Can cheques be sent internationally

I went to write a cheque to send as a gift to a family member who is based in another Eurozone country but it says on the inside of my cheque book that the cheques in this book are for making payments within the Republic of Ireland only and to contact my branch.

I've had a look on the BOI website and the only alternative is a bank draft but those are for amounts over 500 only.

I don't have the bank details of this person and don't want to spoil the surprise by asking for them, is there another product I can use? I have lodged cheques from foreign countries before, why do BOI cheques only work domestically?

fritzelly

Which country you sending it to?
Apart from many banks not even accepting them anymore there could be a big fee for the ones that do.

Alternative prepaid debit card maybe?

byronbay2

The cheque will clear eventually (could take up to a month!) but BOI will take a good chunk of it, probably about €25. Far better to get the recipients IBAN and do an International Credit Transfer. This costs virtually nothing (10c maybe) and the money is transferred almost immediately.

fritzelly

fritzelly wrote: »

Which country you sending it to?
Apart from many banks not even accepting them anymore there could be a big fee for the ones that do.

Alternative prepaid debit card maybe?

Germany

Bank of Ireland: Megan

Deleted User wrote: »

I went to write a cheque to send as a gift to a family member who is based in another Eurozone country but it says on the inside of my cheque book that the cheques in this book are for making payments within the Republic of Ireland only and to contact my branch.

I've had a look on the BOI website and the only alternative is a bank draft but those are for amounts over 500 only.

I don't have the bank details of this person and don't want to spoil the surprise by asking for them, is there another product I can use? I have lodged cheques from foreign countries before, why do BOI cheques only work domestically?

Hi NellyBellyJelly,

Thanks for getting in touch with us here on Boards.ie. 

Bank of Ireland cheques can be lodged into international bank accounts. Although we would like to add, when the person is lodging the cheque outside ROI, it would then be classed by their bank as a foreign cheque. I'm afraid we would not be aware if the bank will accept foreign cheques and these may also take 6-8 weeks to clear and become available to your family member.

The alternative to this, would be an electronic transfer and for this, their account details would be needed. I understand this is something you were hoping not to do, however, it is the quickest way of transferring the funds. 


The reason the cheque book states that the cheques can only be used to make payments within ROI is because some countries don't accept ROI cheques so it is best to check with the branch prior to writing the cheque. 

I hope this information helps and if there is anything else we can help with, please feel free to get in touch. 

Have a great weekend and take care.

Many thanks,
Megan