Can a Cheque be paid into a Savings bank account? (instead of a current)

Danny_G

Can cheques be paid into saving bank accounts?


(the cheque is a cheque in US dollars, and this will have a fee for them to process it, convert it, and might take longer to process)



but can it be paid into a savings bank account, over the cashier?

Such as,
Santanders saving account, or RBS savings account?


(instead of a current account)

PeacefulWaters

With the odd exception, yes.

bowlhead99

Danny_G wrote: »

(the cheque is a cheque in US dollars, and this will have a fee for them to process it, convert it, and might take longer to process)

but can it be paid into a savings bank account, over the cashier?

Such as,
Santanders saving account, or RBS savings account?

Banks have different types of products and each of them work in different ways. There isn't a Santander account just called 'saving account'.

For example if I was a Santander account customer and was looking for a savings account, I might pick the eSaver instead of the Everyday Saver because it has a higher interest rate.

However the reason the bank offers a better rate on the 'e'Saver is because it is designed to be opened and operated online, and funded with one-off online or standing order transfers from your other santander accounts (or maybe from accounts at other banks which can make electronic transfers). You manage the account in your own time online and they don't have to employ people in branches or on telephone banking to deal with the account for you. A person in a branch might help you fill out a form to get the account but then after that you're on your own.

So, as 'branch' is not one of the options listed under 'Managing your account', I doubt they intend to have people working the cashiers desk accepting cheques into that account, especially foreign currency cheques which need to be negotiated and cleared through their US partner. They are giving you a higher rate on that account because it is lower effort for them to offer an online account than it is to offer branch-based or telephone-based services.

I've never tried putting a foreign cheque into an eSaver (or an Everday Saver either) but how you can operate the account is usually listed in the terms of the account. The fact that the bank's general terms and conditions will have a processing time for depositing cheques (and maybe a longer processing time for foreign currency cheques requiring effort to clear them into a sterling account), does not say anything about whether they will take a currency cheque into your savings account. So you have to check the T&C for the individual product, and if it is silent on the matter (because paying in currency cheques is relatively uncommon) then you will have to just ask them.

So PeacefulWaters is right that cheques can be paid into savings accounts with exceptions, but you would need to confirm with your own bank whether their savings accounts (and the specific type of saving account which you opened with them) are exceptions. Cheques are an increasingly unpopular way of paying people these days and foreign currency makes it more complex. I don't know if the 'exceptions' are 1% or 99%.

colsten

Duplicate of https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/comment/71957692#Comment_71957692