US Cheque Help

[billabonggreg]

Hi you lovely lot.

I really hope you'll be able to help. We've been sent a US cheque in the post for an over payment of medical costs but we can't pay it in to our account.

We bank with Nationwide and apparently, they don't take foreign cheques. I've even called the US insurance company that issued the cheque to see if they could do a bank transfer but they can't (or don't want to) help.

Any advice?

Thanks

[Tetrarch]

Do you have an account with any other UK bank who may accept it? The fees for paying in US$ cheques and getting them converted to £ are quite high, so it really depends how much the cheque is for as to whether it is worth it. If it's for a reasonable amount and the issuer refuses to pay you any other way, I think your only option would be to open an account with a bank which will accept the cheque.

Debra

[ERICSMUM]

Perhaps they don’t have much call for that sort of transaction, being a building society ?

All the major banks will process it for you but as said above it would cost. (there’s a fair amount of work involved).

[daytonababe]

I had a similar issue last year with a American insurance company

They wouldn’t do a bank transfer and my banks starling and Monzo won’t take US cheques

In the end I had 2 options .

1) keep the cheque and when I next went to America open a US bank account and deposit it

2) sign umpteen waivers and get the cheque made out and sent to my American friend who then paid it into her bank account and transferred to me via PayPal

I choose option 2 .. I trust her implicitly and it all worked out fine in the end , but this went on for weeks prior to that

[billabonggreg]

Thanks all. It's for nearly $400 so would like to get this resolved.

Looks like we'll have to open a new bank account.

[Susanjane]

We had a cheque for about $1,100 dollars a couple of years ago and used our First Direct account. It cost about £10.00 for them to put it through.