Can you accidentally deposit a cheque into the wrong current account?

Auti

I would go for bank transfer - what if cheque bounced?

Emmia

Barclays also use a card for deposit, and if you have (as I do) two current accounts with them, the machine asks which account should receive the money - and you pick.

Astronought

Auti said:

I would go for bank transfer - what if cheque bounced?

xylophone said:

CHAPS payment?

Unfortunately the ex-partner is resistant to any means of payment other than a cheque.

MDMD said:

Which bank are they paying into? The only one that uses paying in slips is HSBC but I even then you can request preprinted ones. Or change to a bank that uses the debit card approach ( all LBG brands, NatWest, Nationwide off the top f my head)

There is a NatWest and Nationwide branch near to my friend so it's good to know that they would allow a debit card to enter their account details, which may go a little way to allaying my friends anxieties.

wmb194 said:

I wouldn't worry about it. Banks and BS' have been doing this for a great many decades and they're very good at it. With Lloyds you can choose to use a paying in slip or card when making the deposit. 

If you're anxious I'd insist on giving it to a cashier and watch them process it rather than putting it in a machine or a hole in the wall. With Lloyds, if you then look at your account in internet banking you'll see the cheque in the 'pending' section.

My friend will definitely not want to trust a machine, but has read stories of payments going to the wrong account even when a cashier has entered the details, so I was hoping there was some liability on a bank or building society for when a cheque ends up in a current account with the wrong name. My friend has a very unusual surname, so it's extremely unlikely that it would accidentally go into a wrong account which just happened to have the same name as my friend.

wmb194

Astronought said:

Auti said:

I would go for bank transfer - what if cheque bounced?

xylophone said:

CHAPS payment?

Unfortunately the ex-partner is resistant to any means of payment other than a cheque.

MDMD said:

Which bank are they paying into? The only one that uses paying in slips is HSBC but I even then you can request preprinted ones. Or change to a bank that uses the debit card approach ( all LBG brands, NatWest, Nationwide off the top f my head)

There is a NatWest and Nationwide branch near to my friend so it's good to know that they would allow a debit card to enter their account details, which may go a little way to allaying my friends anxieties.

wmb194 said:

I wouldn't worry about it. Banks and BS' have been doing this for a great many decades and they're very good at it. With Lloyds you can choose to use a paying in slip or card when making the deposit. 

If you're anxious I'd insist on giving it to a cashier and watch them process it rather than putting it in a machine or a hole in the wall. With Lloyds, if you then look at your account in internet banking you'll see the cheque in the 'pending' section.

My friend will definitely not want to trust a machine, but has read stories of payments going to the wrong account even when a cashier has entered the details, so I was hoping there was some liability on a bank or building society for when a cheque ends up in a current account with the wrong name. My friend has a very unusual surname, so it's extremely unlikely that it would accidentally go into a wrong account which just happened to have the same name as my friend.

Why would it go into the wrong account? That's the whole point of pre-printed paying in slips and debit cards: the details are taken from them, not manually keyed.

Astronought

wmb194 said:

Astronought said:

Auti said:

I would go for bank transfer - what if cheque bounced?

xylophone said:

CHAPS payment?

Unfortunately the ex-partner is resistant to any means of payment other than a cheque.

MDMD said:

Which bank are they paying into? The only one that uses paying in slips is HSBC but I even then you can request preprinted ones. Or change to a bank that uses the debit card approach ( all LBG brands, NatWest, Nationwide off the top f my head)

There is a NatWest and Nationwide branch near to my friend so it's good to know that they would allow a debit card to enter their account details, which may go a little way to allaying my friends anxieties.

wmb194 said:

I wouldn't worry about it. Banks and BS' have been doing this for a great many decades and they're very good at it. With Lloyds you can choose to use a paying in slip or card when making the deposit. 

If you're anxious I'd insist on giving it to a cashier and watch them process it rather than putting it in a machine or a hole in the wall. With Lloyds, if you then look at your account in internet banking you'll see the cheque in the 'pending' section.

My friend will definitely not want to trust a machine, but has read stories of payments going to the wrong account even when a cashier has entered the details, so I was hoping there was some liability on a bank or building society for when a cheque ends up in a current account with the wrong name. My friend has a very unusual surname, so it's extremely unlikely that it would accidentally go into a wrong account which just happened to have the same name as my friend.

Why would it go into the wrong account? That's the whole point of pre-printed paying in slips and debit cards: the details are taken from them, not manually keyed.

I was referring to when the only paying in process appears to be to use a deposit slip which is not pre-printed, which my friend believes is the only way that his current bank allows. I'm sure that my friend would at least  triple check the details and triple check what a cashier did, but believe me, my friend's anxieties would still go through the roof with worry that something had been missed.

If they have to, then I'm sure they will open an account with a provider that uses a method like a debit card to automtically enter the details, but that would not be needed if there was a responsibility to ensure that a cheque was only paid into an account whose name matches the name on the cheque.

wmb194

Astronought said:

wmb194 said:

Astronought said:

Auti said:

I would go for bank transfer - what if cheque bounced?

xylophone said:

CHAPS payment?

Unfortunately the ex-partner is resistant to any means of payment other than a cheque.

