cheque?

If it was as simple as that then I would agree. There is a more manual work to that then just a press of a button.

If the amounts are under a couple of hundred pounds then you could attempt to deposit them. Most banks dont return cheques on the old over 6 month rule unless they over a certain amount.

Daffid

Aquamania - The cheques date from 2012 when she was living with my father more comfortably - but he is now dying of alzheimer's and she is living alone in tougher circumstances than before, without any access to any of his funds. It's taken me 5 months to get Capita to even talk to me (rather than to my confused mother) on this issue - but thanks for your concern, your humanity does you great credit.

As to the effort required - they are holding the returned expired cheques, which they already knew were not cashed - as they show on their system as such, they need only rewrite a new cheque. But if you can think of any way a cheque requires more effort to replace depending on its value, then you're even more of a genius than you initially appeared.

Daffid

Thanks for the reply dunstonh - sadly I returned the cheques to them before trying at a bank - and they wouldn't send them back, so I can't even try it now,.