How long do cheques take to clear now ?

[AdamBrunt]

Hi all,

As above really.

The OH paid a cheque (drawn on a non-Barclays bank) into a branch (not our account holding one) of Barclays on 25th November.

I know it used to take ages for inter-bank cheque payments to clear but I thought this has been sped up recently.

So should the above cheque have cleared by now ?

Regards,

Adam Brunt

[SShaw]

Yes

http://ask.barclays.co.uk/contact/faq/day2day_banking/chequeclearing

[splobber]

moving to finance

[Tempest]

Whilst I cannot answer this (though I generally felt it was something like 4 banking days)

Something else, related to this came to my attention again recently.

And something I am still stunned (genuinely stunned) can still legally be allowed.

Say you have sold something (Car, TV etc) and a guy gave you a cheque for it.

You told the guy that you will have to wait till the cheque clears before he can take the goods (fair enough)

Your OH pays in the cheque to your bank, and (lets say) 4 days later it's cleared, and you call the guy, he comes back and takes the Car, TV etc.

Everyone is happy and it's a done deal.

A month later, or 2 or 3 months the bank informs you it was a bad cheque and pulls the money back out of your account.

I'm just dumbfounded how the law can allow a bank to do that.

[AdamBrunt]

Thanks sshaw. Not sure if that's good or bad :( The current a/c balance as it is - I was rather hoping it hadn't cleared yet.

Tempest: According to the link sshaw posted, it doesn't take 2/3 months for a cheque to bounce - more like 2/3 days.

[Tempest]

Thanks sshaw. Not sure if that's good or bad :( The current a/c balance as it is - I was rather hoping it hadn't cleared yet.

Tempest: According to the link sshaw posted, it doesn't take 2/3 months for a cheque to bounce - more like 2/3 days.

Unless the law has changed recently.

I understand it's not quite so clear as that. The bank has this time (few days) to decide if the cheque seems ok to honour and pay the money into your account.

What we think of as being cleared and ok.

However I believe this is only a "They think it's ok"

If (and hopefully a rare if) at a later stage they find out something it dodgy at the other end, then they (unless law changed) cancel it, and pull the money back from you again. a long time after the initial clearing into your account.

===EDIT===

Did a bit of a Google, and it "looks" like the law was changed recently.

Cheque clearing
It is also important to be aware of the cheque clearance process. At the end of November 2007 the banking industry changed the way cheques are processed to benefit customers accepting cheques.
The exact timescales vary depending on the type of account you hold, but a cheque or banker's draft will take six working days following the day of the deposit to clear in your current account (e.g. FlexAccount). In other words although a cheque may show as available after three days following the day of the deposit, it is only on day seven that the money is yours and you are protected from loss if the cheque subsequently bounces, unless you are a knowing party to fraud.

As I say, there are stories from before this of bad cheques being pulled back a month of more after they have cleared into your account.

So whilst money is there for you after day 3 ish, it sounds like day 7 that you have legal protection that it cannot be taken back.

.

[Spooky_uk]

Did a bit of a Google, and it "looks" like the law was changed recently.
Cheque clearing
At the end of November 2007

:suspect:

[Tempest]

:suspect:

Well in the history of banking 3 years is quite recent:

3 years earlier than that:

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/moneybox/3709908.stm

[Bapapapa]

The change in 2007 is called 2-4-6 (http://www.chequeandcredit.co.uk/246/)