Business account that can take US dollar cheques?

nelbows

Help, a US company that we did some work for has finally paid us... by sending a US dollar cheque through the post.
Our business bank account is Transferwise, which is great for foreign currencies but refuses point blank to accept a cheque.
It's made out to the company name, so I assume we can't cash into one of our personal accounts.
I hope that big banks would be able to process cheques but Santander and HSBC don't have any specific info online, aren't answering calls, and have either frozen new business accounts, or are taking weeks to process applications.
Does anyone know of a bank that definitely can accept USD cheques, and is accepting new applicants for accounts? Or can anyone suggest a better solution?
All thoughts very welcome!

Lomast

Can you get the company to reissue the cheque?I
 We had this issue once and although hsbc could take it for us it was going to take 6 weeks and cost quite a lot and we already had an account with them.
 What we managed to do was find an fx company that would pay us but we had to get the cheque made payable to them

Savvy_Sue

I don't know what their opening service is like, but Barclays used to do this. Not sure if NatWest do too, but I know DS1 gets $ payments into that account. 

Socajam

Natwest takes US cheques - I deposit them in my account, which is a personal account.
I have been doing this for years along with having money wired from a US bank to my Natwest account.

jonesMUFCforever

OP To pay the cheque into a bank account you need a BUSINESS account to pay it into, then you need to phone your business manager and tell him/her that you have this USD cheque and what you are required to do to be able to pay it in.
NB This is not the same process as a personal account cheque - you may find them refusing you even after opening a business account.

nelbows

Thanks Lomast - I'm having a go. But according to the postmark, they sent the cheque even after we told them we couldn't accept it. So I fear they're not inclined to be helpful.
Good to know re Barclays, Savvy-Sue. Tried them and unfortunately have a waiting time of over 1 hour on business account calls and won't let us apply online.
Thanks SocaJam - will investigate Natwest's business accounts.
In the meantime, I've started the clock on HSBC's 6-week wait for an account.....

nelbows

Ah, Natwest are doing new business accounts only for existing customers :-(