I had the misfortune recently to take an action in the small claims court against someone who owed me a significant amount of money. By a chance of fate – into which I won’t go here – the action is already complicated, having been lodged in one court, then transferred to one halfway across the country, and now probably residing halfway between that court and yet another.
My delight at having received a cheque for the full amount owing, was tinged with caution. I didn’t want to call off the case too early in case the cheque were to bounce. I waited the four working day period after paying it into the NatWest. Because of the Christmas break I was advised to give it a little longer “in case of postal delays”. So I have given it 10 working days – but still the bank refuses to give me a guarantee that the money is irrefutably mine. In other words, at any time in the future, should the debtor’s cheque be returned unpaid, my account could be debited the amount.
What about all those lost letters, the ones that people said they've sent and never arrive, the tales of correspondence that turns up weeks, months - sometimes even years - later? Mistakes happen (we've heard a great deal things getting lost recently). What happens I wonder when returned cheques from ages of yore manifest themselves in rediscovered banking postal bags?
There appears to be no specific time after which a cheque is “safe”. I should have paid it in as a “special”. What’s a “special” I hear you ask? Well a “special” clearance is a service that would have cost me £15, paid to my bank the NatWest, but which would have guaranteed that the cheque had been “cleared”.
We live and learn. What I’ve learnt from this episode is that the cheque clearance system appears still to be dependent upon the banking postal service. Here’s to the digital age – may it not be too long in arriving at UK banks.
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