Wachovia not accepting an international check

Unable to deposit check from another country

[JuDDer]

We have a company based in the UK and one of our websites is USA-based and has operated a successful in-house affiliate program for over 5 years.

We have tens of thousands of affiliates who are paid either by PayPal or by check. We have a "US Dollar" bank account with our bank in the UK (Barclays) so we can pay our affiliates in US Dollars and have never had any problems until now.

One of our affiliates banks with Wachovia, and his particular branch of Wachovia is refusing to accept our check and is not allowing our affiliate to deposit it in their account.

Has anyone ever heard of anything like this happening? We send out thousands of dollars in affiliate payments every month and we have done for years, and nobody else has ever had this particular problem and I find it bizarre that a US bank will not accept a check from a bank in another country.

I can understand a bank not wanting to "cash" a check from a bank that they do not normally do business with or even charge a fee for processing the check just the same as we do when we receive checks from other countries, but to say "we don't accept that kind of check" just seems absolutely ridiculous to me.

As far as I'm aware, and international check is processed almost exactly the same as a check from anywhere else, in that it is sent back to the issuing branch for clearance.

Has anyone else ever run into this problem?

Thanks

[vincevincevince]

Have you double checked with the bank? It might be the affiliate trying to get you to to wire the money instead and making up stories about the bank refusing the cheque.

If the bank confirms that they really are refusing the cheque, then you will need to speak to your Business Banking Manager at Barclays who should be able to help.

[limoshawn]

I have never heard of a bank not acepting a check, they may not make the funds available untill the check clears depending on the account history.

I would check with the bank directly, there's mostl likely more to the story.

[LifeinAsia]

I would say either:
A) The affiliate misunderstood what the bank told him/her, or
B) The affiliate is trying to get you to issue another check or wire the money (possibly resulting in getting paid twice), or
C) The person the affiliate talked to at the bank is a complete idiot and the affiliate should complain to the bank manager and take his/her business elsewhere immediately if the manager confirms the restriction.

[JuDDer]

Thanks everyone.
A representative from Wachovia got back to me and confirmed that there is absolutely no problem at all accepting checks from abroad, so I'm not sure what's going on with this particular person at their particular branch.

[percentages]

>A representative from Wachovia got back to me and confirmed that there is absolutely no problem at all accepting checks from abroad, so I'm not sure what's going on with this particular person at their particular branch.

I will only add this...it has nothing to do with a particular branch of Wachovia!

All processing is done regionally, branches do not get the discretion. The problem is with your affiliate.

I'm British, regularly transfer money from the my UK Barclays accounts to my USA Wachovia accounts via several methods without any problem. Done it for over 13 years....not a single problem has ever occurred!

My wife used to work for Wachovia Bank.....she says..."This is a nonsense....it isn't the banks"!

Your affiliate is either "very confused" or someone you shouldn't be dealing with IMHO :)

[Jack_Hughes]

It may not be that they are refusing to deposit the cheque but that it would cost too much to process it.

we had a supplier tell us that it would have cost him $300 to deposit a dollar cheque from our US dollar account with HSBC.

We now wire the money over.

[senixon]

I found this thread by searching google for "cashing international checks in US"... It's a bit ironic, because I am on the opposite end of this dilemma, I am an affiliate for one of British companies and just received my first commission check which of course is drawn in GBP.

After vising my bank (WAMU) I was told that they can take it but it's going to be 3-4 weeks before I see the money from this check and it's going to cost me a substantial fee to get this done. I was referred to several other banks that may help me, and after talking with every one of them I received the same answer...

Basically the way that most banks in U.S. handle this is they sent the check to collections and wait for it to clear, and the recipient does not get paid until it does. Needless to say it's very incontinent for one and two, the recipient gets a nice chunk taken out of the check besides the headaches.

For me personally, it's not worth the hassle -- there are plenty affiliate programs I can join in US or make sure they pay-out in USD funds rather then wait for the foreign check to clear and in the end still end up on the loosing end of the system.

My question is, how much more work would it be for the payee to send the money over PayPal, Western Union, or a check in USD funds?

[gpilling]

I believe it costs us $25USD to wire money internationally right now. I just sent some to India last week.