Cheque Clearance Times

[Juswundrin]

Hi

As I forgot to ask at the Post Office at the time, and can't see anything about it on the website, does anyone know how many days it takes for a cheque (from Credit Agricole) to clear into a La Poste current account?

Thanks

[Bones]

Hi, as far as I know its roughly equitable to UK waiting times.

UK cheques,  just out of interest,  have to go to a main office and take about three weeks - but I think la poste charges are really low for this (there has to be some upside to using la poste!).

[Anton Redman]

There are at two separate issues :r

1. When  you an draw money or write another cheque secure in the knowledge that it will it not bounce.

2. How long before youcan be sure the person who gave you the cheque as enough cash in his or her account to cover it.

Broadly 5 working days and 10 working but check the small print on you account or ask at your branch and ask them to confirm in writing

[Juswundrin]

"there has to be some upside to using la poste!"

Best network and lowest charges aside you mean?

Thanks Anton, that's great. We're pretty sure the funds are there (we know the payer), but... shouldn't 2 come before 1 ?

[Anton Redman]

Confusing and illogical though it sounds they were two seperate states both in the UK and France. You normally  have value/can draw on the money after 5 days BUT the bank on which it the cheque has beem drawn has about 10 days to bounce it. I may be out of date but I learnt the difference between value date some years ago.  The last time a major advertising agency went broke in the UK their bankers were still succesfully refusing to honour cheques 7 working days after they were paid into London/Electronic Clearing.

Not positive about France but given it tales three days to cancel a debit card if it is stolen with the pin number I do not think they are likely to be any faster at returning cheques as unpaid.

  

[Juswundrin]

Got it, thanks very much for that.

[allanb]

[quote user="Anton Redman"]There are at two separate issues :r

1. When  you an draw money or write another cheque secure in the knowledge that it will it not bounce.

2. How long before youcan be sure the person who gave you the

cheque as enough cash in his or her account to cover it.[/quote]

The first of these is negotiable.  If you are a known customer of

the bank, they may agree to let you use the funds after a few days -

but you need to ask.

However, it will still be your loss if the other person's cheque bounces.  On

the back of the deposit slip you will probably find "sous réserve

d'encaissement" or something similar.  How long it takes to find

out whether the cheque is good may depend on how remote the other bank

is.  But if you've used the money, and then the other cheque does bounce, then of course that may put you into

overdraft, which can be expensive.

[Bones]

Well actually I got it wrong with the 'upsides' to using La Poste -- I was going off what the woman at the bank told me and not my bank statement, which details the costs under two seperate entries and seems to equate with the other bank's charges.

As for their superb 'network', that doesn't really benefit me.

So yes, best network (but not lowest charges) aside, I don't rate 'em!