I lodged a US dollar cheque quite recently and was charged a percentage (1.5%) on top of the exchange rate as it needed to be 'cleared internationally' by my bank. This was despite lodging a cheque a few years ago into the same account from the same source and it was lodged as a normal transaction. The cheque was made out to me and the account is obviously in my name. Are all the banks using this (imho) unfair way of charging and is there an alternative to avoid the 1.5% ? My reasoning for unfair is that the process of clearing the cheque should be the same regardless of whether it is for $10 or $10,000. It should be a flat fee plus I am paying (annual flat fee) bank charges on the account anyway for transactions such as these.