Seller won't accept cheques. Reckon it sounds dodgy?

perhaps i should have qualified my statement. if i'm buying i'll ALWAYS do the transaction face to face with cash. if i'm selling i'd prefer to do the transaction face to face for cash however if this isn't possible then a cashiers cheque or direct payment into my account is my preferred option. however most if not all sales i've conducted have been via the forum and face to face. with only some speaker cable sold via cheque / post and i'd met the guy previously anyhow.
cheers

julian

 

well I sold something on ebay fairly lately, and I thoguth I was safe, the guy mailed to say he had stopped the chq as he'd had some problems , but this was about 5 days after the cheque was paid in.

the cheque showed clear funds in my account 1-2 days after it was paid in.

here is the lowdown as I understand it so far, after a bit of prying.

halifax said funds usually appear fairly quick, 3 or so days after paying in...this shows they have the funds in the account.

someone said about 5 days to clear, someone else said its not fully cleared until around 10 days!! so you could do your usual 3-5 days to clear and get shafted.

this chq showed until about 7 days, upon which the funds went back out of my account.

I was mighty miffed, at least he told me of his intentions, but I posted a chq to someone else and was told after he presented it, there was no way of stopping it, it was not guaranteed.

so there is lots of confusion, and no-one wants you to really know the truth, surprise!!!

I now have no idea about how long to leave it until a cheq is safe.

that together with an ebay sale, where I said 3-5 days after funds received to someone, and he mailed 2x to say he was getting really irratated ONLY 2 days after I'd got the cheque. totally utterly unreasonable in the extreme

wankers galore, beware.

by and large I have found most people selling on hifi and nice decent types, but that doens't make it immune from dicks. I think clarification and DEFINITIVE info. is required on when a cheque is safe, and if a bank is not forthcoming, what are they hiding? if you are sure a cheque is safe based upon what they say and its not, that leaves them being complicit if not liable.
time for the truth imo.

 

So what would happen say, for an example,you have £100 in your account,someone pays you a cheque of another hundred,it been in your account two days,you need some cash,you go into your bank and ask for £150,so you have fifty left,but later the cheque is cancelled,but you only have £50 in your acount left,what would happen? here if you don't have the cash in your account the bank don't pay,what would happen then?

 

you would go over drawn and chances are the bank would charge you for it.

 

But thats my point,you can't go overdrawn here,if you don't have the money the bank don't send,so services will cut you off,i.e phone,elec etc,but I wonder what would happen if it was a private individual,but I think (hope)once it appears on your bank statement or in your account it's yours.

 

Data, 10 days still isnt enough. My bank told me that they can stop the money even at 30 days.

I just dont accept cheques for e-bay sales full stop. I say cash, bankers draft or electronic money transfer.

 

OK, I've told the guy I'll take it. Fingers crossed.

Thanks everyone for your input, I'll keep you all posted (especially WRT to how it sounds with the Sennheisers).

 

Guys, I think there's a degree of misconception going on here. If you're being given a UK clearing bank cheque (read High St Bank) then it will be cleared by noon on the 4th after being presented (not including weekends and bank holidays). However the funds can show as being in your account as early as the day the cheque was paid in, but remember they wont be cleared.

Where there can be a problem is if the payee decides to stop the cheque, and the best time to do it is on that 4th day, just before midday. By doing that, your account wont show the cheque as having been stopped until the next day, and nor will you receive the letter from the bank informing you of that fact. So the moral of the story is, always wait for at least 5 days after having paid it in. Also remember to pay in before 3.30 or it wont make that days clearing.

JTB

 

Hi JTB,

This doesn't seem be to be the case. Abbey bank has said that it can take between 2 day & six months to clear. They even quoted over six months in rare cases. Nat west has said that cheque payments will never be guaranteed and can always be cancelled later.

Here is aquote from the Moneybox programme,

Even the Association of Payment Clearing Services has now recommended avoiding cheques whenever possible and using electronic payments between bank accounts instead.

Not good reading. It seem that bank make a decision after around 3 to 4 days whether the funds are there or not. If they get it wrong, they can take the money out of your account later. Also it does seem that you can cancel a cheque at a later date. I'm going to check with my bank for more details.

SCIDB

 

I think the problem comes about by under british law a chegue has to clear within 5 days but can be canceled because of lack of funds or fraud for upto 30 days.

 

The major banks have no interest in making cheques a secure and guaranteed payment mechanism, when they're free.

Its much better business for them, to leave it as a confusing grey area and recommend electronic transfers that frequently have a surcharge.

For example, as a Barclays customer, it is only free to transfer money to another UK account in a different bank if you are a "Platinum" customer. Otherwise there's a not-insignificant charge.

 

Thats odd, it is free to any bank with HSBC as long as you have an online login etc. which again are free

Andrew

 

Ah, depends on the amount.
Barclays on-line service has a limit on the transfer that can be made on-line and hence free.

 

Well, the amp arrived no problem, in great nick, and extremely fast. Thanks again Trevor if you're reading, and sorry for being dubious at first.

I'll start a new thread about it when I get round to it, but my overriding first impression is: gosh, it's tiny. Awww, look at its little volume knob!