Paid cash into account today ~ won't show for 3 days?!

shellsuit

I went to the bank today and deposited £44 in cash (from change jar) and a £10 crossed Postal Order in OH's name (it's a joint account).

I came home and checked online banking as I wanted to load some money onto our A.Express travel card.

Balance was the same as it had been before my trip to the bank....so I waited....logged in again....same as before :rolleyes:

Rang up my branch and was told that because I'd paid cash in with a 'cheque', the cash won't show until the 'cheque' shows, as it was one transaction

Apparantly I should have been told this at the desk, but wasn't, so for anybody who banks with Natwest and doesn't know this, you do now!

How silly is that?? Even my receipt says £44 cash and £10 cheque, so God knows why the cash doesn't show straight away!

welsh_lad_1985

That rule is utterly ridiculous and you should complain to your bank manager.
Cash should be credited and available immediately - understandably, cheques and postal orders will take a few days but that rule is one that i have never heard of before.
You should close your account and go to another bank - any other company will pay cash in immediately - anyway, what is stopping customers pay them in separately to make the cash clear immediately - the cashier should have told you!
Disgraceful!!!

ukdutypaid

Nope I've had this before.. Never pay in cash with any paper of anykind...
T'was always the way... Yes I found out the hard way as well!

Broke_Student

I guess I'm lucky - Natwest always advises to me pay may cash in seperate when I am at the counter.

My guess is the reason they do this is that they clear 'transactions' in one go.
For example, you could be paying a bill part cash and part cheque - the bank would need to make a single payment against the bill once all funds are cleared. Infact this is probably how you would want it in this case.
Another imaginary scenario is that you have one of those account with conditions stating you make a single £500+ deposit into your current account every month to get a higher interest rate as a bonus. If you chose to deposit your £480 wages cheque and top up £20 cash you would be furious if the bank declined you your bonus as you made two seperate deposits under £500. You would yourself count it as a single 'transaction'.

I think that's the bank's point of view but agree that it seems abit silly when depositing your own cash into your own account!

regularsaver1

shellsuit, do you know that Amercian Express are withdrawing their travelers cheque card?

Not every bank works in the way the OP stated, but a few do that use paying in slips. Thankfully the bank I work at does not use paying in slips and credits all cash and cheques straight away. I'm not a cashier but was at one time and think this would have been a nightmare.

amandathepanda

If you want the cash to show straight away you need to pay it in on its own. If you pay cash and a cheque in as one transaction it will not show until the following day, when the cash part will show as cleared and the cheque part of it as uncleared. The reason for this is that the cashier keys all cash only payments there and then and they go straight to the account. Any credits that have cheques with it have to be sent away to Natwest's processing centre but will show the same date as your receipt once they have been processed overnight. Hope this makes sense.

scottp_2

welsh_lad_1985 wrote: »

That rule is utterly ridiculous and you should complain to your bank manager.
Cash should be credited and available immediately - understandably, cheques and postal orders will take a few days but that rule is one that i have never heard of before.
You should close your account and go to another bank - any other company will pay cash in immediately - anyway, what is stopping customers pay them in separately to make the cash clear immediately - the cashier should have told you!
Disgraceful!!!

Jesus. Sorry but you are the customer I hate. Fair enough it is the cashiers fault for not saying to pay them in seperately but when you are doing thousands of transactions per day some slip through the net. Also, some people get annoyed when you tell them that it would credit straight away if they paid them in seperately as they will have heard it thousands of times before!
BTW, the credit is back dated to when you have paid the cash in and you recieve interest on it. Also, as far as RBS is concerned, any items coming out of the account on that day will go if you pay a mixed deposit (obviously as long as the cash element is enough to cover the items).

I think people over react far too much these days and start shouting and balling, threatening to close their accounts. If I'm being honest, the bank doesn't care unless you have a £1M loan or have loads of money sitting on deposit with them, so voting with your feet on an individual scale will not cause too much of a problem.

regularsaver1

scottp. you shouldn't be expected to tell every customer surely? as its in the T&C's, and as you say some people will get stroppy if you did say (like you can't win either way)

shellsuit

regularsaver1 wrote: »

shellsuit, do you know that Amercian Express are withdrawing their travelers cheque card?

Not every bank works in the way the OP stated, but a few do that use paying in slips. Thankfully the bank I work at does not use paying in slips and credits all cash and cheques straight away. I'm not a cashier but was at one time and think this would have been a nightmare.

Yes I knew they are withdrawing the card (thanks anyway! )

I've got till the end of the month to load it and the end of next month to spend it which will be easy peasy

regularsaver1

I guess it didn't really work out for them. I know some travel companies do their own though.

shellsuit

regularsaver1 wrote: »

I guess it didn't really work out for them. I know some travel companies do their own though.

I know Barclays and the Post Office do them.....I'll have a look at all the others for next years holiday