Google $ Checks Banking

which is the best UK bank account?

[petra]

Hi,

I run a website in the UK and the majority of the income comes from the Google (adsense) programme. I opened up a US dollar bank account with NatWest and was disappointed with them.

When I opened up the account they said they will take £10 out of check deposits I make provided they're all withdrawn on the same bank.

I deposited with them 4 different checks and they took aprox. $40 out of each check eventhough they were all withdrawn on the same bank account.

Anyway, to cut a long story short, I am now ready to move to a new bank account and was wondering which UK Bank caters for a situation like mine and what ways are there to get around the astronomical fees.

Thanks

[BeeDeeDubbleU]

Petra, I am also in the UK and I use the Royal Bank of Scotland but their fees and exchange rates are also criminally high. I would also be interested to know what others recommend?

E.G. does anyone have a business account with the Alliance and Leicester commercial bank?

[elingo]

I use smile.co.uk and am very happy with them

This link has details of their charges:

[smile.co.uk...]

The good thing about their fee per cheque is that if you wait and send 2-3 cheques at a time, you get charged for only one.

And the best thing is that they don't wait 4-6 weeks for the cheque funds to fully clear in the US like other banks (Lloyds TSB are terrible) - you will see the money in your account within a few days.

[foxtunes]

I use HSBC....Thus far they've provided a sterling service.

[Jenstar]

Here is an extremely long thread, all about cashing AdSense cheques in the UK:
[webmasterworld.com...]

[david_uk]

Oddly enough, NatWest have been fine for me! I have a standard account (not a $ account) and they charged me £10.50 for two cheques paid in earlier this month. I paid in Google + Fastclick, and they charged me no more than normal. The exchange rate always seems a little in their favour though. It seems they negotiate the cheques and I usuallly see the cash in the bank a week after paying in.

[thewonderwall]

isn't Barclays supposed to be good for cashing Google Adsense cheques here in the UK? After doing my research this one came out tops for me

I have a Smile account but hadn't considered them before... thanks for the tip off... here's Smiles' charges for foreign cheques:

===========

There are non-standard services that smile offers. The charges for these are detailed below:

foreign charges

sending remittance advice by fax or letter: £10

copy of remittance advice: £10

details of incoming payments: £10

cheques for negotiation:
£4 for cheques with a sterling equivalent of up to £100
£8 for cheques with a sterling equivalent of between £100 - £2,000
(minimum £8) 0.25% for cheques in the same currency totalling between £2000 and £5000.

cheques sent for collection:
0.25%, maximum £60
minimum £15 = U.S. dollar cheques
minimum £16 = cheques in any other currency

The foreign banks may also make a charge.

unpaid foreign cheques:
£10 plus foreign bank may also make a charge

foreign traces (customer request):
£15

recalls of foreign transfers (customer request):
£15

any non bank query on foreign transfers:
£15

letter of introduction to a foreign bank:
£10

recrediting an unused draft to an account
£10

recrediting foreign currency traveller's cheques
(free to smilemore customers to a smilemore account if the cheques were originally issued through smile)
0.25%, minimum £3

handling charge on returned currency orders
£3

charge for sending payment on
£10 sterling

smile cheque presented overseas
£13 currency

[petra]

Thanks everyone. Your posts were very helpful.

David UK, how did you go about depositing the checks? Did you do it at a special currency counter? The reason I ask this is because I read in the thread provided by Jenstar that another Natwest user cashed his check at a "currency counter" was woundering if this is why mine got so complicated, I submited my Checks at a regular counter and the lady who served me was clueless.

Another side question: When I complained to Natwest, they told me that the reason this happened was because Google's bank "Citibank" in the US decided to incur seperate charges for each check since they are withdrawn on seperate branches of Citibank. Could this be right? Does it make sense? It didn't make sense to me (No pun intended)

[david_uk]

Hi Petra,

> David UK, how did you go about depositing the checks? Did you do it at a special currency counter? The reason I ask this is because I read in the thread provided by Jenstar that another Natwest user cashed his check at a "currency counter" was woundering if this is why mine got so complicated, I submited my Checks at a regular counter and the lady who served me was clueless.

I simply go into the branch and pay it in at any counter. I scrub out the £ sign and put US $, and the teller just stamps the book, and stub as per usual. Only one time have I had a teller that didn't know how to do this with US cheques. It may be because it's the main branch in my town, and has other services such as share dealing that they are a bit more wordly wise. I guess that a sub-branch might get a bit confused possibly.

> Another side question: When I complained to Natwest, they told me that the reason this happened was because Google's bank "Citibank" in the US decided to incur seperate charges for each check since they are withdrawn on seperate branches of Citibank. Could this be right? Does it make sense? It didn't make sense to me (No pun intended)

Sounds like flannel to me. It might be an extra charge they levy as they think they can get away with it as you might expect to pay more for a quirky US$ account. As I said, mine's a bog standard current account and they charged me the one fee for negotiating both Google and Fastclick cheques.

