Lost Cheque

JohnForeman

I paid a cheque into my account at a bank and had the book stamped and dated. I watched the process. The money did not turn up in my account and there was no communication from the bank. I have been to the bank and showed them the receipt. They have no record of the cheque or that it was paid in. They say I must get a replacement cheque, but that is difficult.  I have tried to find out the banks written policy but cannot find it and their "Help line" is a limited AI that does not have answers. The bank is Lloyds. What can I do?

[Deleted User]

Ask for a cheque re-issue (they will probably delay which they check it was not cashed) and put in a complaint to the bank. I once deposited 2 cheques in an envelope at the ATM and the bank only cashed one, they chucked me £25 as a courtesy for not checking the envelope properly. In future, deposit cheques in ATMs that scan your cheque or even via app/photograph, it's much safer

eskbanker

JohnForeman said:

I paid a cheque into my account at a bank and had the book stamped and dated. I watched the process. The money did not turn up in my account and there was no communication from the bank. I have been to the bank and showed them the receipt. They have no record of the cheque or that it was paid in. They say I must get a replacement cheque, but that is difficult.  I have tried to find out the banks written policy but cannot find it and their "Help line" is a limited AI that does not have answers. The bank is Lloyds. What can I do?

I'd raise a formal complaint - when they've accepted the cheque and issued written notification of this by stamping a passbook, then it's their responsibility to deal with it thereafter, so should be liable for any loss when within their control.

I can see that there could be shades of grey involved though, depending on the value and issuer of the cheque, i.e. if it was a high value one or an easily-replaced one then I can see why they might ask you to arrange a replacement, but that still doesn't make it your responsibility IMHO....

maxsteam

You should enquire with the people who wrote the cheque about whether it has been debited from their account. If it has, you should ask them to obtain a copy of the processed cheque from their bank and show this to your bank. If it hasn't, you should ask them to cancel the cheque and issue a new one.

If you don't want to contact the people who wrote the cheque, you are unlikely to get the money. 

JohnForeman

I did say it would be difficult to get a replacement cheque, here is why: The cheque is membership payment for a society. I do not have the contact details of the member and he lives in the USA. The contact information is held by our membership Sec under our DPA policy. The cheque was issued by a friend of the member who lives in the UK and we do not have their contact details. So I have to get our membership sec. to contact the chap in the USA to get the contact details of the person in the UK. Then contact them to find out if the cheque was cleared, presumably into someone other account. If it did not clear, get them to do another cheque. If it did clear, go back to the bank and complain and see what happens. All this for £29.00.

eskbanker

For a £29 cheque I'd expect Lloyds to suck it up and credit the account without expecting the customer to jump through hoops to correct the bank's error, and would be surprised if a formal complaint didn't elicit this response.

Just to check, the references in your first post to paying into "my account" hopefully didn't literally mean a personal account, but a proper society/club one?