Cashing Canadian CIBC Cheque in the UK

[Frank_Rizzo]

A customer has sent me a CIBC (Canadian) cheque. It is made out in GBP sterling and has a printed address on it of

Lloyds Bank PLC
Internation Banking Division
....
London

I checked with my branch (NatWest) about charges. They say there is a fee of £5 for handling it. 50p for sending it back to Canada. And there will also be an "agent's fee" on the Canada side but they don't know how much this will be.

Does that sound right? The cheque is Canadian but it looks as if it needs to processed by Lloyds in London. So why is there a 'canadian agent's fee'?

BTW, the value is for £30. Would I be better off just ripping up the cheque and giving the customer a freebie?

[Essex_boy]

Its very pricey cashing foreign cheques but cheaper than giving freebies, have you emailed them and asked for payment via Paypal? Or somesuch payment system.

[Frank_Rizzo]

I Don't use paypal. I do use other credit card handling services but this guy sends a cheque out of the blue.

I checked with Lloyds (after spending half an hour trying to get the right telephone number - going via bangalore etc.)

There should be no charge. Even though it is a CIBC cheque the sort code equates to Lloyds International in London. That is where it will be cleared in the system. To other banks, it is a GBP

Yeh. I'll see it when I believe it. Nat West are sure to try it on and impose some silly charge for it.

[dmorison]

I can't speak for Canadian Dollars, but i've had no problem (and certainly no GBP 5.00 charges) paying US Dollar cheques into my Natwest bog standard business current account.

The first time I went to a cashier, but they said to use the foreign exchange till. They've always said it may take up to 10 days, the money has always been in my account after 3 or 4 working days.

There is a standard forex commission charge (no different to exchanging cash - there is a minimum, but i'm sure it's not GBP 5.00) and then whatever the fee for an automated credit to my account is - 5p or something silly like that.

[Essex_boy]

Well thats interesting, I use Nationwide and get caned for foreign cheques which then take around 3 -6 weeks to clear.

[Frank_Rizzo]

Cheque cleared in 3 days. No news on charges yet - guess that will be listed at the end of the month.

I don't think there will be any. Even though the cheque is from CIBC it has a British sortcode and postal address printed on it (Lloyds). It does also state the value as Sterling.

I guess if you want to take overseas cheques ensure that the cheque is sterling and it is clearable in Britain rather than having to be sent overseas.

[encyclo]

Well thats interesting, I use Nationwide and get caned for foreign cheques which then take around 3 -6 weeks to clear.

If you're doing any international stuff, you need to use a "real" bank rather than an ex-building society one - because the latter have no forex department and so have to use another bank to do the work. LloydsTSB and RBS-NatWest do most of the forex work for the new banks, but it is always going to take longer, and each level takes it's cut so it's usually more expensive too.

UK banks with their own forex operations include Barclays, RBS-NatWest and LloydsTSB. Shop around and don't be loyal - people are in general more loyal to their bank than to their life partner - if you make that mistake, then you're going to get ripped off in the long run.

Frank_Rizzo, do you still have a copy of the cheque? It may just be a standard UK one - does it list a UK sort code and account number (30-xx-xx and a 7 or 8 figure account number)? If that's the case, then it isn't a foreign cheque at all.

Disclaimer: I used to work for Barclays (before rediscovering my sanity).