Barclays changing its deposit policy without telling us?

Enjoylife_2

For the last x numbers of years, Barclays has allowed its customers (well, me anyway) to withdraw cash against deposited cheques. Suddenly, this week, I found myself unable to withdraw cash against a large cheque banked last week (before it officially cleared) and visited a branch. The teller & his manager kept saying how I would be overdrawn if they gave me cash, until I said that I had always been able to draw against it in the past, then suddenly they 'noticed' that I was 'allowed' to do this and gave me cash. As I was waiting - this took some time - the teller beside me was saying in a very loud voice as people left after making deposits - 'that will be available for you in five working days'. I don't remember anyone ever saying this previously.

So is Barclays cracking down on its 'risk', but without notification of account changes - or have I just missed an announcement somewhere?

zx2011

The maximum amount of time to complete each stage is now on a 2-4-6 system. All the banks are now doing the same.

http://www.chequeandcredit.co.uk/246/

You start to earn interest from 2 working days on.
You can make a withdrawl from 4 days working days on.
The cheque won't bounce from 6 working days on.

The days are all maximums. Banks may allow you to make a withdrawl earlier at their discretion.

Amounts paid into savings accounts may take longer.