Bank charges for lodging Spanish cheque to Irish a/c

T

tigra

Registered User
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Hi All,

Just wondering has anyone come across this before.

I received a cheque from a spanish company and wanted to lodge the cheque into my bank account. Was told that it will take 3 weeks to clear and will have to pay a free of €37.20 for them to lodge it into me account.
When I asked what the charge was for as it was a euro cheque I was told it was because it was a spanish cheque?

Is there a way around this?

Thanks
 
Re: Bank Charges

I think that this is correct - see [broken link removed] and check your bank's tariff of charges. € zone electronic transfers are [broken link removed] but there is no pan € zone cheque clearing system so significant charges may apply.
 
Re: Bank Charges

In a previous life, I represented Ireland for some years on European Payments Council, and developed the site mentioned by Clubman above [broken link removed]

The situation regarding clearing of Spanish cheques/drafts from Ireland and also of clearing in the opposite direction has been the subject of many complaints for years. The charges quoted are likely to be the charges by your Irish bank only - the drawer of the cheque may also face substantial charges. And the 3-week clearance time is not unusual in this case.

There are multiple problems along the way.

There is no interanational or intra-Eurozone clearing house for cheques. And there will never be! Cheques are rapidly being phased out across Europe - and Spain is in the forefront of this change, while Ireland is far back among the laggards. Many Spaniards will never encounter a cheque in their lifetime - Direct debit and EFT are by far the dominant means of non-cash payment. (Spain has more ATMs than any other country, however)

Secondly, cheques were never intended for international payment. If you have a cheque-book, you will probably see a notice to this effect. The physical, legal, and IT standards of the cheque differ from the Irish equivalents and all of these mean that it must be treated as an out-of-course item.

But the main problem is in the clearing system within Spain where delays are frequent. Your Irish bank has no control over these.

The charges for cheques do not come within the ambit of Regulation 2560, which limits the charge for almost every other form of cross-border euro payment in Europe. The charge is, however subject to regulation by the Financial Regulator.
 
Can you get the person writing the cheque to cancel it and do the payment by electronic transfer, it should be cheaper.
 
It must be quite a large chq is the charges are that much. BOI don't charge unless the amt is over €250 but it's a % after that.
Gulliver explained the reasons why very clearly.
Bronte's suggestion is quite a good one, definitely should be cheaper.
 
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