Depositing foreign cheques into a building society account

Don't_Know_Joe

My late partner worked a short spell in Belgium and accrued a small Belgian pension which I became the beneficiary of. I receive a monthly cheque (payment) in the post from the Belgian pension authorities and for many years, my high street bank accepted this cheque. Due to its branch closure, I opened a new account with a building society that had a local branch. When I presented this cheque, the building society said they cannot accept it because it is a "foreign cheque". The cheque is a typical system-generated corporate style cheque (not a hand written personal cheque), the value of which is stated in pounds sterling, and along the bottom is also printed that it is payable at NatWest Bank with their London address.
Hence, I am wondering, is a cheque deemed "foreign" just because the organisation from where it comes from is in another country? And despite it being payable at a UK high street bank?
Are there different rules about why a high street bank can accept these, but a building society cannot?

HobgoblinBT

If the cheque is denominated in pounds sterling and drawn on a bank account in the U.K. it is a U.K. cheque.  If it is drawn in a currency other than pounds sterling eg Euros and payable in the U.K. it is still a U.K. cheque but needs to be presented through the London Currency Clearing Scheme, or whatever it is called or has been replaced with(I left my job in banking 4 years ago so my knowledge may be out of date). Not all banks and building societies have access to this scheme, or may deem it such a minor request that it is not commercially viable to deal with the small number of requests to access this service.

Your solution is to send the cheque, together with a pay in slip to your high street bank by Royal Mail for them to process, or enquire via your bank’s telephone banking service if their arrangement with the Post Office allows you to use a local post office to deposit the cheque into your bank account.

retiredbanker1

Does the cheque have on the bottom a full sort code and 8 digit account number (+ possibly a cheque number on the left)?

If so then it might be payable through your building society.

If it is not - a lot of International cheques might have an English bank as agent but in reality need to be sent away for negotiation/collection. If this is the case you will be turned away by your society. In fact it might be prudent to ask the pension administrators if they can make some sort of digital payment in future as even high street banks are starting to do away with cheque negotiations.

wmb194

Don't_Know_Joe said:

My late partner worked a short spell in Belgium and accrued a small Belgian pension which I became the beneficiary of. I receive a monthly cheque (payment) in the post from the Belgian pension authorities and for many years, my high street bank accepted this cheque. Due to its branch closure, I opened a new account with a building society that had a local branch. When I presented this cheque, the building society said they cannot accept it because it is a "foreign cheque". The cheque is a typical system-generated corporate style cheque (not a hand written personal cheque), the value of which is stated in pounds sterling, and along the bottom is also printed that it is payable at NatWest Bank with their London address.
Hence, I am wondering, is a cheque deemed "foreign" just because the organisation from where it comes from is in another country? And despite it being payable at a UK high street bank?
Are there different rules about why a high street bank can accept these, but a building society cannot?

Can you ask to be paid electronically?

You may have had a cashier who's overthinking things; does the cheque have the usual cheque number, six digit sort code and eight digit account number in magnetic, machine readable text along the bottom?

Cloth_of_Gold

Does your bank or building society have an app that allows you to photo the cheque and pay it in to your account using the app? If so, you could try that. Or do they have a machine in your local branch that allows cheques to be paid in? If so, try that. As others have said though, for the future it would be best to sk the administrators if they can pay you electronically.

pridehappy

I’m guessing it’s probably because smaller building societies have less facilities than the likes of the high street banks.

If it’s under £1000 each month, I’d open a Starling Bank current account and use mobile cheque imaging to deposit into there. Or, some high street banks might allow you to deposit at the Post Office.