US Dollar Cheque - Can I lodge or cash it?

theguzman

I received a US Dollar cheque drawn from Chase bank in New York, it is a gift from an elderly family member over there. I do my banking with EBS here as I don't have a Bank of Ireland account any more as they screwed me on travel related charges once around 8-9 years ago. .

How could I cash or lodge it I wonder.

dennyk

You can't at EBS; they don't accept non-euro cheques, unfortunately. Zero chance of any other bank allowing you to cash it if you aren't a customer, either; it can take weeks or months for a US cheque to clear because of their antiquated banking system, so no bank is going to take the risk when they can't claw the funds back from you if it eventually bounces.

Do you think your elderly family member could learn how to use TransferWise?

kenmc

Could you set up an account somewhere, lodge the cheque, when it clears withdraw the money and close the account? Presume there's some sort of cooling off period on opening a bank account too? Either way, open, lodge, withdraw, close as quick as you're able, unless can get them to revolut you or transferwise it...

Bojill

Set up one of the 'basic' accounts that are available without fees.
Close it once you have your money.

theguzman

I am going to try my Credit Union first but otherwise I'll have to go down the open and close jobby.

phormium

CU won't cash it either but might be quicker open an account there than the banks many of which you have to wait for an appointment, go with photo id, address id within last 3 months and proof of pps number. Cheque will probably have to be sent for collection so usually hefty charges on those, depending on how much it's for it's often hardly worth lodging them!

Donald Trump

Depending on the amount, ask a friend who has a US bank account to lodge it for you.

Most US banks will allow you to lodge a cheque via photo (usually in an app)

Then when it clears, have them give you the Euro equivalent, or else to transfer it to you using a money transfer service. Depending on how much it is for. If it's $50 then the former. If it's $50k, then the latter.

dennyk

Donald Trump wrote: »

Depending on the amount, ask a friend who has a US bank account to lodge it for you.

Most US banks will allow you to lodge a cheque via photo (usually in an app)

Then when it clears, have them give you the Euro equivalent, or else to transfer it to you using a money transfer service. Depending on how much it is for. If it's $50 then the former. If it's $50k, then the latter.

That would only work if the cheque was made out to the US account holder. Most banks these days won't even accept third party cheques in person, because the risk of fraud is extremely high; there's zero chance they'd accept a mobile deposit of a third party cheque.

drogon.

Used to work for a US multinational company that gave stock as bonus every year and every quarter they used to send out cheques with dividend payments in $. All of cheques were circa $10 and still have them in the drawer somewhere.

Thankfully they eventually moved to depositing this directly into the bank. Could always buy a coffee after what was left once the fees and conversion rate was taken by the bank !

Donald Trump

dennyk wrote: »

That would only work if the cheque was made out to the US account holder. Most banks these days won't even accept third party cheques in person, because the risk of fraud is extremely high; there's zero chance they'd accept a mobile deposit of a third party cheque.

Mobile deposit is no more open to fraud than a normal deposit.


A cheque can be endorsed. I've never tried to remotely deposit an endorsed cheque but you could be correct. I'm just not sure why they would be worried about it. The cheque number is unique and if it tuns out to be a dud then it is the same situation as if it was to bounce after a manual deposit on a cheque made out to you in the first place!

Gael23

Credit Union is what I do.
I have relatives in the US also

Jim2007

Donald Trump wrote: »

Mobile deposit is no more open to fraud than a normal deposit.

Well perhaps if you could explain how it works...

Legal there is a requirement for the cheque to be physically presented to the paying bank, so no cheque no payment. Likewise the paying bank needs the cheque to the payment. Unless the amounts are small I cannot see banks willing putting themselves on the hook for it.

Darc19

phormium wrote: »

CU won't cash it either but might be quicker open an account there than the banks many of which you have to wait for an appointment, go with photo id, address id within last 3 months and proof of pps number. Cheque will probably have to be sent for collection so usually hefty charges on those, depending on how much it's for it's often hardly worth lodging them!

Most CU will accept dollar cheque from members.

Clearance time is about 4 weeks.

Donald Trump

Jim2007 wrote: »

Well perhaps if you could explain how it works...

Legal there is a requirement for the cheque to be physically presented to the paying bank, so no cheque no payment. Likewise the paying bank needs the cheque to the payment. Unless the amounts are small I cannot see banks willing putting themselves on the hook for it.

I have deposited American cheques in USD, posted to me in Ireland, directly to a US bank account, via app while sitting in Ireland.

You use the app to take a photo of the front and the back of the cheque.


Or as the yanks say "checks"

Donald Trump

Here is a video showing the general idea.

theguzman

Donald Trump wrote: »

Here is a video showing the general idea.

Just shows how god-damn awful Irish banks are with technology. Bank of Ireland's App and online banking is prehistoric, Windows 98 almost, AIB is far ahead of Bank of Ireland yet still miles behind Revolut.

Donald Trump

theguzman wrote: »

Just shows how god-damn awful Irish banks are with technology. Bank of Ireland's App and online banking is prehistoric, Windows 98 almost, AIB is far ahead of Bank of Ireland yet still miles behind Revolut.

American banks are still a bit behind on some things. The reason they have easy mechanisms for dealing with cheques is that they still use them a lot.


The bank I was with had a "billpay" feature that you could use to pay bills online. Instead of transferring the money electronically though, what you would do is go online and put in the details of the recipient and the amount. Then the bank would print off a cheque and post it to them!


No chip and pin in usage really there. The cards tend to have them now but they still aren't used in practice.

But they are fairly good at detecting fraud for card usage. I will give them that!

Jim2007

theguzman wrote: »

Just shows how god-damn awful Irish banks are with technology. Bank of Ireland's App and online banking is prehistoric, Windows 98 almost, AIB is far ahead of Bank of Ireland yet still miles behind Revolut.

It is nothing to do with technology it is a legal requirement. And it's why most of Europe dumped them about 20 years ago.

Cheques have to be physically presented, otherwise the bank is on the hook for the money.

L1011

Bojill wrote: »

Set up one of the 'basic' accounts that are available without fees.
Close it once you have your money.

Standard T&C is holding no other account anywhere; as that a get-out allowed by the legislation forcing the banks to offer these accounts.

theguzman wrote: »

Just shows how god-damn awful Irish banks are with technology. Bank of Ireland's App and online banking is prehistoric, Windows 98 almost, AIB is far ahead of Bank of Ireland yet still miles behind Revolut.

No Irish bank is going to invest in technology to make it easier to use cheques when they want the damn things gone yesterday.

drogon.

theguzman wrote: »

Just shows how god-damn awful Irish banks are with technology. Bank of Ireland's App and online banking is prehistoric, Windows 98 almost, AIB is far ahead of Bank of Ireland yet still miles behind Revolut.

Chip and pin is still not very common in the US, prob getting better since Apple Pay and Android Pay came out few years back. But still most transition are via a card swipe, which is really insecure. Most folks in the US have 3 or 4 debt/credit card just as a backup incase one is blocked due to fraud, which happens very frequently.

theguzman

I rang my local Credit Union today and they will lodge the Cheque into my account and give me a good rate which is only €4 behind the interbank xe.com rate. I already have an account with them so no worries on this, I notice the Credit Union have upped their game alot with a current account and Debit Card available now and online banking.

I have an account since I was like 10 years old with a little plastic Credit Union book. A good habit of saving that instilled into me from an early age and stood me well down through the years.