Cheque bouncing?
 

I wrote a cheque about a week ago, for £50. It should all have been fine, as my cheque guarantee amount is up to £100, so the bank took the charge for it, and I reimbursed the cost when I was paid.

The cheque went through fine, so I assumed there were no problems. I then got a letter saying it had bounced (which it hadn't, it went through in 2 days) and I'd been charged for it. I've now been charged £60 for a cheque which didn't bounce.

Now I'm not sure if I'm in the right here, as I didn't have the money in my account - I was relying on the cheque guarantee card to take the cost for me. But if the cheque didn't bounce, then surely they can't charge me?

I don't want to take an unnecessary trip to the bank if anyone is positive about whether I am or am not in the right here, and I can't find the necessary information on the net :(

Re: Cheque bouncing?
 

Sounds a bit dodgy to me :(
The only problem I ever had was kinda bouncing a check were upon the bank paid it out but i got a charge from the bank for going over my bank limit into the red even though I had a £50 cheque gaurantee card also.
I dont know how banks work but there very good at ripping ppl off and always pointing to the speckled dots on something screaming small print with what you thought was a dead flea on the page :)

Re: Cheque bouncing?
 

If your bank gives you shit, talk to the BBA.

Re: Cheque bouncing?
 

I believe this to be correct.

Re: Cheque bouncing?
 

You shouldn't be charged for the bounced cheque, but your bank can charge you for the unauthorised overdraft.

Re: Cheque bouncing?
 

i believe that the bank can charge you for writing a cheque without having the funds
£60 sounds a bit of a large amount though i would think £20 would be more likely

how many cheques did you write?

Re: Cheque bouncing?
 

So long as the details of the card were actually on the cheque - just being in possession of a card doesnt automatically guarantee all cheques you write up to that limit. The cheque requires the card number, issue date/expiry date/issue number and so on. If this wasn't put onto the cheque then it wasn't guaranteed.

However, if the money is gone from your account it must have gone somewhere, so ask your bank where it is. If they confirm it has been sent to whoever its meant to be with then take this information back to the other people and tell them it didnt bounce.

Re: Cheque bouncing?
 

Oh, and with the charges, you are bound to be charged for unauthorised overdraft. Some places also have a 'misuse of card' fee., though I dont know if you would get that on top, I think is usually for people who are over their limit, but keep issuing cheques and using switch anyway. As they can only charge them for being over lheir limit once, they have this fee to ensure thay can keep on takin'

Re: Cheque bouncing?
 

If this is your first offence then i suggest you go beg the bank to forget the charge and let you off. They will usually do this to show a sort of 'kindness' that will put you in a false sense of happiness allowing them to milk you in later years.

Good luck!

Re: Cheque bouncing?
 

Don't you people have any money?
I mean, regularly I read threads here about people having no money, checks bouncing, cheap food etc etc. Is it THAT bad there in Britain?

Re: Cheque bouncing?
 

By and large the demographic here is a studenty one. Students are people with income to burn at certain parts of the year, a lack of food money at other parts and a distinct inability to budget.

Re: Cheque bouncing?
 

Will it still be legal tender afterwards?

Re: Cheque bouncing?
 

Went to the bank.

Turns out I wasn't charged £60 for it. I was charged £70.

It bounced because the cheque guarantee card is only valid for retail places, like shops etc. I wrote a personal cheque to somebody else. The thing I didn't understand was that the cheque went through. Apparently though, it must have gone through (then was taken out of an ATM, lol?), then come out again after the bank realised that I didn't have the money.

The reason it was £70 was because they presented the cheque twice, so a £35 charge each time. Which is pretty shitty, if you ask me. I didn't ask them to present it twice. The woman was getting indignant though, so I just looked a bit forlorn and left.

Re: Cheque bouncing?
 

I'd bomb the bank if I were you. I can't imagine you are taking this crap from them.

Re: Cheque bouncing?
 

Which bank was this with?

If a card says its cheque guarantee its reasonable to assume that it will guarantee any cheque within its limit (as I said, so long as it had that info on it, did it?). And how do they define retail places? I used mine when I was paying for a B&B, but you couldnt tell it was any different to a personal cheque, would they not honour that? I'm surprised at the person getting indignant, generally people in bank braches will do a lot to help, do you have a phone banking service? It could be worth calling them and explaining you didnt realise the whole retail thing and might get somethig out of it.

If you didnt have the details from your card on the cheque youre probably screwed though. It sucks that they presented it twice, but they were quite within their rights to do so.

Re: Cheque bouncing?
 

Is that a finger, or someone's face?

Re: Cheque bouncing?
 

Scroll down.

