Some Info On Cheques Needed

Tao81

MarkyMarkD wrote: »

If you constantly rely on using cheques to eke out your budget, shouldn't you work on cutting out a bit of expenditure so that you can live a bit less "hand to mouth"? It's not good practice to rely on cheque clearance times.

Try not to judge before you have walked a mile in another's shoes MarkyMarkD!! Some of us are forced through circumstance to live a 'hand-to-mouth' existence!! I can't tighten my belt any further due to rising utility bills and council tax rates, no luxuries in this house I can assure you. I can perform minor miracles with money but sometimes a little slack is all that's needed to make life that tiny bit easier and help minimise the financial stresses so many of us are challenged with on a daily basis!

regularsaver1

We have always been informed the reason is to combat fraud

LittleVoice

MarkyMarkD wrote: »

It's not illegal, but it's a breach of the terms and conditions of every current account I've ever seen.

Really? Pleas can you refer me to the specific paragraph of one bank's T&Cs which say you must have cleared funds in your account at the time you write a cheque.

Hazzanet

LittleVoice wrote: »

Really? Pleas can you refer me to the specific paragraph of one bank's T&Cs which say you must have cleared funds in your account at the time you write a cheque.

Most current account T's & C's require cleared funds to be available in the account on the working day prior to when payment is debited. Some banks (Natwest did when I worked for them in 1999) debit and credit the two accounts immediately if both accounts are held at the same branch and the cheque was paid into that branch.

So in essence if you and I banked at the same branch of a bank and you handed me a cheque today thinking you had ~3 days to get cleared funds, then I banked it at the branch in question same day, you would have broken the T's and C's.

I think Nationwide must be the same also - they distinguish between "Cheques" and "Flexaccount cheques" on their deposit receipts. The only reason I see why is that same day clearing must occur on their in-house cheques.

MarkyMarkD

I've long believed the statement I made to be true, but I can't actually find any up-to-date Ts & Cs to support it.

I suspect that banks have changed their Ts & Cs because they don't want any banking transaction to constitute a breach of contract, because penalty charges for breach of contract are dodgy.

They'd rather say in their Ts & Cs that you can do what you like, but that charges may be levied for services.

So sorry, LittleVoice, that I can't answer more usefully than that.

PaulW922

I can't comment on the cleared funds bit, but it IS an offence to issue a cheque if you have reason to beleive it will not be paid. That is in England Wales. In other countries, such as France, bouncing a cheque is actually an offence. It is NOT an offence in E&W to mis-manage your bank account and have items returned unpaid. If it were I think many of us would be in jail!

C_Ronaldo

Shops are stopping to accept cheques, theres nothing we can do abot

MarkyMarkD

PaulW922 wrote: »

I can't comment on the cleared funds bit, but it IS an offence to issue a cheque if you have reason to beleive it will not be paid. That is in England Wales. In other countries, such as France, bouncing a cheque is actually an offence. It is NOT an offence in E&W to mis-manage your bank account and have items returned unpaid. If it were I think many of us would be in jail!

This is all very well, but any such law was drawn up before the advent of cheque guarantee cards. In practice, no guaranteed cheque written by the bank account's owner (in other words, not stolen) will be returned unpaid, so the person writing the cheque knowing they don't have the funds still isn't committing an offence IMHO.

[Deleted User]

We had someone buy £100 worth of stuff on a business cheque last week then a few days later bought another £74 worth of stuff using a business cheque. The cheques cleared but the bank has told us not to accept any more cheques from the named business account. Got to be dodgy.

BruceyBonus

My local Tesco Metro (where mainly older people shop) still accepts cheques - and talking to the staff there, that store has no plans to stop taking cheques in the near future.