IT Pricewatch: How to lodge US Dollar Cheques in 2024

Interesting article in the Irish Times Pricewatch today.

The crux of it is, that an Irish actor receives cheques from work he completed in America years ago through residuals. These amount to about $50 or $60 a month. Previously the actor used to lodge these cheques with Ulster bank no problem and use them to pay utility bills or insurance etc. However, the actor is now with PTSB, and PTSB will not accept dollar cheques for less than $250 and will charge €80 for processing each cheque. PTSB cite charges by international banks as the reason for this.

The actor has tried lodging in the credit union to no avail, and has also requested from the Film Studios to pay electronically rather than via cheque but they flat out refuse. So they are now left with a drawer full of cheques that they are unable to lodge.

Pricewatch are stumped as to how to resolve this.

Could they request annual cheques instead? Are there other banks that would accept the cheques?

As an Irish resident you can set up an account with Wise with a US dollar wallet.

This US dollar wallet has an ACH and wire routing number as well as an account number. If the actor can get the dollar payments made by wire transfer rather than cheque this is probably the and simplest option.

Disclaimer: have never tried this myself.

Can he endorse them and send them to a friend in America who could try lodging them to their account.

Checks are much more common in America I think.

Brendan

Brendan Burgess said:

Can he endorse them and send them to a friend in America who could try lodging them to their account.

Checks are much more common in America I think.

Brendan

Click to expand...

Waaaaaay more common in the US. The only way to pay for certain things over there is by cheque. The article makes for an interesting read especially about the fees banks incur for processing those US cheques. What a joke. I feel bad for the guy. Hopefully he can get it sorted.

he should talk to Equity - he can't be the only actor encountering this problem.

my other thought was that he could save them up and then go to the US on holiday and cash them in person in the relevant bank, but I don't know enough about US banks to know if this is possible.

Brendan Burgess said:

Can he endorse them and send them to a friend in America who could try lodging them to their account...

Click to expand...

I wonder if there's a solution closer to home.

I had a quick look on Google maps in Newry, in addition to Ulster Bank still being there, it looks like there's also a branch of Barclays, Danske, Nationwide, Santander etc.

If he could open an account with a UK bank, who accept USD cheques, and take a trip North (or anywhere else in the UK) periodically to lodge them, it may be worth the effort.

A lot of faffing about, and Brexit I'm sure means the above is more complicated (perhaps even impossible), but as both he and the Irish Times are out of suggestions, it could be worth at least a few phone calls to find out.

Dr Strangelove said:

As an Irish resident you can set up an account with Wise with a US dollar wallet.

This US dollar wallet has an ACH and wire routing number as well as an account number. If the actor can get the dollar payments made by wire transfer rather than cheque this is probably the and simplest option.

Disclaimer: have never tried this myself.

Click to expand...

According to the Irish Times they will not pay by electronic funds transfer.
I discovered about a year ago that HSBC bank offered Pounds Sterling accounts to EU residents. I had thought about opening same as an alternative to Revolut. Perhaps they offer similar U.S. Dollar accounts where the cheques could be lodged.

I’ve a degree of sympathy for the banks here. Why should they have systems and processes to facilitate outlier transactions for tiny minorities?

The problem is the studios.

I have no doubt that they insist on payment by cheque as they know that a considerable minority of them never get cashed.

The number of Irish residents with dollar cheques is small and getting smaller. Risk and compliance burden for banks is very high.

Update on this issue in the IT today, with readers' suggestions.