MDMD said:

Which bank are they paying into? The only one that uses paying in slips is HSBC but I even then you can request preprinted ones. Or change to a bank that uses the debit card approach ( all LBG brands, NatWest, Nationwide off the top f my head)

There is a NatWest and Nationwide branch near to my friend so it's good to know that they would allow a debit card to enter their account details, which may go a little way to allaying my friends anxieties.

wmb194 said:

I wouldn't worry about it. Banks and BS' have been doing this for a great many decades and they're very good at it. With Lloyds you can choose to use a paying in slip or card when making the deposit. 

If you're anxious I'd insist on giving it to a cashier and watch them process it rather than putting it in a machine or a hole in the wall. With Lloyds, if you then look at your account in internet banking you'll see the cheque in the 'pending' section.

My friend will definitely not want to trust a machine, but has read stories of payments going to the wrong account even when a cashier has entered the details, so I was hoping there was some liability on a bank or building society for when a cheque ends up in a current account with the wrong name. My friend has a very unusual surname, so it's extremely unlikely that it would accidentally go into a wrong account which just happened to have the same name as my friend.

Why would it go into the wrong account? That's the whole point of pre-printed paying in slips and debit cards: the details are taken from them, not manually keyed.

I was referring to when the only paying in process appears to be to use a deposit slip which is not pre-printed, which my friend believes is the only way that his current bank allows. I'm sure that my friend would at least  triple check the details and triple check what a cashier did, but believe me, my friend's anxieties would still go through the roof with worry that something had been missed.

If they have to, then I'm sure they will open an account with a provider that uses a method like a debit card to automtically enter the details, but that would not be needed if there was a responsibility to ensure that a cheque was only paid into an account whose name matches the name on the cheque.

There are no non-preprinted deposit slips anymore. They were disposed of years ago because the authorities/banks were concerned about money laundering i.e. people paying cash into other people's accounts. Your friend is hopelessly out of date and really getting themselves into a tizzy over nothing. They will check the name(s) on the cheque against that of the account - that's always been part of paying cheques into an account.

If they don't have any they should try ordering some pre-printed paying in slips from their bank or have a look at the back of their cheque book as there are often some there. 

Which bank(s) are we talking about?

Section62

Auti said:

I would go for bank transfer - what if cheque bounced?

Then they tell the ex-partner the cheque hasn't been honoured and to try it again, or use a different payment method.

Payment by cheque is ideal in a situation of the type the OP describes.  Personally I'd only accept a cheque and wouldn't agree to someone paying a large amount of money into one of my accounts directly.

If the OP's friend is anxious about mistakes being made paying a cheque in, then presumably they wouldn't want to know about the risks of the ex-partner not making the payment, or sending a FP to the wrong person, or the payment arriving in the friend's account safely, but causing their bank to put a block on their account and/or debanking them.

A cheque provides a better audit trail for large sums of money, particularly in cases where there is some kind of dispute/disagreement.  Both sides can keep a photocopy/picture of the cheque before it gets paid in.  The money won't leave the ex-partner's account before the friend attempts to pay it in. If the bank applies the cheque to the wrong account* then it is the bank's fault. The cheque provides physical evidence for the friend that the ex-partner not only agreed to make the payment but had also actioned it.  And if the cheque did bounce due to lack of funds then in any subsequent legal action the ex-partner would have to explain why they handed over a cheque not knowing that it would be honoured.

In contrast, relying on a bank transfer means the ex-partner can claim to have sent the money with the friend not having an easy way of checking whether it was or wasn't sent.  The ex-partner could send the payment to the wrong account, putting the onus on the friend to prove they didn't get it.  All with very limited physical evidence to support claim and counterclaim.

(*if using a debit card or pre-printed paying-in slip the odds of this happening shouldn't keep anyone awake at night)

lr1277

Your friend has a few options:

1) One I didn't know about was paying in at the counter using debit card and possibly the paying in slip.

2) The paying-in machines in branch. The ones at HSBC, if memory serves, require your debit card and then give you a receipt.

3) Back in the day when I paid in cheques I did the following though I have no idea if it was useful. On the back of the cheque, I would write: account name and my account name, sort code and my sort code and account number and my account number. I would then add: please credit this cheque to the above account then I would sign the back. As others have suggested take a photocopy of the cheque (both sides if my suggestion is adopted). No cheque payment weent astray either because of or despite my addition.

Your friend can consider himself lucky. During the pandemic when everything was shutdown, I had to pay a cheque in with no branch access. So I had to post the cheque and a paying in slip to some central processing centre. That made me somewhat nervous but worked out fine.

XzavierWalnut

northwalesd said:

XzavierWalnut said:

I recently paid 2 cheques into a Halifax account, and the cashier showed me how to pay cheques in using the banks app, so no need to even go into the bank in future.

If the sum has 'more than a few zeroes', even Halifax's generous £5000 cheque limit is unlikely to cut it.

Cashier never mentioned that.

phillw

Auti said:

I would go for bank transfer - what if cheque bounced?

The same as if they refuse to make the bank transfer, or they say that they made the transfer but the money never arrives.

I would accept the cheque, visit a branch, go to a counter, ask to pay the cheque in, enter your debit card and pin, get a printed receipt & ask when the cheque will show up. When that time comes (it might be immediately) check that the cheque is showing in your account. If it does not, then make a complaint.

The cheque could bounce, but it should bounce quickly unless they have managed to steal a cheque book with the same name as theirs.