HSBC taking longer to clear cheques.

ldavies_3

there is lots of confusion over when a cheque is cleared.. All cheques can still be returned unpaid until the 6th day after deposit.. most chqs are ok after day 4 unless there is a lost / stolen or a fraud on the chq.

The FSA did some reasearch recently which found that financial institutions were giving customers wrong information re clearing which is probably why the op thinks that the cycle has increased when actually all that is happened is that the staff are clear on the cycle and informing customers properly..

As I said, there are usually no issues after day 4.

Millionaire

Humberstone27 wrote: »

I pay a cheque into my local HSBC branch on a Monday before midday and I can draw on the cleared funds on the Wednesday. I now find that over the last month that the cheque is not cleared until Thursday. Is this just another way for the Banks to make money in addition to the new £25 overdraft arrangement fee HSBC are now charging annually for renewal of current overdrafts. Has anyone else noticed the change in the cheque clearance time.

Ahh, so I'm not the only one. This week my regular cheque paid in Monday did not clear till today. It used to always clear by Wednesday.

People saying it only clears by Thursday, Well mine was always available to spend by Wednesday until this week.

jonny7227

Thanks for your responses folks but I have finally got to the bottom of my problem.

After being very patient (after all I am bending the rules by asking them to take a cheque) I finally got fed up and was a bit short with the guy in Jessops.
I explained the 2-4-6 rule and asked him to come clean if he had been late paying in the cheque. However he confirmed that he had paid the cheque into their bank (HSBC) which is only a few doors away on 21st November as he previously stated.
He also said HSBC originally quoted him 3 or 4days for the cheque to clear but later revised this to "up to 10 days sometimes". - clearly not within the 2-4-6 rules.

Today armed with the 2-4-6 information, he took HSBC to task and they confessed that somehow, the cheque has gone missing between them and my Company's bank._pale_

I have now stopped it and am in the process of getting a replacement.

2-4-6? I'm going for the record!
I'll let you know how I get on second time around.

toxicpixie

Paid in a cheque to first direct (HSBC) and under available balance it lists that the cheque will be cleared on the 8th working day after 9am.

It's a building society cheque so its not even from one of the four main clearing banks.

It's not a problem but it's not exactly speedy. This is the main reason why I won't have a current a/c with a building society as historically it takes an age for a cheque to clear that's paid into a building society a/c. Perhaps this has changed more recently but used to have signs up in the branches telling you if you paid a cheque in by <date> it would be cleared by <date> because it took far too many working days..

I'm looking forward to the day when cheques are a thing of the past.

rb10

toxicpixie wrote: »

Paid in a cheque to first direct (HSBC) and under available balance it lists that the cheque will be cleared on the 8th working day after 9am.

It's a building society cheque so its not even from one of the four main clearing banks.

It's not a problem but it's not exactly speedy. This is the main reason why I won't have a current a/c with a building society as historically it takes an age for a cheque to clear that's paid into a building society a/c. Perhaps this has changed more recently but used to have signs up in the branches telling you if you paid a cheque in by <date> it would be cleared by <date> because it took far too many working days..

I'm looking forward to the day when cheques are a thing of the past.

All banks and building societies have to abide by the same rules on cheques.

If paid into current accounts, they must be available to withdraw by the fourth working day, and will 'clear' at the end of the sixth working day after you pay it in.

So the questions to ask are:
1) Was it a current account or a savings account that you paid it in to?
2) Is this the date that the cheque clears, or is available to withdraw?

A cheque clearing is very different to being able to withdraw it. No cheque will ever clear until the end of the sixth working day, regardless of who it is from, where it is paid in to, and how much it is for. At any time up to this point, it can still be taken from your account if it bounces.

[Deleted User]

building society cheques its a shame take longer to clear

rb10

vinh1000 wrote: »

building society cheques its a shame take longer to clear

Incorrect.

Building society 'counter cheques' and bankers drafts go through exactly the same clearing process as any other cheque.