3 weeks and Irish cheque still not cleared

B

Blitzer

Registered User
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I received a cheque for an insurance payout and tried to lodge it in my Ulster bank account. I was told that as it was a bank of Ireland chque of 5 figures they could not lodge it to my account. I was told they needed to post it to bank of Ireland who would then transfer the funds directly into my ulster bank account and that this would take up to 2 weeks but might take up to 4 weeks, it's been 3 weeks and no sign of funds... Is this normal?

Thanks
 
From the wording of your mail I presume you are not in the Republic of Ireland or if you are, that the cheque was in £ and drawn on an NI/GB Bank of Ireland account.

If so, then the cheque has been sent on a collection basis which is very manual. Basically Ulster have to post the cheque to BOI International who then check that funds are available and that there is no reason to stop it. They then transfer funds to Ulster, advise them in the post that the cheque is cleared and then Ulster pay you. 3-4 weeks is not unusual for something like this.
 
Was the Bank of Ireland cheque in Euros? Is your Ulster Bank account in Euros and held in a branch in "Southern" Ireland? If the answer to both questions is yes, then Ulster Bank should have simply lodged the cheque to your account. The amount of the cheque is irrelevant.
 
Hi thanks for the replies.

I'm in living in Republic of Ireland and I'm Irish, the cheque from Bank of Ireland was in euros and my bank account with Ulster Bank is in Rebublic and in euros.
 
Blitzer said:
Hi thanks for the replies.

I'm in living in Republic of Ireland and I'm Irish, the cheque from Bank of Ireland was in euros and my bank account with Ulster Bank is in Republic and in euros.
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Was the cheque payable to you?

If so, then it must be concluded that that whoever you spoke to in that branch of Ulster Bank has the IQ of a turnip!
 
Shirazman said:
Was the cheque payable to you?

If so, then it must be concluded that that whoever you spoke to in that branch of Ulster Bank has the IQ of a turnip!
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Yes the cheque was payable to me, it does seem incredible that I wasn't allowed to lodge a cheque in my name in euros from another Irish bank into my Irish bank account
 
Ulster Bank is full of tin God idiots. They probably sent your cheque "for collection".

They should simply have lodged the cheque in to your account.
 
SoylentGreen said:
Ulster Bank is full of tin God idiots. They probably sent your cheque "for collection".

They should simply have lodged the cheque in to your account.
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The maximum value you can process a cheque for through the Irish Clearing system is for €999,999,999.99 (1 cent short of a billion). There are no restrictions in place on domestic euro cheques under that amount. So if someone in UB told you the cheque needed to go for collection then they misinformed you. I'd suggest you go and raise a customer complaint straight away with UB.
 
Just wondering if they asked or if you said you would be drawing against it as soon as it was cleared, if so I could see why they might go for collection basis as even after the 5 days a cheque can come back unpaid so they might not be wanting to take a chance.

Or they could just be useless!
 

there are specific timeframes for unpaying a cheque laid down by the regulatory bodies as well as backed by case law. In this case, a BoI cheque lodged to UB on a Monday
  1. Would have been processed by UB cheque clearing on Monday night
  2. Sent to BoI clearing in on Tuesday morning for them to process with value of the cheque exchanged between the banks at the Central Bank that afternoon
  3. BOI customer would have been debited overnight on Tuesday
  4. BOI would have until Close of Business on Wednesday evening to unpay the cheque
  5. Physical bounced cheque and financial entries to debit the payee would arrive back with UB on Friday/Monday at the latest

Hence why the banks say allow up to 7 days for a cheque to clear (to allow for courier delays etc). 3 weeks in this case is ridiculous

A cheque bounced outside of this timeframe normally requires the approval of the collecting bank (in this case UB) and also of their customer.
 
Hello,

I understood it to be a slight variation of that, with a total of six business days, not seven.

Day 1 - cheque is lodged in (say) UB
Day 2 - cheque in transit
Day 3 - cheque arrives at (say) BoI
DAY 4 - BoI must decide before close of business on Day 4, if they are returning the cheque unpaid
Day 5 - unpaid cheque in transit
Day 6 - UB receive formal notice that the cheque is unpaid.
 
Not normal. Contact your local bank manager asking him/her to escalate because you are complaining. Irrespective of amount, funds should be lodges within DAYS not WEEKS
 
MrEarl said:
Hello,

I understood it to be a slight variation of that, with a total of six business days, not seven.

Day 1 - cheque is lodged in (say) UB
Day 2 - cheque in transit
Day 3 - cheque arrives at (say) BoI
Click to expand...

There is no full day for cheque in transit.

Cheques lodged in a branch on Day 1 are processed later that same day. They are then sent to the other bank the next morning, Day 2, and arrives at the other bank before the noon deadline.

Unless Day 1 is a Friday, in which case Day 2 is the next Monday.
 

Correct, but it's not unusual for an extra day to be added at the tail end. Bear in mind if the cheque was lodged at a Post Office or Building society, that will also add to the time
 
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