Cheques cleared but should I end item?

jimmyjim_uk

Need some advise please!!

I sold an item on ebay for £682.30. The person who won the bid has 0 feedback and less then 30 days old (UK bidder). They sent me a cheque for payment, which has now cleared.

I phoned my bank (halifax) today to ask if cheque could bounce or be fake now it has cleared. To my surprise they said yes. I asked if there is anyway way of confirming that the has not bounced or is fake, to be told NO (aren't we in 2005).

Whats the point of clearing a cheque, saying the funds are available for a possiblity that it called be recalled.

Should I post the item, or wait for definate confirmation that the cheque is OK. Also is it cheeky to ask the winning bidder to send a screen shot of there bank account indicating the funds have left there account (all sensitive material starred out of course)?

I want to send this item asap but don't want to be out of pocket!!!

Any advise much appreciated!!!

pug_in_a_bed

You could wait months to hear the cheque is ok; cheques can actually bounce weeks after the transaction; this has hapened to me. I have also had a cheque cancelled after weeks - although the banks normally fine the individual for issuing a cheque that bounces.

I hate cheques, but unfortunately your cheque has now cleared so the item should be sent out.

Take a photocopy for piece of mind, keep the buyers details such as phone number and address just in case. You'll just have to trust everything's ok, nine times out of ten it will be.

This is the annoying thing about cheques, very few people are actually aware of the lack of rotection with a cheque.

How have your communications with the buyer been? Pleasant, friendly etc? Frequent commnunications and so on may help you feel better about the transaction. They have 0 f/b so they in turn may also be worried you're not going to send the item.

Hope everything works out!

supersaver_2

a cheque can actually be returned up to 6 months after it has originally been banked so you may have to take a chance with this one. I may be wrong but is there not an additional service you can request when banking a cheque that some additional checks are done to ensure the cheque cannot bounce weeks down the line?

jimmyjim_uk

Thanks people. Communications with the buyer have been friendly and they have fully cooperated so far. I'm just going to have to risk it. 6 months is a long time for a cheque to be returned. I'm going to stop accepting cheques from now on.

angelcake

Perhaps only accept postal order when you know something is going to go for a lot! or paypal even......just thinking aloud as hopefully you won't have a problem!

g33za

Does the same apply with bank transfer?

fatboyonadiet

Same situ but with a phone for £370, rung the bank (Natwest) who said nothing can happen after 10 days so left it that long then posted, have it on record now too.

soolin

Cheques are an absolute pain, cleared for funds does not mean cleared against problems as I have found it the past. HOpefully the banking industry is going to address the matter in another year or so (if we all bother to wait that long!) but meanwhile this news article although a little old is quite interesting:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/moneybox/3727162.stm

Cheques are way down my list of preferred payment options and I have been tempted to stop offering them as a payment option altogether, but just feel I still need some flexibility in my payment terms.

In answer to other questions, you cannot do anything to guarantee clearance on a cheque, you used to be able to 'special' a cheque but that only cleared funds quickly, it didn't clear against fraud. Bank transfers seem safer, I haven't yet come across an incidence where one has been reversed, but maybe someone else has?

Soo

soolin

fatboyonadiet wrote:

Same situ but with a phone for £370, rung the bank (Natwest) who said nothing can happen after 10 days so left it that long then posted, have it on record now too.

That was the advice given in The Financial mail on Sunday. If you can get agreement on a recorded line from a call centre clerk that the cheque is cleared, and it later gets withdrawn, you can prove that you acted in good faith and on the advice of the bank. If you can prove you acted on bank advice then the bank should stand the loss.

It was also rather suggested there and elsewehere that call centre clerks are happy to confirm clearance on the phone, as they act on what the computer tells them and if it shows cleared for funds then that is clear as far as they are concerned. Just ask if the line is recorded !

Soo

bleugh

under no circumstances accept what a person says on the phone unless you've recorded the information yourself, or got this in writing

when they say 'phone calls may be recorded', conviniently all the recordings that would come out in favour of a customer go missing!

bleugh

............you could ask 'em to direct bank transfer, i don't think theres any way that it can bounce