Re: clearing UK cheques in Canadian banks

Sep 25, 2003 3 Replies


Paying a UK cheque form drawn in US dollars into an CAN Dollar account


> aint an automated process. Humans have to be involved somewhere and they
> make mistakes. I cant see how an automated system could have handled it.
> I reckon your a/c mgr was telling the truth.
>
> (BTW in answer to your question it makes a HUGE difference that the UK
> cheque form was written out in dollars).
> --
> john boyle

I can believe that humans are involved in the process, but I find the explaination she gave me hard to believe, specifically that someone manually entered the text on the return form after the cheque was rejected, therefore the wrong cheque number on the return form is not the cause of the cheque getting rejected.


I think it's far more likely that someone entered the wrong cheque number initially, and after the cheque was rejected on the UK side, the return form is printed using the wrong cheque number already in the system. After all it's a standard form, with my name, address, bank account number, bank branch address, and other info. You don't think they need manually enter the above info for every return form, do you ?

Wouldnt surprise me. How many cheques written in US dollars on a UK sterling cheque account do you think the average canadian bank gets every day? (Or every year)?

I get my expenses from work paid via US bank into my UK bank account (in Sterling) , and for a long time my UK bank used to send me a handwritten form as a receipt it had been paid.

In message , B . Y. writes

Unlikely. The cheque number is read from the encoding right at the beginning. At that point the machine doesnt know you've got a UK cheque form drawn in US dollars.

I dont reckon it ever left Canada.

No, its the rejection that causes the manual intervention

When you've got three different currencies involved, then YES!!!!!

(Does it MATTER?)

Canadian banks law is a bit different than the US or UK. A cheque is always treated that way. I.e. the funds are immediately credited, and start earning interest, but the bank may but a hols on the cash until the cheque clears, and will remove the credit if the cheque bounces.

This leaves onus on the banks to get the money out of the cheque writer's account as fast as possible. It usually happens overnight, and it is not that unusual for it to happen within the same business day.

Join the Discussion

Have something to add? Share your thoughts — no account required.

Didn't find your answer?

Ask the community — no account required