Cashing the cheque

[sji2671]

Does any other UK Adsense user have a solution to cashing the USD Cheque received from Google.

I recently discovered if you deposit a cheque over $1000 you have to wait 4-6 WEEKS for it to be cleared and hot your bank a/c, this is madness, under $1000 is usually pretty quick, a week would do it but 4-6 weeks, my last cheque was banked a month ago, we normally have to wait a few weeks for it to arrive from the US, and then bank it and wait a further 4-6 weeks for me to get the money - there has to be a better way than this?

I phoned around a few banks and internet banks and it seems the norm on larger amounts, as if the exchange rate and initial charge for depositing it wasnt bad enough they then keep it for weeks.

Any ideas?

Thanks

[trillianjedi]

I have never had a problem with my UK Sterling account at HSBC.

They do say that "......foreign negotiated cheques can take up to 4-6 weeks to clear".

My actual experience has been that cleared funds have been in my account within 4-5 working days, and I get a note from my bank detailing the exchange rate obtained etc within 1 working day by post. This has been consistent irrespective of the figure.

I've since started a US$ account with them, but haven't actually paid any US bank drawn cheques into it yet. I'm told it won't make a difference to timing, the item will simply not need to be negotiated.

TJ

[Macro]

There have been numerous threads about this including one or two [webmasterworld.com] that you may have posted in.

Get the cheques "negotiated" rather than "collected". It takes 2-3 days. And browse through here [google.co.uk] for the other threads.

[sji2671]

I dont have a problem with the fees considering the size of the amount, that is what the other thread was in relation to, my problem has been getting the cleared money in a reasonable timeframe - which I dont have a solution to.

Scott

I'll check out HSBC, thanks

[edited by: sji2671 at 11:24 am (utc) on Oct. 22, 2004]

[trillianjedi]

Get the cheques "negotiated" rather than "collected".

That's interesting Macro - looks like I have got my terminology wrong then.

I get a note of each "negotiated item" from my bank, so I guess they are being "negotiated".

Purely out of interest, what does it mean exactly? Do they sell the cheque on to a US clearing bank rather than send it through clearing themselves?

Thanks,

TJ

[Iguana]

When I put my cheques through Smile bank they used to pay me within 5 days but used the phrase "with recourse". It meant that I would have to pay £10+ per cheque if any were refused payment. I trusted Google and Amazon not to go out of business.

[blairsp]

Smile bank

What were your fees for them? Did you use the online service?

[Macro]

trillianjedi, when they negotiate they are effectively taking ownership of the cheque i.e. you sign it over to them and it becomes their property. Kind of. I've still got all the definitions I've memorised from the days when I was a banker... but I'll spare you the boring bits :)

[Iguana]

Hi blairsp

Yes, I use the online service (I like it a lot apart from only keeping 1 year's statements). Fees are £4 for small transactions and £8 for bigger ones - not sure what the changeover point is but >$500 normally costs £8 - you can collect a few cheques and out them together for just one charge

[effekt]

I'm in New Zealand and my bacnk did it overnight. Thats with a cheque > $1,000 too.

[2oddSox]

Effekt, can I ask which bank that is? Friggin' K***bank just upped the transaction time to 30 business days (from 15!) so even though there are no charges it now takes nearly 6 weeks to clear. I'll change in a heartbeat if I knew of something better.

sorry for going off-topic from the original post

[effekt]

WestpacTrust (www.westpac.co.nz), but as I said it is in New Zealand though.

[tebrino]

In Serbia I receive cheque in 7 days, cash it in 7 days with 0.6% fee. In UK that should be even faster. Did you try with different bank?

[morpheus83]

7 Days. OMG here in India it takes 30 working days. So it takes around 45 days for a US check to clear. Was wondering will opening an account in Citibank help as Google send checks drawn on Citi.

[Elmo]

From what I understand all cheques are negotiated or collected.

Negotiated means you get the money within days so is obviously the one you want.

Each bank will have a limit for what they will be prepared to negotiated a cheque, my bank (HSBC) has a limit of £10,000

Any cheque over that is collected meaning you only get the money when they have confirmation that the funds have been transferred to them.

What you need to do is shop around for a bank that has a limit you will
be within and who's charges are acceptable.

[effekt]

My bank told me 7 days, or 5 business days, but the day after I checked my account ballance and the money was in there.

[newads]

Hi Morpheus,

I have citibank a/c in INDIA. It takes 3 weeks to reflect money in my account.

Thanks,
sharma