Depositing a Cheque in Dollars

mrdryan

I have recently received a cheque made out in Dollars and am having major problems trying to lodge it. I bank with Nationwide, and I was advised today that as it is not a clearing bank it can't be lodged. I then went into a branch of HSBC who wanted me to open a current account and deposit £500 per month (minimum) and then I could get a currency account. Does anyone know of a simpler approach where I can simply open a basic account and lodge the cheque?

agrinnall

The simple answer is to have the money sent electronically: quicker, cheaper and safer.

I'm guessing that your cheque falls foul of this Nationwide rule:

"Please note that some US Dollar cheques, which have been drawn on a US based bank, can only be sent for negotiation, and cannot be sent for collection. As Nationwide International does not offer a negotiation service, the cheque will be returned to you. If you are unsure about the required clearance method of your US Dollar cheque, please contact the issuing bank."

http://www.nationwideinternational.com/operating_files/pay_in/sterling_cheque_foreign.htm

If you don't have an account at another bank already you will need one to be able to pay in a cheque of any sort, but HSBC's solution sounds over the top unless you actually need a currency account (is this cheque a one-off payment or will it be a regular thing)? I'm afraid I don't know what the best solution is other than to go round the banks and ask them if they offer a negotiation service with US banks.

liviboy

Nationwide Building Society stopped accepting US Dollar cheques (or should that be checks) into their FlexAccount's etc. last year. Prior to that they would be sent and cleared as normal, after filling in a form and paying a small fee (I think it was £10). The money was usually credited after a few days but with an advisory that the payment wouldn't clear for anywhere up to 6 weeks and the money would be taken back if that were to happen.

The Nationwide decided whether it was sent for Collection or Negotiation, although they used HSBC as their intermediary as one of the USD cheques I deposited was returned unpaid and all the paperwork was from HSBC (the sending bank was not HSBC before anyone asks!)

My mum lives in the USA and I used to regularly cash USD cheques into my FlexAccount (Nationwide don't make it easy to send an electronic payment as they require a SWIFT Intermediary Code (which is an HSBC/Midland Bank code)...in the end I opened an RBS account to allow easy SWIFT/IBAN payments rather than waiting on the sending bank to request the intermediary code which delayed payments.

Westie983

Open a Halfax account online, they negotiate and collect foreign cheques, I'm sure Natwest and Barclays do both options too.

Halifax
Barclays
Natwest

keiran

I used to have a Citibank account, which was used solely for the purpose of depositing the odd foreign cheque with no fee...

They closed that account last year (along with others' accounts, I'm sure) as we were not profitable customers

jonesMUFCforever

Anyone with a basic account may have to wait a long time for any foreign cheque cashing.
As these accounts do not let you have any credit facilities they probably will not negotiate the cheque for you but collect the proceeds - maybe 4-6 weeks!

Naf

How much is it for? I remember when I worked at Santander, we would refuse to accept foreign cheques valued at less than £50 if memory serves. The excuse being they were not economical to process.

DrSaver

I deposited a cheque for a few hundred dollars at the Halifax on the recommedation of this forum. £8 fee and my account was credited the following day. There is a short form to fill in but it only takes a few minutes. It is because of this consistently good service that I have been using this bank for over 20 years.

eDicky

DrSaver wrote: »

I deposited a cheque for a few hundred dollars at the Halifax on the recommedation of this forum. £8 fee and my account was credited the following day. There is a short form to fill in but it only takes a few minutes. It is because of this consistently good service that I have been using this bank for over 20 years.

Could you tell us the exchange rate Halifax used to convert the USD to GBP and the date of transaction?