Sterling Cash for Sterling Cheques

I have received a gift of money in the form of a sterling cheque. I would like to cash these for sterling cash but my bank wants me to lodge the cheques in my account before issuing the sterling cash so I suffer the charges of

• changing the sterling to euro and lodging it
• withdrawing the euro and buying sterling cash with it suffering the exchange commission

Is there any easy way I can get my hands on sterling cash without being hit on the double?

I bank with Ulster Bank and I had a look at the thread on opening an account in the north with UB. Would there be any advantage in doing this? Its only a small amount of sterling but maybe I might be able to use the account for other things.

Many thanks!

this kind of This post will be deleted if not edited to remove bad language used to happen up around the border all the time in the late 70s and early 80's. ie you booked a holiday flying out of belfast, the travel agent (in the south) made you pay in punts and they wouldnt take sterling even if you had it. they used to convert the cost of the holiday into punts and then BACK into sterling as they said the tour operators working out of Belfast had to be paid in sterling. no wonder we all booked in Newry before the local firms copped on and started taking sterling. Maybe a garage near you takes sterling for petrol and lodges it into their bank account. they might change the cheque for you.