Unpaid cheque, debited account

anrufer

Hi, I got a cheque from HMRC with Tax return of £604 . I paid in into my Natwest account. Some days later I received a letter from Natwest with the cheque informing me that it has been returned unpaid because is out of date, and the amount has been debited (deducted)to my account.
What to do next please? How to recover my money.
Thanks.

Ballard

You need to contact the payer (HMRC) to ask them to send another cheque. You will almost certainly have been charged by NatWest so you could ask that HMRC reimburse that too if you feel that they are at fault.

Flobberchops

Most banks have (at their discretion) a 6-month policy for cheques although the cheque itself is legally valid for 6 years.

Your options now would be to try cashing the cheque at a different bank if you have one, use a high-street money shop to cash the cheque instantly (prepare to pay a borderline unreasonable fee), or contact HMRC to send a new cheque. The last option is probably the one I'd try first.

jonesMUFCforever

First wait for the cheque to be returned to you by Nat West.
Then write a letter to HMRC saying the cheque was returned and could they issue you with a new cheque.

OP must be loaded if they can wait 6 months or more before banking any cheque.

MDMD

HMRC's cheques are printed with the words on them to the effect that it must be presented (cashed) within 6 months of issue date. If they are paid in after this they will return unpaid.

A call to HMRC or posting the old one back and they will reissue (despite rejecting the old one they will take a few weeks)

agrinnall

And when you do get the new cheque don't leave it lying around for over 6 months before trying to pay it in again.

anrufer

jonesMUFCforever wrote: »

First wait for the cheque to be returned to you by Nat West.
Then write a letter to HMRC saying the cheque was returned and could they issue you with a new cheque.

OP must be loaded if they can wait 6 months or more before banking any cheque.

Not loaded but abroad,
thanks for your reply:)

anrufer

Thanks guys for your replies, I was going to speak to HMRC anyway.

Someone can tell me why Natwest has debited my account and how to get my money back into my acc please?

stclair

anrufer wrote: »

Thanks guys for your replies, I was going to speak to HMRC anyway.

Someone can tell me why Natwest has debited my account and how to get my money back into my acc please?

If the cheque was more than 6 months old they would reverse the payment. You need to speak to HMRC to issue you with another one.

https://supportcentre.natwest.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/1495/~/how-long-are-cheques-valid-for%3F

ChiefGrasscutter

As already stated:

You paid the cheque in to your account and it appeared on your online banking
It was not yet a 'cleared' transaction as cheques takes x days to clear.
Upon inspection by Nat West it fell outside their criterion for accepting cheques - which for pretty well all banks is 6 months.
So the amount was taken back out of your account.
In reality though the money never was in your account - it was just a figure representing the future value which would be coming into your account after clearing of the cheque was added into your online banking.
The more strict way of doing this would be for the banks not to add cheques onto online banking until they had been fully cleared - some 5 days+ of so later.

Answer to: How to get the money back into the account?
Is: Get HMRC to issue a new cheque is the only way

anrufer

ChiefGrasscutter wrote: »

As already stated:

You paid the cheque in to your account and it appeared on your online banking
It was not yet a 'cleared' transaction as cheques takes x days to clear.
Upon inspection by Nat West it fell outside their criterion for accepting cheques - which for pretty well all banks is 6 months.
So the amount was taken back out of your account.
In reality though the money never was in your account - it was just a figure representing the future value which would be coming into your account after clearing of the cheque was added into your online banking.
The more strict way of doing this would be for the banks not to add cheques onto online banking until they had been fully cleared - some 5 days+ of so later.

Answer to: How to get the money back into the account?
Is: Get HMRC to issue a new cheque is the only way

Got it, thank you for your answer, I am not used to cheques