Stimulus Cheque, please help - unable to cash at Nationwide bank

MNicholas

Hi, I'm posting a message on behalf of my parents and hope some kind soul can help please.
My father is retired from the US Air Force and is living here with his wife and family. As such, he's eligible for the stimulus payments that have been paid to US citizens. So my parents have received a couple of cheques so far but have been unable to deposit them - being that their Building Society (Nationwide) no longer cashes them. They don't know what to do so can anyone recommend a service that will convert foreign cheques (with or without a fee)? Because of the extreme difficulty in setting up a joint bank account in the first place here in the UK, they're unwilling to open a new account simply to deposit the cheques alone (it's been nothing short of nightmare just to get an account with Nationwide, and they were without money for an extended period of time, not something they are able to risk doing again).
Many thanks.

Socajam

I have a friend with a NatWest Bank account who have no problems depositing US cheques into their account.
Bear in mind the cheques take a while to clear. 

[Deleted User]

 Hsbc but you will need to open an account. Costs about £12 

 Thats the reason we didnt shift to nationwide despite their good accounts. They wont cash foreign cheques and we receive them regularly. 

jonesMUFCforever

No account = no chance of getting the USD cheques cashed.
Nationwide Building society made a decision some time ago to stop accepting dollar cheques. If they are not happy with Nationwide they could switch their accounts to a bank that will accept them.
As far as I am aware he could bank both cheques together and incur one charge for both cheques (based on sterling value).However he needs to get his skates on - banks will only accept foreign cheques if they are less than 5 months old giving them time to negotiate them before they go stale or out of date.

Thrugelmir

There'll be fees for depositing foreign cheques plus a considerable time lag in obtaining clearance. 

born_again

Putt in a frame and hang it on the wall.

Cashing this will cause some interesting questions from the bank and also mean you get reported to the US tax authorities by the UK bank.
FATCA....

jonesMUFCforever

born_again said:

Putt in a frame and hang it on the wall.

Cashing this will cause some interesting questions from the bank and also mean you get reported to the US tax authorities by the UK bank.
FATCA....

Notwithstanding the reams and reams of forms the bank  will send to you to complete regarding this .

John_

Why not open a USD account and pay it in?

Ballard

born_again said:

Putt in a frame and hang it on the wall.

Cashing this will cause some interesting questions from the bank and also mean you get reported to the US tax authorities by the UK bank.
FATCA....

Presuming that they advised the bank that they are US citizens when they opened the account I don’t see why this would raise any awkward questions and FATCA would already be aware of them. 

born_again

Ballard said:

born_again said:

Putt in a frame and hang it on the wall.

Cashing this will cause some interesting questions from the bank and also mean you get reported to the US tax authorities by the UK bank.
FATCA....

Presuming that they advised the bank that they are US citizens when they opened the account I don’t see why this would raise any awkward questions and FATCA would already be aware of them. 

Well OP parents need a new account to pay it into. So history with Nationwide is not applicable. 
Good thread her on this subject
https://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=98010.0

Ballard

born_again said:

Ballard said:

born_again said:

Putt in a frame and hang it on the wall.

Cashing this will cause some interesting questions from the bank and also mean you get reported to the US tax authorities by the UK bank.
FATCA....

Presuming that they advised the bank that they are US citizens when they opened the account I don’t see why this would raise any awkward questions and FATCA would already be aware of them. 

Well OP parents need a new account to pay it into. So history with Nationwide is not applicable. 
Good thread her on this subject
https://talk.uk-yankee.com/index.php?topic=98010.0

Presumably they will advise their new bank that they are US citizens so I stand by my post.