Cheques and clearnece times

iwantmymoneyback_2

Hello all. I have a question that i hope can be answered. I am self employed and I'm with Halifax. when i put a cheque in it takes 7 days for it to be cleared but it leaves the other account after 3 days. so where is this money for 4 days. Are the banks holding onto it and making interest on money that isn't theirs. if this is the case can we do anything about it. surely as its my money i should every right to know where it is.

Also halifax charged me for returning a direct debit £39 this happed 2 days before a cheque cleared in my account. now the money has already left one account, surely halifax know the cheque will clear if so why do they still return a direct debit.

Granted the money shold have been in there in the first place but i hate it when a £34 direct debit gets returned and it costs me £39

Please help

Dan

MarkyMarkD

Most banks don't take 7 days to clear a cheque. Indeed, I'm surprised that Halifax do - is this a savings account, or a basic bank account?

If you want cheques cleared by the third working day, there are lots of banks which will give you this service - so change banks if it bothers you.

Halifax don't know that the cheque will clear until they are NOT told by the other bank that it's bounced - that's how the system works. It's an old-fashioned manual system and relies on the banks writing letters to each other - very slow and inefficient.

natweststaffmember

Mark, the basic clearing cycle is 3 days however most banks do not allow withdrawal of those funds until day 5, and usually 6th working day over the counter as the cheque can still be returned unpaid up to that date. Next year there is due to be a change in the clearing cycle so that it is easier for everyone as consumers to understand when the money is yours.

IZZY01

iwantmymoneyback wrote: »

Hello all. I have a question that i hope can be answered. I am self employed and I'm with Halifax. when i put a cheque in it takes 7 days for it to be cleared but it leaves the other account after 3 days. so where is this money for 4 days. Are the banks holding onto it and making interest on money that isn't theirs. if this is the case can we do anything about it. surely as its my money i should every right to know where it is.

Also halifax charged me for returning a direct debit £39 this happed 2 days before a cheque cleared in my account. now the money has already left one account, surely halifax know the cheque will clear if so why do they still return a direct debit.

Granted the money shold have been in there in the first place but i hate it when a £34 direct debit gets returned and it costs me £39

Please help

Dan

I was in exactly the same position with the BOS. Over the past 5 years, we had a massive amount of charges applied to the business acc. due to the clearance time for cheques. Sometimes if 3 d/debits were due to come off and there was enough cleared funds to pay 2 of them, all 3 would be returned at a cost of £105.00,even though the cheque was due to clear at midnight that night. Often the d/d were below £10. I think the length of time for clearance is ridiculous in this day and age. My hubby now asks all his customers politely to either pay by cash or bank transfer. By the way, I have just had an offer from Bank of Scotland for all these charges:j

MarkyMarkD

NWSM

I bank with A&L and I can definitely spend money on cheques deposited on the 4th working day - one day later than usual because of A&L's centralised clearing process.

Any bank making people wait until the 6th working day is rubbish and people should switch banks if they aren't impressed with it.

Or maybe it's a small deal to them - lots of people don't bank cheques often, or for significant amounts, and clearance times don't concern them unduly.

IZZY01

I bank with Bank of Scotland and deposited a cheque last Friday. It will be Thursday before funds are available,
Izzy

MarkyMarkD

I also deposited a cheque on Friday. It arrived at the cheque clearance centre and appeared on my online statement on Saturday.

I expect it to be available tomorrow morning.

IZZY01

MarkyMarkD wrote: »

I also deposited a cheque on Friday. It arrived at the cheque clearance centre and appeared on my online statement on Saturday.

I expect it to be available tomorrow morning.

Nope,
Just chequed on-line banking and projected clearance is Thursday. Although, it did show on my statement on Saturday. I am with the BOS and the cheque was for the RBS. If it is an English Bank, it takes one more day,
Izzy

IZZY01

With regard to my earlier post, regarding the length of time to clear a cheque. Since customers have been paying by cash or bank transfer, I reckon we have maybe had 2 or 3 charges and our balance has been in the black from the day we started doing this, approx 18 months ago. It just goes to show, the profit these big boys are making from us small businesses. Is it any wonder so many of them fail. On one occassion in June 2004, due to customers being on holiday and work being carried out while they were away, our charges totalled over £800 for the month. How can they possibly justify this. Oh well never mind, I've got them all back and more:j

iwantmymoneyback_2

thank you all for your replies. Like i said in my previous post halifax takes 7 days for funds to be available. I did some work for a friend of mine who paid me by cheque. He assured me that the funds left his account 3 days after i had banked it. however it wasn't cleared into my account for another 4 days. I am just wondering where the money is after this time and with the technology this day and age surely this method could be instant.

Is this just another way of the banks robbing us the consumer. if you think about it how many people in the uk wait 7 days for a cheque to clear. if the banks are holding this money for 4 days they could ammount quite a bit of interest for themselves before it hits our account. surely this interest that they make is our money......not the banks!!!

iwantmymoneyback_2

oh by the way i got my bank charges bank for returning 2 direct debits. so i think the bank aggreed with me with out saying they do lol !!!!