International Cheque Clearance Time

Irish Lion

I have just been told by my bank (Permanent TSB) that an International Cheque that I lodged on Monday will take 25 working days to clear.
It's a Euro Cheque from a French Bank so can someone tell me why it should take so long??
I have been told it's an industry standard but a friend of mine lodged a french cheque to BOI last year and it cleared in 8 days.

BuffyBot

Are you sure they did say that it may take *up* to that to clear.

Unfortunately, that is the way with international cheques. It's a complex process, and needs to be done due to the high instances of fraud.

Davidth88

I lodged a UK cheque back in 2009 , it took 15-18 days.

Basically you can thank the fraudsters, the cheques HAVE to physically go through the issuing branch I think .

piperh

It is 25 days they say but it can actually take 30days to clear a foreign cheque and their argument is they send it to the foreign bank for clearance and then wait for the bank to send it back again. I reg deposit UK cheques into my PTSB account and thats normally 30days to clearance which is ridiculous.

BTW credit union is 30days for foreign clearance as well.

loveisdivine

I'm with ulster bank and when a relative in England sends me a chq, it clears the very next day. I asked them why and they just said its the way their systems work.

johnfitz69

Yea its 25 working days. Its because of fraud and that these cheques can still come back unpaid after 20 days. Why didn't you get the funds transferred to you.

Gael23

I sometimes lodge US Dollar cheques to my PTSB account and they take up to 30days

Geri Male

loveisdivine wrote: »

I'm with ulster bank and when a relative in England sends me a chq, it clears the very next day. I asked them why and they just said its the way their systems work.

Not sure if it's the same with all banks but they have two choices when someone gives them a foreign cheque to lodge to their account.

1) Send it for collection. i.e. bypass the clearing system and post it directly to the foreign bank and wait for them to send a payment back. Once the payment comes back it's lodged to your account. Can take anything from 10 to 30 days.

2) Negotiate it straightaway i.e. lodge it to your account and put it through the clearing system. You can draw against it immediately but the bank reserves the right to debit your account if the cheque bounces.

Geri Male

If the bank is unsure about the cheque or it's a large amount they'll go for option 1

unclebill98

loveisdivine wrote: »

I'm with ulster bank and when a relative in England sends me a chq, it clears the very next day. I asked them why and they just said its the way their systems work.

It's cleared for funds but it'd still may be returned un paid in 4-6 weeks time.

heathercat

I'm also with PTSB and regularly lodge USD cheques from a US government office (!) and normally it takes around 3 weeks for them to clear. But THIS time (26 July) I lodged 4 cheques in one go (had collected them for 4 months to save on fee) and so far only THREE are cleared, the last one still pending. This is outrageous.

I am trying to find a way for "direct transfer" and am still awaiting the reply from the US.

In this day and age, where money is being sent around the world in the blink of an eye, I CANNOT believe the stone age methods some banks/countries are still using. Simply ridiculous *shakes head*

:mad:

unclebill98

While I agree that things should be quicker you are using one of the oldest forms of payments, it's a slooooow process at the best of times but 3 months is a tad much.

There may be an issue asking now for a direct payment as the chq would be slowly making its way through the system,