Expired cheques

Macha

Hi guys,

apologies if this is the wrong forum. I tried to deposit 3 cheques in my current account, dating from 2005-2007. They were all returned, with an accompanying letter stating that they are "out of date".

I thought that cheques were legally valid for 6 years??

thanks in advance

Taco

Lizzykins

No 6 months and some, (especially government cheques), are only valid for 3 months!

Macha

OK thanks for that

unclebill98

Its 12 months for a chq drawn in Euro from Irish banks. There can be chq with shorter times, this will be stated on the chq.

kaiser sauze

unclebill98 wrote: »

Its 12 months for a chq drawn in Euro from Irish banks. There can be chq with shorter times, this will be stated on the chq.

I was recently refused the encashment of a PTSB cheque as it was 'beyond six months'. Cheque was dated January, tried to cash it during August.

Payee agreed to re-issue, luckily. I had forgotten about it.

unclebill98

Unless it stated on the chq it was valid for only 6 months. I've never refused a chq unless its over a year or stated on the chq and I've not had them come back either. That is a strange one alright.

KillerShamrock

Cheques are valid for 6 months, drafts on the other hand dont expire so yep they were right to send them all back

Toots

In most cases I've seen the cheque is valid for 6 months. In some cases cashiers may lodge cheques for you that are older than 6 months, but it's up to branch discretion.

Rockshamrover

What's the logic behind having an expiry period on a cheque? It just seems to cause problems for the bank and the customer.

Drafts and postal orders have no expiry dates, afaik.

Thanks

Toots

When you buy a draft the money goes out of your account straight away and is held in a suspense account in the bank. So as far as you're concerned you've paid what you owe and are free to spend any money left in your account.

When you write a cheque, the money doesn't come out of your account until the person who you've given it to goes into a bank and lodges or cashes it. If you had plenty of money and you gave someone a cheque for €1000 today, say then they didn't cash it for two years, and when they did go to cash it, your financial situation had changed. The bank would either pay the cheque, leaving you €1000 in the red, (which would be a pretty nasty shock) or they'd bounce it, meaning that the payee would get the cheque back and would in all likelihood be pretty pissed.

It's really about giving a reasonable time frame for customers to process cheques. If I gave you a cheque now, there's not really a good reason why you couldn't either get to a bank yourself, or get someone else to go to the bank for you within 6 months. Similarly, it's unfair and inconvenient for the drawer to potentially have to pay out on cheques they wrote years ago and thought were dealt with.

Rockshamrover

Excellent explanation Toots.

Thanks

Rock