Foreign cheque, payable in UK?

newsmonkey

I'm due to be paid for something as a cheque in euros drawn on a French bank account (temp work done in France, no French bank account).

Can foreign cheques, in a currency other than sterling, be paid into a British bank account? What sort of clearing cycle/fees/exchange rates should I expect?

I'm with Halifax if that's of any significance.

Ta,

Nm.

davidcampbell

dont know about halifax specifically but eg for abbey would cost you £10 to cash it

not sure about exchange rate

clearance, i would imagine 3-5 working days

DC

newsmonkey

Tried Googling it and got stuff from Barclays, Smile, Co-op and Nationwide that suggest 5-8 weeks!

Guess I'll have to ask Halifax.

Basic scenario: Monkey works in France until end of June, leaves country end June and wants to close bank acct, monkey doesn't get paid until mid-July, so monkey asks for cheque. Anyone think of an alternative? International transfer perhaps?

davidcampbell

hmm good point. i might have been thinking about a telegraphic transfer timescale actually. sorry.

foreign cheques aint my thing so was just guessing. (sorry)


you could ask them to tt it over rather than giving you a cheque? would cost a bit more but if a cheq is going to take somewhere between 5-8 weeks then a tt would be a lot quicker?

DC

gabriel

You should confirm with Halifax but I think their rates are 30p for every £100 with a minimum charge of £15 and capped at £60, plus post/telex/correspondent charges (don't know how much they would be)

Tt transfers will cost you £6 to receive, but they will also probably cost your french employer more than a cheque. However even considering the costs this would probably be the best way to do it if possible.

I imagine that paypal isn't an option.. That would be the easiest and cheapest way

Fatboy_NSS

Abbey charge £10. If it's under £2500 and your account's been open more than approx 6 months you'll be allowed access almost straight away. If it's more or into a new account then you would have to wait for the cheque to clear which is usually 2 weeks from Europe, but can be up to 6 weeks (depends how long the issuing bank spends thinking about it before clearing it!)

You could always ask the company to get you a cheque in sterling from their bank. The fee would probably be around the same as paying a foreign cheque in to your bank over here, but it would be drawn on a bank in London so it would clear in the same timescale as a UK cheque.

davidcampbell

Abbey charge £10. If it's under £2500 and your account's been open more than approx 6 months you'll be allowed access almost straight away

that must be what i was thinking of. thanks F.NSS, thought i was going mad for a while making up rules

jonesMUFCforever

Whatever you do with it - I think you will be restricted to your existing bank.
Negotiation of cheques is only done to customers of good standing. They give you the money in a few days with a proviso that if the cheque is returned unpaid that they can debit your account again.
Eric

gabriel

ejones999 wrote:

Negotiation of cheques is only done to customers of good standing. They give you the money in a few days with a proviso that if the cheque is returned unpaid that they can debit your account again.
Eric

Halifax will do negotiation if you've already cashed a few foreign cheques with them, it comes out cheaper at 25p per £100, minimum payment of £5 and max £40. Otherwise they will do a "Collection", which is slower and more expensive as I've described above.

See:
http://www.bankofscotlandinternational.com/ouraccounts/content/ouraccounts_charges.html#payto