Are tesco bank breaking the law?

sjmuk

I've recently deposited a cheque into my tesco bank savings account, after a full week the balance is still not available. I contacted them and they have told me with their savings accounts cheques take a minimum of 7 and maximum of 10 working days to clear. This seems odd, having checked the BBA banking code and Cheque/Credit clearing it States very clearly that for current accounts the MAXIMUM time for withdrawal based on 2-4-6 is 4 working days, and for savings accounts the MAXIMUM time for withdrawal is 6 working days based on 2-6-6. Having pointed out these maximum timescales to tesco they won't budge and state its going to remain at 7-10 working days. Are they allowed to do this, or this just another example of banks not being held to account for flouting the law?

Zanderman

Surely 'after a full week' there have only been 5 working days. And the 2-6-6 works on working days, so you need to allow over a week. And if you deposited the cheque on a Saturday it would be 10 full days before the 6 working days were up.

When you spoke to them and they mentioned 7-10 days was that really working days, or just days?

And how did you deposit the cheque? Some deposit routes may add a couple of days on.

sjmuk

To clarify, their 7-10 days is indeed business/working days, not just days. This has been clarified by a couple of people at their end. Thus, if a cheque is paid in on Monday, the earliest for withdrawal is a week on Wednesday, the latest 2 weeks from the date of deposit. This goes against the banking code. They received my cheque on 22nd March, it will not clear until earliest 31st March, latest 5th April, I.e 7-10 business days.

PeacefulWaters

Ignore the staff. What do the t&c say and what's the reality?

Tiexen

Good news:

A new and quicker way of clearing cheques that uses 21st century technology is going to be introduced across the banking industry.

The new process will involve images of cheques being exchanged between the relevant banks and building societies rather than the paper cheques being physically moved around the country.

The clearing process will be speeded up as a result, with cheques clearing at the end of the next weekday after being paid in, as opposed to the six weekdays it currently takes

Zanderman

sjmuk wrote: »

To clarify, their 7-10 days is indeed business/working days, not just days. This has been clarified by a couple of people at their end. Thus, if a cheque is paid in on Monday, the earliest for withdrawal is a week on Wednesday, the latest 2 weeks from the date of deposit. This goes against the banking code. They received my cheque on 22nd March, it will not clear until earliest 31st March, latest 5th April, I.e 7-10 business days.

If your cheque was paid in on the 22nd, the banking code's 6 working days aren't up until tomorrow, or maybe the next day if you don't count the day you paid it in (depends how you paid it in).

Either way, whatever the staff tell you, the first deadline isn't up until tomorrow, so why worry now? They certainly haven't broken the 'law' yet.

sjmuk

Because as already stated, they have told me the EARLIEST it can clear is Friday and the latest next Wednesday, so they will indeed have surpassed the banking codes, if friday by 1 day, if wednesday by 4 days, the limits are clear within the code rherefore the question still stands, are they breaking the law? The terms and conditions for my savings account mention absolutely nothing regarding cheque deposits.

Shakin_Steve

Banking codes are not 'the law', they are codes of practice. I would have expected Tesco to work within these guidelines, but they are not compelled to.

sjmuk

Thank you Steve, appreciate that response. That's what I wanted to know, simply whether these were guidelines or set in stone.

Zanderman

sjmuk wrote: »

Because as already stated, they have told me the EARLIEST it can clear is Friday and the latest next Wednesday, so they will indeed have surpassed the banking codes, if friday by 1 day, if wednesday by 4 days, the limits are clear within the code rherefore the question still stands, are they breaking the law? The terms and conditions for my savings account mention absolutely nothing regarding cheque deposits.

Short answer, on current evidence is NO.
Firstly because it probably isn't the 'law', it's a banking code.
Secondly, because the code deadline hasn't been reached yet, so you have absolutely no evidence that they won't honour it (starting your thread after they've missed the deadline would have be more logical - to date nothing has been done wrong)
Thirdly, the only indication you have of any problem is that when you've rung up customer reps at Tesco they've told you something that doesn't tally with the code. But they may be talking rubbish (banking customer reps often do). - the deadline may well be met, whatever they say.
Base your worries on what actually happens, not what someone has told you will happen!
(I'm not sure why you've even rung them up to ask about this, as the normal deadline hasn't even passed!)

PeacefulWaters

Page 4 is your guide.

https://www.tescobank.com/assets/sections/savings/pdf/tesco-instant-access-terms-and-conditions.pdf?_=cachebuster20072016

It is the law. Contract law.