Sterling Cheque taking 21 days to clear?

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whattodo?

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Hi All,

I am moving a large sum of money from my building Society in the UK to Ireland to clear all my debt.

I lodged it a couple of days ago and it has still not shown on my account - I phoned them and they said it can take up to 21 days to clear!!

Is this right? I read an article recvently saying that the banks are holding on to the money for as long as possible so they can accumulate as much interest as possible for themselves! Thye have even given me the euro value so what is the hold up?

Please note that the cheque is issued by the actual building society and not myself - they are basically showing that they have guarranteed the money.
 
Foreign cheques can take up to 21 days to clear - it's an unfortunate fact of life. Especially as they are more prone to be fraudulent/cancelled etc etc. That's the risk of paper. A transfer electronically using your BIC/IBAN would have been much quicker.
 
thanks for the response - I tried that but the building Sc would not do an international transfer and I no longer have a UK account

I get annoyed when my money is in limbo!
 
presume it was a sterling cheque?.. what date did you lodge it?.. if i lodge sterling cheques for work to our current a/c(euro) it can take up to 4 weeks as its going through the clearing house in the ifsc thats with Ulster Bank
 
Thanks for the response - yes it was a sterling cheque to a euro a/c.

I lodged it on the 4th November (12 days ago).

suemoo1 - when you lodge the checks, does the converted amount appear straight away or does it just appear on your a/c after its cleared?

I have posted cheques before an appeared straight away but they said they want to 'send it for collection' this time.
 
Don't hold your breath if you only lodged it on the 4th.

By 21 days they mean 21 working days, so you can add on at least 6 'real' days to the 21.
 
hi
it only shows on our a/c after it has cleared as far as i can remember.. i always lodge these ones on their own, so i can keep an eye on it going through bank, but they are slow..
 
thanks for the responses - its just so frustrating because my building society at home say they dont have it and my irish bank say they dont have it....the money is just floating about soemwhere!!

Does anyone know how the whole cheque process works on an international basis?
 
whattodo? said:
thanks for the responses - its just so frustrating because my building society at home say they dont have it and my irish bank say they dont have it....the money is just floating about soemwhere!!

Does anyone know how the whole cheque process works on an international basis?
Click to expand...

This is exactly how it works. You're seeing it in action.

Cheques are collected, sorted, sent to clearing houses, sent to the relevant banks, who send it on to relevant branch/department (add an additional step as many building societies aren't a part of the clearing system directly so the clearing bank then sends it to the building society).
 
still no sign - I now know that it cleared through the system on Tuesday in the UK as my bank phoned after I made an inquiry.

I would have assumed that it would show on my account now!
 
You should have transferred it by credit transfer rather than by cheque. That way it would be through in a few days - and by 2012 it most credit transfers across Europe should be in the account on the next business day - especially if denominated in Euro.
 
I had experience of this before. I needed to transfer money to my daughters ac in the uk was going to send a cheque.... euro to sterling and was told it would take at least 5 weeks so did a swift transfer instead.... would really recommend it if you need funds transferred quickly
 
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