Cheques with nickname plus surname

evx

For 30 years people have called me by a nickname rather than my given first name. The bank account is in my given first name plus surname but many of the personal cheques I have received have been made out to my nickname plus surname. I have banked with abbey (Santander) for more than 25 years and paying in cheques made out to my nickname plus surname has never been a problem. Until today. Now I am informed by a cashier and the manager, who both know me more by my nickname than given name, that I cannnot pay cheques in because of fraud/money laundering (I doubt if the total amount per annum is more than a few hundred quid, so hardly international criminal mastermind stuff) and if I try to pay them in I will be charged £10 per cheque and the cheques won't be accepted anyway. The stupid thing is that if the cheques are made out with just the first letter of my nickname plus surname I can pay them in because the bank thinks they are made out to my wife. It all seems rather petty on Santander's part. Does anyone have a experience/advice or do I just get people to make cheques out to my given name (with the explanation that will inevitably follow)? Thanks.

pmduk

They shouldn't be accepting cheques in your wife's name unless she's a party to the account.

zerog

Why are people still paying you by cheque?

If a company is paying you, you should give them your legal name.

You could also legally change your name to your nickname, and then change the name on your account

If you and your wife happen to share the same initial, then that is just a loophole to the cheque system.

Hominu

So for the past 25 years they have been paying a cheque that wasn't made out to you into your account, they've now been told off about it and refused to it any more and you are the one complaining.

You can do one of two things:

Have the cheques re-issued in your legal name.

Change your legal name to your nickname.

IainHL

Pay them in using an automated teller machine at another branch? (The ones that scan and get you to confirm the amount, not ones where you place them in an envelope.)

BMN

They do have some discretion when it comes to the name which is payable on cheques. How similar is your nickname to your real name? And if the situation really is as you describe it then I agree that it is petty of them.

Although having said that, I'd say you've been lucky so far and you should now get people to make them out to your actual name.

IainHL wrote: »

Pay them in using an automated teller machine at another branch? (The ones that scan and get you to confirm the amount, not ones where you place them in an envelope.)

It will still be manually checked.

tommytiger1985

I think you will find it a problem moving forward.. I'm a branch manager for Santander and we have just had a new " daily control" introduced to reduce the amount of cheque conversion fraud - and we become personally accountable if there is an incident. Hence I'm not surprised to hear a cheque that doesn't match the account name was refused, regardless of the amount or the fact it's not been an issue in the past.

iAMaLONDONER

BMN wrote: »

They do have some discretion when it comes to the name which is payable on cheques. How similar is your nickname to your real name? And if the situation really is as you describe it then I agree that it is petty of them.

Although having said that, I'd say you've been lucky so far and you should now get people to make them out to your actual name.



It will still be manually checked.

Is cash that's been put through instant deposit also manually checked?

BMN

iAMaLONDONER wrote: »

Is cash that's been put through instant deposit also manually checked?

Well, the machine would get balanced.

Gromitt

iAMaLONDONER wrote: »

Is cash that's been put through instant deposit also manually checked?

Not as such, although it would be weighed (as a whole, not individual transactions), so it would be pretty accurate.

evx

After completing a survey, sent by email, about the visit to the branch I had a call from the branch manager. He was most apologetic about the situation. Apparently, the facility to pay in cheques in my nickname was set up in branch by simply putting a note on the account file saying it was okay to do so. He said the rules were tightened up "2 or 3 months ago". I asked why couldn't there have been a grace period, when I paid in a cheque 2/3 months ago or now, whereby I was told that the policy had changed and this would be the last cheque they would accept in the nickname? That would have given me time to inform cheque authors of a name change. He accepted this would have been a better way to have gone about things. He also explained that the fee of £10 for a returned cheque was incorrect, there would be no fee, unless the account was overdrawn. Finally, he informed me that the cheque would be acceptable if the author changed the nick name to given name and initialed it, which is a bit of a hassle but better than the author having to cancel this cheque and issue another.

Thanks for all your comments and advice.