Foreign cheques and UK bank accounts

My husband had an American cheque, our bank wouldn't accept it at all and we couldn't cash it at the exchange bureaus in our city centre, in the end we found that Lloyds would accept foreign cheques but my husband had to open an account online and he was charged a percentage of the cheque amount instead of a flat fee of £28 per cheque at our bank before they stopped accepting foreign cheques in January, despite my husband being a customer since 1976 and us having a joint account since 1988.

Why cheques? The Athene Annuity company doesn’t do bank transfers out of the US. I am very puzzled.

Why cheques. Bank transfers much easier, pay pal, operates most countries including America and Australia. Safe transfer, money goes straight into your bank. Use it for all my international money gifts.

We have BACS payment from The Netherlands every month and the bank charge us £5 each month to process it.

I had same problem when some UK investments got bought out by a US company. The dividend cheque was for a few dollars but my bank HSBC wanted £36, yes really, to pay it in and convert it. When I eventually managed to track down the right department in the investment company, to get dividends paid electronically straight into my bank they said I had to fill out a form which they emailed to me but I had to POST it back to them in USA. They would not accept a scanned in version. They’re probably having a great time with my dividends that I don’t cash.

Supernana1

My husband has always posted sterling cheques to our grandsons in the Republic of Ireland, but their dad has now told us that the Irish banks won't accept the cheques any more.

I don't know what the reasoning is.

We did a direct bank transfer yesterday instead. It was so much nicer to just tuck a cheque into a birthday card!

The reasoning is, as far as I know, that few people use cheques any more. They internetbank or use PayPal or similar.

An old-fashioned paper cheque that a bank accepts, has to be sent back to the bank that issued it, so that it figures in their accounts.

With the price of postage and the unreliability of most countries' postal services, can you really wonder that banks are doing away with a service that is hardly used by anyone any longer?

Flat refusal from HSBC to help.

PS I think HSBC does have a foreign currency account, not sure of terms and conditions but maybe worth enquiring if this might work for you.

HSBC has only recently stopped accepting US dollar cheques. US banking is surprisingly old fashioned and even straightforward bank transfers don't work because the US banks don't have a sort code which a direct transfer needs. My US payments company eventually agreed to do wire transfers, this was the only way they could be recv'd. I believe this costs them money which is why they were so reluctant.

No worries NotSpag and am grateful for the comments offered by everyone but still very unsure about a way forward.

ronib

Not probate

Sorry, no idea where I'd picked this up
Must have been someone talking about probate on another thread.
Apologies!

I had a bundle of American Express Dollar travellers cheques which Lloyds would not let me pay into my account ('against policy') but I was able to surrender them to Amex - a somewhat tedious process but after one phone call to remind them I received payment within days. By contrast a cheque from a French bank in Euros was paid without problems,

The banks stopped maintaining systems for processing foreign cheques because they were handling so few it wasn't worthwhile. They were losing money on it.

I have done what Not spaghetti suggests and had a kind friend in the US cash a cheque for me. I sent the cheque over to him and he photographed it. When the money landed in his account he sent it to me via PayPal.

Not probate

...of course if this is to do with a probate issue I'd be careful about how money is moved.

America has always been behind us in personal banking I think.
It was well behind in 1980 and still is I feel.
Even my 101 year old mother-in-law had stopped writing cheques by 2019...

Can you find a North American based middleman? A family member or friend.

If you have a US-registered PayPal account they have a cash a cheque feature.
​You just take a photo of the cheque and upload it..
It bypasses the UK banking system entirely.
​I haven't used it but know it exists.

I am beginning to wonder if this is an American policy to stop dollars going out of the country to a pensioner in this case?

I have emailed my mp who is yet to reply. I have spent some time and energy catching up with social services who may not have covered all expenses for disability so hopefully some money appears. Also cancelled three charitable donations a month! Harder to cancel Inland Revenue 🥴

ronib

I don’t think 68 dollars monthly will interest J P Morgan? In a moment of courage or stupidity, I emailed the Financial Services Ombudsman but not feeling very optimistic….

I wouldn't give up as a matter of principle.

Recently a firm sent me a cheque for under £3 - was it worth a trek to the bank to pay it in? As we still have a bank here, yes, it was, I'd rather have that small mount (and give it to charity!) than let the firm benefit.

Definitely Allira, after the transaction fee, the amount of money received monthly is going to be negligible otherwise. It’s easier said than done to get them to change though I suspect.

ronib

I don’t think 68 dollars monthly will interest J P Morgan? In a moment of courage or stupidity, I emailed the Financial Services Ombudsman but not feeling very optimistic….

So this will happen every month?

I really think the American company should be more helpful and pay this by BACS to this person. It would be easier for them too!

Why do some people make things do difficult? DH has had a problem with our local bank recently, being given the wrong information by a member of staff, causing nearly three weeks of problems. When he went in today and saw someone else, she sorted it all out in two minutes.

I don’t think 68 dollars monthly will interest J P Morgan? In a moment of courage or stupidity, I emailed the Financial Services Ombudsman but not feeling very optimistic….

PayPal?
Or... try the American bank JP Morgan which advertises in the UK for savings and investments. It has a skyscraper in London.

That’s really strange, as it definitely says you can on their website. It might be worth going back to them?

Here are the instructions.

Key Details for Depositing Foreign Cheques:

Method: You must take the cheque to a NatWest branch or post it with a paying-in slip to: NatWest NICPU, PO Box 41, The Drapery, Northampton, NN1 2EY.

Processing Time: It can take up to 12 weeks for the foreign cheque to be paid, as it involves a "collection" process with the foreign bank.

Fees & Rates: NatWest applies fees for processing foreign cheques, and exchange rates apply, which means you could receive less than the face value.

Currencies: NatWest accepts up to 40 different currencies.
NatWest

It’s worth calculating with them what the processing fee would be too, as depending on the amount of the cheque it might not be. That’s happened to me a couple of times with my share dividend.

I could easily deposit UK pounds in to open an account but I was refused an appointment when I said that an American cheque needed to be deposited too.

Do you mean you wanted to open a savings account with just the American cheque as the deposit, in which case I can understand why they would say no because of the clearance time and risk of fraud. If you wanted to open a savings account and pay the cheque, after other money, into it, they should not refuse that?