Overdrawn due to bounced lodgement

C

CP71

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Hi, I hope someone can give me some advice. My ex gave me a cheque for €20000 child maintenance a month ago. It was for 5 years of unpaid maintenance. It cleared straight away and I paid some overdue bills etc with it using about €7000 of it. On the 5th day of lodging the cheque it bounced. I rang my ex and basically got nowhere. He has since told me he didn't have the funds anyway. Solicitor says I can go to court but a piece of paper won't get me anything. I went into the bank and explained everything and applied for a loan for €13000 to help clear the overdraft. I had a spreadsheet done out up to 2015 with a rolling balance of everything coming in and going out, so they could see that I can afford the repayments. At the moment I can't access my wages and am depending on my parents until I get sorted for day to day expenses. Any direct debits I have for mortgage, electricity etc are being returned and the bank is charging me more than it would take to repay a loan every week.I have rang them every day for the last 2 weeks and they wont return my calls but keep sending me lettersdemanding I repay the full amount. (I would if I could). What should I do? I have 3 children one doing exams soon so I dont want to let him know whats going on.
 
First thing you need to do is get onto your HR dept and give them a new account number in a different Bank into which you can be paid and access your money.

Then you need to go to MABS and try and get them to negotiate on your behalf as they do not seem to want to negotiate in a meaningful manner with you.

I assume the cheque was paid as a result of some court ruling?No idea about your ex partners financials but he really needs to be helpig sort out this mess he has created.
 
Knuttell said:
Then you need to go to MABS and try and get them to negotiate on your behalf as they do not seem to want to negotiate in a meaningful manner with you.

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I think that is totallly unfair to the bank.

The OP lodged a cheque.
She paid out the bank's money to clear some bills.
The cheque bounced.
It is not the bank's fault.

A person cannot use this device to force a loan from a bank. The bank are right to insist on immediate clearance of this unauthorised overdraft.

Brendan
 
I could be wrong but isn't knowingly writing a cheque like that a crime of some sorts ?
 

Not a nice predicament to be in. If your back is really against the wall and you can't afford to use your salary to clear the loan short term, then set up a new back account and have your salary paid into it and set up all your DD's again as required. Then ask the banks to convert your overdraft to a term loan and repay it over the next 2 to 3 years at a reasonable rate. They may refuse at first but they will have no other choice if you persist.

Finally, you could seek summary judgement against your ex for the bounced cheque at a cost of about €1,000 (if undefended) which at least you might be able to use to recover the money owed to you. There are other costs involved if you wish to pursue the matter further after that but if he has assets or cash somewhere it might be worth your while.

Good luck!
 
Thanks Knuttell. My solicitor actually suggested I do the same. I dont' want to hide from what I owe, I just don't have the means at the moment to repay it in full. I did ask how the cheque was cleared straight away and I had access to the money but I didn't really get an answer yet.
Brendan, I am not trying to force a loan out of the bank. I used my money not the bank's to pay bills. Was it a banking error to give me access to the money immediately? The bank can insist on immediate clearance of the overdraft til the cows come home but I still can't come up the money. If they give me a loan they are making plenty of money in interest anyway
 
Hi Negiotator,
I am very tempted now to open a new bank account and tell my existing bank that I will repay the overdraft weekly at the repayments they showed me when I applied for the loan.

I will look into the summary judgement, but I am afraid that the cost of persuing him will be too high for me.
 

The bank will have little choice but to convert it to a term loan after a while. However be careful not to get penalized with the interest rate and or surcharges. Just keep requesting a term loan but ensure that it's within your repayment capacity.

With regards the judgement, yes it can be very expensive if you're not careful. Depending on your ex's situation, it may be of little use to you. However in some situations it can be very useful in recovering monies owed.
 

Have to disagree with you there Brendan.
The bank gave the lady the unauthorized loan.
Their operating policies could be questioned.

Anyway I'm guessing the bank is Bank of Ireland. Forget about contact with the branch.
Ring the recovery department in Dublin directly and talk to them.
 
Most accounts in Ireland now reflect cheque lodgements immediately - for interest purposes and access to the funds - it does not mean the cheque has actually cleared as that can't occur until your bank presents the cheque back to the bank it's drawn on - which can be any length of time. So not unusual that the OP had access to the funds before the cheque had actually cleared. Very unfortunate situation, definitely go after your ex as solicitor suggested
 
Hope you can get this resolved OP. As another poster suggested, may be worth trying direct contact with your existing bank's debt recovery area, branch staff seem to have very little decision making power nowadays.
 
The bank shouldn't have allowed access to the funds until the cheque cleared and you did what anyone here would have if they had a mountain of bills and suddenly the means to pay them. Change your ac to another bank and work out what you can afford to repay and over what period of time. Put it in writing to them and you can be guaranteed it won't take them long to sit down with you then.once you change your ac you will have control over your own income and you won't look back.
 
Knuttell said:
It actually is their fault Brendan,she should have not have had access to the funds in the first place if the cheque hadn't cleared.
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So what most of you would like is a banking system where the banks don't allow you access to your cheque lodgements until around 10 days after you make the lodgement?

The banks should just ban cheques. They can't win. If they don't give people credit for them they get accused of profiteering. If they give credit and the cheque bounces, they get accused of reckless behaviour.
 
Gardai

The Op should probably report her ex to the Gardai over the bounced cheque.
As far as I know it's an offence now to give a bounced cheque.
 
If I lodge a cheque for €20000 into either bank I use it reads balance x + 20000, balance available x, until the cheque clears, perfectly acceptable. I think most people would be happy if banks follow their procedures. Maybe this lady's bank will have learned something from this.
 

The issue here is that the banks don't clear cheques for 5 to 10 days. That is just ridiculous. How do they actually do the clearing, by donkey and cart?

The banks should not allow people access to funds until they have cleared. And that should happen overnight.
 
Back to the main point; I think she should let her fella know she's making a complaint to the Gardai and give him 2-3 days to come up with a real solution.
 
Could someone clarify this up for me. I understood in the past that you lodged a cheque to your account and even though it was not 'cleared' you had access to it, but I thought in the last few years that they didn't credit it to your account until it was cleared? That you couldn't use it until then.

If I remember correctly to get around this you 'cashed' the cheque and lodged the case which avoids long delays. But you had to cash it at the bank where it was drawn (if you had an account there).
 
mark1 said:
If I lodge a cheque for €20000 into either bank I use it reads balance x + 20000, balance available x, until the cheque clears, perfectly acceptable.
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Thats the way I always understood it,not rocket science either,there is no way anyone should have access to funds that have not cleared otherwise you would have utter chaos.

Whats to stop me writing a cheque to my wife for 100k,she lodges & withdraws before the bank "clear it" and its on a jet plane to Australia never to return.
 
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