If necessary the only thing to do is cash them with another bank. You don't need to open a US$ to cash cheques. Some banks are more useless than others though. My main account is with Nationwide (as I hate NatWest) but they quoted £20 to cash US$ - hence using the NatWest account, and to their credit they have been absolutely fine.

[wildfiction]

I have a First Direct account and was wondering if Google could send the cheques directly to First Direct in Leeds and include my account number and sort code. That way I wouldn't even have to bother with going to the bank to deposit it.

I've just started this AdSense program and haven't received my first cheque yet but I'm ready your comments and already looking for ways to make things simpler.

Any comments on this anyone?

[Teri]

Hi,

We have a us dollar account with natwest. The charges for cashing cheques are the same (extortionate) rate for cheque negotiation as with the uk sterling acccount. The only benefit seems to be that we can manage the conversion to sterling to a time when the us dollar is a little healthier.

A us dollar account with citibank seems to be a good option althought they only deal with personal accounts.

Does anyone have experience with Citibank in the UK?

Thanks

[petra]

Citibank seems to be the best option. As you said, they only deal with personal accounts and the catch is you need to have a salary of at least £30,000/year and maintain a minimum balance of £2000.

[mcavill]

>> Lloyds TSB are terrible

For me they've been great - although you have to fill in an additional form - I keep a bunch of them at home and fill in before getting to the bank - £8 charge for whatever value (worth saving any small cheques up) - balance showing in my account usually within 5 working days.

[Graham]

elingo

And the best thing is that they don't wait 4-6 weeks for the cheque funds to fully clear in the US like other banks (Lloyds TSB are terrible) - you will see the money in your account within a few days.

I banked last months cheque from Google + one from Amazon on a Thursday, and the money was cleared and showing in my account by Friday. There is an £8 commission payment on cheques over £100.

I don't personally think that is bad service!

[mcavill]

me:

£8 charge for whatever value

vs

£8 commission payment on cheques over £100

my bad - i tend to batch them all and pay them in once a month....

[petra]

I think its worthwhile for the sake of clarity to differentiate between people who are cashing in their $ checks to £ and those who have a $ account and keeping their money in dollars. My situation is the latter.

[j_h_maccann]

Lloyds TSB and Barclays are both very difficult,
but Citibank UK (Strand branch) has been
extremely good (and the Citibank UK online banking
is great). There are no firm requirements to
open an account at Citibank UK, it's like any
other UK bank. There are special connections
between Citibank accounts in the UK and Citibank
accounts in other countries, so perhaps this would
be a further help if Google is drawing its cheques
on Citibank US.

[wildfiction]

I received the following from First Direct. (Just wondering if Google could post the cheques directly to First Direct? I've sent Google an email about this but no reply yet.):

Thank you for your message dated 24th November regarding how to pay a USD cheque into your first direct account.

Please post your cheque to Foreign Services, first direct, 40 Wakefield Road, Leeds LS98 1FD FAO: Foreign Services

Please send the cheque with a paying in slip or covering letter and write your account number on the back of the cheque.

Cheque Negotiations

We will, at our discretion, upon receipt of the cheque, credit your account within 48 hours, without receiving advice from the *** bank that the cheque has been paid. Consequently, we retain the right to debit your account if the cheque is subsequently returned unpaid. This can be sometime after the cheque was originally paid in.

Cheque Collections

If you, or we, at our discretion, require confirmation that a cheque has been paid, we will arrange to clear it on a collection basis. This means that the proceeds will only be credited to your account when we have received them from the paying bank. This process can take up to six weeks.

Any foreign bank charges will be deducted from the proceeds of the Collection.

Cheques Drawn on the USA

It should be noted that under US law cheques drawn/amended fraudulently can be returned up to 6 years after they were originally paid.

The charges for paying in cheques for both Collection & Negotiation are currently:-

Up to GBP 250.00 in sterling value, flat fee GBP 7.00

Over GBP 250.00 sterling value, 0.5% of sterling value minimum GBP 10.00 maximum GBP 50.00

Euro denominated cheques drawn outside the UK are GBP 7.00

Flat fee GBP 1.00 if drawn in the UK

The charges are based on the total value of cheques paid in providing they are drawn in the same currency and on the same country, therefore if you wish to keep the charges to a minimum it would be best to pay the cheques in in bulk on one paying in slip.

[chrisk999]

First Direct: (message above)

Over GBP 250.00 sterling value, 0.5% of sterling value minimum GBP 10.00 maximum GBP 50.00

That's a terrible rate! Some people here would easily be paying £50 commission, when they could be getting a £7 flat rate (Barclays for example).

[ferrari0george]

i am with Abbey and they are great
i would go with them , they also have e-banking which you can check your balance on the internet and check your statement.
e.g. money coming in and out