On Sun, 07 Aug 2005 09:07:16 +0100, 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.

Saturday is also not a working day as far as cheque clearance (and a
lot of other banking business) is concerned

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.

There are sound reasons for the money disappearing from your account
immediately and not appearing (well at least for a day or two) in the
recipient's account. It's to do with the risk of a fraudster writing
multiple cheques when they've only got enough funds to cover one and
the time it takes to get the physical cheque from the recipient's
branch to your branch.

The fact that it makes a bit of money for the bank is nice for them
but doesn't cover the cost of processing the cheque.

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.

Which bank do you use ? I've never had an electronic payment (from one
clearing bank to another) result in anything but a credit to the
recipient on the same day as the money disappears from my account.

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.

Agreed

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.

Cheers,

John