It also depends on who you have your bank account with. If it's one of
the clearing banks (lloyds, Barclays, RBS, BOS, or HSBC), then it's 3
working days. Any of the other, will first have to send the cheque to
the clearing bank (allow another 2-3 days), then wait for it to clear (3
days), then wait for the funds to be sent back to them (2-3 days).

Paying bay card/BACS/debit card certainly makes sense when this is
considered...

Andy Hall wrote:
On Sun, 7 Aug 2005 08:23:39 +0100, "Mick"
wrote:


If a cheque I paid someone for goods was banked, on a Saturday morning in
one of the main name banks in the UK, when should it have cleared by
enabling the goods to be sent?

I am trying to find why the goods have not been received,

Thanks, Mick.


According to how the banks say that the system works, it would be the
following Wednesday or Thursday. They claim three working days for
cheque clearance. However, Saturday is not really a working day and
IIRC, business from it goes into Monday's business for counting and
processing purposes.

This of course is a total rip off. The money disappears from your
account immediately but does not appear on the recipient's account
until the three days are up. In the meantime, the bank makes margin
on it.

I hardly use cheques at all and in general avoid dealing with people
who insist on them. It's much easier and cheaper to do a BACS
transfer, and most people will accept payments this way. I guess I
use 1-2 cheques a year, where there is no alternative. Even so,
there is still a bank rip off, and the money still takes three working
days to be "cleared". This is an even bigger rip-off, because of
course it is really done in seconds.

In general, it is much better to pay by credit card, even if you don't
want to run a credit card balance (which is unwise anyway). If you
are spending over £100 on a UK transaction, it gives you protection
with the supplier, in that the card company is on the hook if there
are issues with supply or product. I've also used it as a price
negotiating point. Ask the supplier if they accept credit card. If
they do, ask for a 3% discount for non-CC payment, or 6% if they take
Amex. It's surprising how many will go for this.