Cashing a USD cashiers cheque

jumpingjackd

Hi I have been sent a USD cashiers cheque for around $12,000. Any advice on the best place to cash it would be much appreciated.

I have banking with LLoyds TSB, spoke to them briefly and they will return to the States taking around six weeks and high fees. Can possibly open another account with Bank of Scotland or other

Thanks

eDicky

Americans seem to lack any concept that use of their USD checks is not a worldwide standard, and often refuse to send a bank transfer instead. But if that could be arranged and the check returned it would be faster and perhaps with lower fees, but they would still get you on the exchange rate.

There are several previous threads on this topic which you could search for, to see which banks might be best for cashing a USD check.

I don't know about a cashier's check, but US checks can often be signed over to another party, if there's anyone you trust in USA who could bank it then send you the funds cheaply using a service such as TransferWise.

jonesMUFCforever

Any bank who you open an account with, will almost certainly send the cheque for collection rather than negotiation because they will know naff all about you - you will have no track record with them.
So don't disregard Lloyds until you have to.

jumpingjackd

Thanks for the replies. Unfortunately its not possible to get the funds sent or bank transferred which is what Id have preferred,

jones Ill maybe just go see Lloyds tomorrow, thanks

System

How about a nice long weekend in NY?
TD Bank, Capital One and Santander are good options

TheBanker

eDicky wrote: »

Americans seem to lack any concept that use of their USD checks is not a worldwide standard, and often refuse to send a bank transfer instead. But if that could be arranged and the check returned it would be faster and perhaps with lower fees, but they would still get you on the exchange rate.

The irony is that Lloyds (or whoever) will post the cheque off to the states, and the bank in the states will send the funds back to Lloyds by electronic transfer.... so in the end this just takes much longer and costs everyone more.

I think Santander might be cheapest because they charge a flat fee of £10 (or used to last time I had a foreign cheque) whereas most banks charge a %. Remember that in addition to the £10, the correspondent bank (the bank in the US who hold an account for the UK bank) will deduct a fee to cover their processing costs.

Preedyboi

Maybe open a usd account in the uk and deposit the cheque into your usd account?

Then get a competitive rate by using a forex co such as Thomas Exchange to convert your dollars to sterling.

PaulW922

Getting cash on a $12000 cheque from a UK outlet will be difficult and expensive. I would just pay it into your Lloyds account and wait. Opening another account to do it a bit quicker is probably a waste of time as the same process applies. Six weeks is probably the bank being cautious.

jumpingjackd

Sorry to resurrect this post. Been with TSB for over 35 years. Deposited cheque and called to see if any progress. Was told cheque had been returned and to go to my "main bank".

Went to pick up cheque and they couldnt find it, said it must have been posted, but didnt know where from, who by.etc etc

16 days and many phone calls later cheque arrived today by post!

Anyway, back to square one!! Returning to US is not really an option.

Any other ideas gratefully received

agrinnall

Have you asked them why it was returned and what point in the process it had reached when that happened?

jonesMUFCforever

Could it be that the name on the bank account did not fully match the name on the cheque?
Banks are very stringent these days in dealing with any dollar cheques.