Cheque storage

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cinders55

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Good morning to you all. I've just registered here, though I've often visited in the past and spent way too much time improving my education!
I find myself in need of some help and wonder if anyone can tell me if there is a speedy way to access back & front copies of cheques held in storage by the bank? I've been told it can take weeks and that hefty fees are involved, which I find annoying since a cheque is strictly speaking the property of the drawer from the beginning, I feel. Is there an online database where we can register to download copies of cheques ourselves? Any information or advice will be very gratefully received, and many thanks indeed.
 
No. You have to request a return of paid cheques from the bank, it can be turned around fairly quickly if you put pressure on them, or if it is a small (quiet) branch. Charges are outlined in their standard Ts and Cs. I had to request paid cheques for an audit I used to do and the client was charged for same.
 
Why do you want to see copies of the cheques? Do you mean cheques paid from your account or lodged to your account - or both? I don't know of any bank that provides such a service online. Perhaps if you explain your requirements in a bit more detail people will be able to give you more informed feedback and maybe even suggest alternatives?
 
I know I'm going to date myself here but I long for the good ole days when the cheques came back with the statement and the filing was up to me! Nothing too much wrong with that system when you think about it but some bright spark no doubt reckoned there's money in them thar hills (of cheques)! Don't mind me, I'm just in a very "anti bank" mood today. Now where did they put my rocking chair...........? Seriously, thanks very much for the advice, you were good to reply so promptly.
 
ClubMan said:
Why do you want to see copies of the cheques? Do you mean cheques paid from your account or lodged to your account - or both? I don't know of any bank that provides such a service online. Perhaps if you explain your requirements in a bit more detail people will be able to give you more informed feedback and maybe even suggest alternatives?
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Sorry, I was a bit vague alright. I'm preparing records prior to audit and the keeper of the cheque book is sometimes too rushed to legibly fill out the stubs. I need to double check payee names, amounts and cashing details to ensure accuracy, and some of these go back a while. No amount of my scolding her will help me just now, I just need to access the information fairly promptly so that I don't hold everyone else up. Thanks for taking the trouble to reply to mine, I appreciate it.
 
I'm just getting the hang of replying here, my second message about the rocking chair was my thanks for yours! Sorry for the goof.
 
The amount for each cheque can be found in the bank statement. If you keep creditors/purchases accounts do a reconcilation of your account with the statement from the creditors. If the dates from the bank statement coincide to within a few day you probably have a match.
So now you have the date approx of writing the cheque, who it was paid to and the amount. Other amounts for salaries etc can be checked with payroll etc. Any amount still not found request copy of cheque from bank.
 
asdfg said:
The amount for each cheque can be found in the bank statement. If you keep creditors/purchases accounts do a reconcilation of your account with the statement from the creditors. If the dates from the bank statement coincide to within a few day you probably have a match.
So now you have the date approx of writing the cheque, who it was paid to and the amount. Other amounts for salaries etc can be checked with payroll etc. Any amount still not found request copy of cheque from bank.
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Thanks very much for your help, I'll try to narrow the gap this way but when the creditors do what I do myself, which is allocate chqs received against o/s invoices, the statements will only show the invoices remaining unpaid. I have this feeling of being stuck between a rock and a hard place but I'll get over it.....! Again, many thanks.
 
which is allocate chqs received against o/s invoices, the statements will only show the invoices remaining unpaid
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Yes I see where your coming from. Statements of old would show the cheque and what invoices it paid, the most important thing from your point of view being that you could figure out who you paid. You could contact your creditors and ask them for a copy of their account with you for the period you are looking at. Its just a matter of printing off the account. Bit of a long shot but it might work. Tell them that your auditor is looking for this info. Needs to verify that payments made by you are going to the creditor. or ask the creditor for a list of payments made by you with the date.
 
cinders55 said:
the keeper of the cheque book is sometimes too rushed to legibly fill out the stubs. I need to double check payee names, amounts and cashing details to ensure accuracy, and some of these go back a while.
Click to expand...
Sounds like you need to become the keeper of the cheque book - Seriously, life is too short to spend time chasing down someone else's mess. Address the root cause of the problem.

No Irish bank offers online access to cheques. E*trade in the US do offer this service, so perhaps it will come here eventually.
 
In some cases cheques are stored centrally and take time to retrieve as someone has to do this manually.

For items paid recently (last 3 months) it may be possible that the bank has the images scanned on their computers.

As with bank statements the onus is on the customer to keep accurate records (completion of stubs etc).
 
Banks have to store copies of all paper debits / credits for a certain period of time. Technically the cheques are available and the turnaround in one of the large clearing banks (BOI / AIB / UB) should only be 2 days. They will charge however so the best thing to do is to narrow it one. And although they charge for it, no branch is going to thank you for continually seeking copies of cheques - you should get a business cheque book, these have a full copy which remain behind so no stub to be filled out, the copy is already there on a flimsy duplicate. Might solve problem going forward
 
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