Cashing out of date cheques

Hi,

I tried to open a postbank account this morning to cash 4 cheques I have had lying around for a while. 3 of the 4 were older than 6 months so they refused to accept them. Given that two of them are from the States it would be tedious to have to get them re-issued. Will all financial institutions be so pedantic about when cheques were issued. I mean they have serial numbers on them etc. so I can't really see how they are any less valid now than they were a year ago ?

Thanks,

Usjes.

Cheques are valid for 6 months from date of issue, so it's unlikely that any financial institution will accept them.

Would that apply to cheques drawn outside the state?

Point taken, bond, I thought it was the same everywhere!

Wikipedia says that US cheques are also valid for 6 months.

Fair enough.

It definitely applies to UK cheques as well as I remember trying to cash a few of my 16p dividend cheques from Vodafone (for the couple of shares I got as a result of the eircom fiasco) and they weren't accepted because they were too old. They had been issued in the UK as far as I remember.

Just make sure that the cheques are actually out of date. A US$ cheque dated 12/03/09 & issued from USA means December 3rd 2009. I recently had to point the USA date format out to a cashier at the foreign exchange desk in my local AIB branch, who was refusing to accept a cheque for lodgement to my account claiming it was out of date.

gipimann said:

Cheques are valid for 6 months from date of issue, so it's unlikely that any financial institution will accept them.

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There is a reference in the Bills of Exchange Act 1882 to a cheque not having been in circulation for "an unreasonable period of time" however there is nothing in banking legislation that specifically states 6 months, although it has become standard banking practice

Realistically the drawing bank may bounce these cheques even if you were to get your bank to accept them and you may then be charged a fee for presenting a cheque which bounced. Best course of action is to contact the drawer of the cheque and get a new one reissued