Bank Charge of £690!!

cassy

i know this may not be the case but could this be the banks free for converting to £.... i know this still seems alot but could it be a % of cheque amount

trytospendless

I could understand if they had stated that, or indeed anything remotely relating to a possible charge based on the amount paid in, in the paperwork he signed when submitting the cheque, but it didnt.

If these are charges that people MAY incure then surely its the banks responcability to tell you rarther than it be assumed, especially when the cheque bounced and you dont have the money you paid in!!

jamesd

That makes sense. Today it takes 8,358 Pounds to buy the 10,500 Euros to repay the bank's Euro account. 8,358 - 7,735 = 623. Add in the effect of the bank's currency conversion profit margin and the different exchange rates at various times of day and the numbers fit.

Foreign checks can be accepted by negotiation, with recourse or for collection.. If by negotiation the money will be paid immediately but may be reclaimed later.

To see why this makes sense, consider what would happen if they didn't do this: someone could deposit a cheque and decide whether to bounce the cheque or pay it depending on whether the exchange rate moved in their favor or not, effectively cheating the bank.

trytospendless

Yes i agree with you in principal BUT:

1 - The funds were never cleared for withdrawl
2 - Nowhere on any paperwork or verbally did anyone from the bank tell my husband there could be charges related to the exchange rate.

inmypocketnottheirs

trytospendless wrote: »

Yes i agree with you in principal BUT:

1 - The funds were never cleared for withdrawl
2 - Nowhere on any paperwork or verbally did anyone from the bank tell my husband there could be charges related to the exchange rate.

But as jamesd has explained the difference is because of the amount of sterling it will take to buy the same amount of euros and that the rate has changed. This risk you accept when asking the bank to clear the cheque for you through a sterling account. Otherwise the bank are taking the risk on the exchange.

To prevent this, open a euro account if he is going to receive more payments.

More to the point, what steps are you taking to get the amount paid, now that the cheque has bounced?

trytospendless

Reading the link from jamesd it appears the cheque was cleared by collection as he recieved no cleared funds in his account between the cheque being paid in and returned to him unpaid.
It does not state anything about changes in exchange rate.

There must be someone here that can give us some advice to to proceed with this?? please

wendy_ann1983

if its the charge for conversion, how can they charge for something that has bounced? if it had cleared it would make sense but it hasn't

trytospendless

inmypocketnottheirs wrote: »

More to the point, what steps are you taking to get the amount paid, now that the cheque has bounced?

This was the first time a foreign cheque has ever been given to us, that is why the cashier was asked twice what we could expect and the clearing procedure. Neither of us work in a bank so without advice from the bank how would we know??

He has emailed and left messages with the person he recieved the cheque from with no reply, wonder why!

trytospendless

wendy_ann1983 wrote: »

if its the charge for conversion, how can they charge for something that has bounced? if it had cleared it would make sense but it hasn't

Yes exactly

jamesd

wendy_ann1983, it's not a charge for conversion. It's the exchange rate difference to buy the Euros between the time the cheque's value was paid into the account in Pounds and now when it's been repaid in Euros. No charges need to be involved (though there will be a bit of that). Go on holiday, buy Euros, spend none, return the Euros and you'll end up with a different value in Pounds from what you paid originally.

trytospendless, it was clearly done by negotiation or the funds wouldn't have showed up in his account.

I have a cheque with NatWest that is being handled by collection and I won't be seeing the money in my account for at least a few weeks. Perhaps worth noting that the NatWest page says that they will reclaim the value of the cheque if it's not honoured - and that cheque is in the foreign currency. Could definitely be clearer about exchange rate issues, though.

You'll need to recover the loss from whoever provided you with the cheque.