Overdrawn due to bounced lodgement

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?

A cheque is a paper document.
It has to be moved around a number of locations.
It has to be processed.
I think that if a cheque is to be bounced, the branch is notified and can take action e.g. contact the account holder.

Sometimes the cheque is forged and is subsequently bounced after being credited.

It's simpler to just ban cheques and force everyone into the 21st Century.

Brendan
 
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.

The vast majority of cheques go through without a problem.

I would suspect that the banks have procedures in place where a customer has a history of lodging bounced cheques, they don't give credit.

If someone gets a cheque which they are unsure about, they can send it for special clearance.

Brendan
 
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 is far too slow imo. Banks are not obliged to cheques immediately, sometimes they allow use of the funds in good faith as was the case here. If I was the OP I would be looking at alternative banking arrangements to deal with wages , mortgage payments etc. then I would deal with the overdrawn balance. Let them shout and roar for full payment, if you don't have it you can't pay it. Eventually they will come to some agreement with you as it's cheaper and quicker than going through the courts to get their money back.
 
I can't see why the bank does not bounce the cheques that the OP wrote.

If there were not sufficient cleared funds available to honour the cheques then is that not the reason they bounce the cheque.
 

Could we wait on an alternative form of payment that has all the advantages of a cheque, to be developed, before we ban them Brendan please.

Cheques provide a clear record of payment, date, payee and anything else can be entered in the stub.

They can act as proof of payment where a receipt is not available, or just too awkward to keep.

In the last few days I used cheques twice.

To repay a small amount to a friend. Very awkward one that, if someone says to you "remember that €20 euro I gave you last month". I could never be sure if I had repaid them, I might remember paying or maybe I just planned to pay them. With a cheque the info is all there.

I gave a small amount to a local charity. If I had given that in cash it could easily have gone awol. With a cheque that is much less likely.

Thats just in the space of 10 days, I looked that up in my chequebook.

Of course it would be great if we had a secure traceable recordable and convenient method of electronic payment. Perhaps phone to phone.

But hey Irish banks cannot even clear 19th century cheques in a few days, what chance 21st century technology.

Lets get the new car up and running before we shoot the donkey.
 
Hi CP71 you have a number of issues here outside of the discussion relating to the cheques issue which i think its better to address.
1 is your bank the same as your ex (may be question to ask here with the 5 days)
2 Agree with the comment to change account for wages as this gives you control.
Your 'working' account should always be held in a different bank to your 'loan and mortgage bank' if possible
3 You need to cancel any direct debits that are presented as this is only causing charges to add up on both the debited account and the originating account (10 to 15 euro for each one)
4 in relation to the maintenance it works out at about 330 per month you need to make sure that this commences now as a monthly payment as per the terms of your agreement as the build up will be more difficult to retrieve
5 check out the position legal or otherwise he stands in with the comment 'He has since told me he didn't have the funds anyway' but wrote the cheque.
6 might seem a bit obvious but these are his kids also can you speak to a member of his family to get the matter resolved as this will not cost you money.
In Summary; The bank will come around to the idea of a monthly repayment as the intention and the result were not the same here on your part but you need to get back in control. i hope this helps you and good luck Padraic