Advice on sending a large Building Society cheque in the post

thewinelake66

OK, so DD wanted to open up a high interest account with Tesco bank. However, they have a strange rule that says only a single lump sum can be deposited.
Problem here is that Nationwide (where her money was) will only allow electronic funds transfer of up to £25,000 (and she wanted to do £60,000).
So she asked them to make a cheque out to her in her name and send that to Tesco (this is a suggested method from Tesco).
However, she foolishly sent the cheque second class signed-for on a Friday.
The Royal Mail is very vague about tracking on this - doesn't show that an item has even been posted, but promises an update only on delivery.
We're now at Tuesday - the cheque was posted at 5pm on a Friday, so it's unclear as to whether 3 working days (that includes Saturday) have elapsed or not.
Question is - should she request that the cheque is stopped?
I am guessing that there is a very small chance that the cheque will be lost or stolen. However, if it has been stolen, it will take the crooks a day or two to do something with it. So the extra delay of 2nd class could be all they need to make stopping the cheque impossible.

Any advice from the panel?

I understand that we're looking at a 1 in 10,000 chance here, probably, so don't want to panic, but if something needs to be done, then it likely needs to be done first thing tomorrow?

WillPS

Royal Mail advise that you need to wait 10 postage days before an item is considered lost. Presuming you missed the last collection on Friday, it would have been collected on Saturday, yesterday was the 'next day', today was 'second day' and tomorrow will be the third day. The tenth postage day would be Thu 10th.

Be patient, it'll most likely get there, and in a worst case scenario if it's been stolen, it's unlikely that a mail thief would be able to cash it anyway

If for some reason the cheque is delivered without being signed for then you can apply for a refund from Royal Mail too.

[Deleted User]

I'm guessing it's a fixed rate saver - so a one and done deposit isn't strange at all.

She realistically needs to allow at least three clear working days for delivery - I'd expect the tracking updated anytime from today (Wednesday) onwards. 

Bridlington1

I appreciate it's not much use to you now but it may be of use in the future. There are some banks that let you make a much larger faster payment in one go over the phone or in branch. E.g. I seem to recall Santander lets you send up to £100k in one go by phone/branch and Metro up to £250k. 

EDIT: There's a list of the various faster payment limits on this website:
https://www.wearepay.uk/what-we-do/payment-systems/faster-payment-system/transaction-limits/

boingy

thewinelake66 said:

OK, so DD wanted to open up a high interest account with Tesco bank. However, they have a strange rule that says only a single lump sum can be deposited.
Problem here is that Nationwide (where her money was) will only allow electronic funds transfer of up to £25,000 (and she wanted to do £60,000).
So she asked them to make a cheque out to her in her name and send that to Tesco (this is a suggested method from Tesco).
However, she foolishly sent the cheque second class signed-for on a Friday.
The Royal Mail is very vague about tracking on this - doesn't show that an item has even been posted, but promises an update only on delivery.
We're now at Tuesday - the cheque was posted at 5pm on a Friday, so it's unclear as to whether 3 working days (that includes Saturday) have elapsed or not.
Question is - should she request that the cheque is stopped?
I am guessing that there is a very small chance that the cheque will be lost or stolen. However, if it has been stolen, it will take the crooks a day or two to do something with it. So the extra delay of 2nd class could be all they need to make stopping the cheque impossible.

Any advice from the panel?

I understand that we're looking at a 1 in 10,000 chance here, probably, so don't want to panic, but if something needs to be done, then it likely needs to be done first thing tomorrow?

The cheque will be fine - you're just being impatient!
Give it 3 or 4 more days. 

thewinelake66

Thanks for all the reassurance - DD went to Nationwide this morning and got the same from them.
It's just annoying that Tesco Bank don't support Payee Verification yet. They seem to have been making all kinds of excuses on their customer forum, and swear blind that they'll TRY to get it done this year mumble mumble.

thewinelake66

All resolved - the cheque arrived without the status on the Royal Mail website giving a clue that it had been.

sausage_time

That's great @thewinelake66!  Thanks for taking the time to post a follow-up.

WillPS

thewinelake66 said:

All resolved - the cheque arrived without the status on the Royal Mail website giving a clue that it had been.

https://personal.help.royalmail.com/app/answers/detail/a_id/19910/~/my-royal-mail-signed-for®-item-arrived-without-a-signature-being-taken