Re: Cheque bouncing?
 

I stil don't see it.

Re: Cheque bouncing?
 

Did you write the details on the back of the cheque like Ebany said?

Re: Cheque bouncing?
 

No :(

Apparently retail places have some business number so when they cash the cheque, it goes through on that.

So if I'd written my card number etc on the back of the cheque, you think it'd have gone through?

Well, it's done now. There isn't much I can do really :(

Re: Cheque bouncing?
 

honestly :rolleyes:

intimidated by staff.

Re: Cheque bouncing?
 

Well normally this kind of thing is taken in Enquiries (in a room or something). But a cashier asked if she could help, so I told her, expecting her to go "oh i don't know deary" - instead she looked at me like I was the spawn of some horrible chequebouncingbeast and just sounded put out when I asked why it had been resubmitted etc.

Because it was a cashier, I had a line of people behind me, and I was all-to-aware of their eyes burning into the back of my skull, wanting me to hurry up and accept I'd been a silly muppet with my finances.

Re: Cheque bouncing?
 

Write them a letter.

Banks like letters and tend to respond to them, as normally, muppets with no control over their personal finances will go to the bank and ask a teller, expecting them to go "oh i don't know deary".

Explain to the bank some shit about being unaware of their practise of re-submitting cheques until either it gets paid or your bank fees are actually greater than the entire planet's GDP and they send the bailiffs round.
They may be reasonable, or the guy who opens the letter will laugh about it and post on an Internet message board about what utter muppets people are with their money.

Re: Cheque bouncing?
 

there're these things called balance sheets - theyre very useful and really helpful with keeping track of your transactions, try them out sometime.. :rolleyes:

Re: Cheque bouncing?
 

your experience may not always be what always happens.
what happens in your nation may not always be what happens in others.

sometimes you have to think.

Re: Cheque bouncing?
 

but in the general scheme of things, looking at the big picture.. we are all the same - we are the same color - we are all BLACK, and you are my mother****in' brother, yo!

Re: Cheque bouncing?
 

I know perfectly well how much money I had demiGOD.

None (until Friday).

That's why I relied on the cheque to get some money to tide me over until then.

Re: Cheque bouncing?
 

are you guys allowed to write post-dated checks? like date the checks to the day when you know youre getting money? - i do it a lot.. heh, anyway, even with the full awareness of how much money i have, i still keep them posted on a balance sheet so ill have redundancy.. you know.. computer crashes, ill have something on hard-copy, that kind of stuff..

Re: Cheque bouncing?
 

[quote=demiGOD]are you guys allowed to write post-dated checks? like date the checks to the day when you know youre getting money? QUOTE]

future date.

not post.

Re: Cheque bouncing?
 

No, it's post-dated cheques...
Well that's what I've heard them be called, anyway.

Re: Cheque bouncing?
 

its funny you mentioned that.. it was a question of mine years ago, but i guess the explanation why banks call them post-dated is because theyre meant to be cashed on a date after you wrote the check, hence the term post - although it gets deceiving when used to something that hasnt happened yet heh..

Re: Cheque bouncing?
 

If you pay by cheque in a shop, they will ask you for your card, and will write down all the details on the back of the cheque. The guarantee is for other peoples benefit, not yours- it's not intended to be used as an overdraft. If you'd written the number on the back, the receiver would have had no problems paying it in, but you would probably have been charged...

Re: Cheque bouncing?
 

Damn bank took my cheque gaurantee card of me and gave me a nice shiny non cheque gaurantee card :(
Don't think they trust meh :( Stupid expiry dates.

Re: Cheque bouncing?
 

Pst-dating cheques is generally technically against your terms of use, but few people know it and its generally ignored. Most of the time its not like the bank can tell anyway.

While its certainly not a reccomended way of managig your account, in a desperate situation writing a guaranteed cheque for funds you dont have is a way to get someone off your back. You just have to remember to guarantee it. I assume the people receiveing the cheque didnt know this was how you intended to cover the payment, as I'd assume they would have asked ot see the card otherwise.

Re: Cheque bouncing?
 

If you're going to write cheques for money that you don't yet have in your account I'd recommend you'd go to one of those "cheque cashing" places. They rip you off, but not as badly as the banks charges. They accept cheques days up to 21 days from now (although they charge more the longer it is).

edit :
Well speaking personally I never got out of the student/debt thing (I graduated almost four years ago). I never got any help from parents so I had to apply for maximum loans / overdrafts, etc. Then when I was earning I had to pay rent, and so I never got round to paying things off. I have more debt than when I left University despite the fact my income has gone up consistently over the last four year.

Oh, and I'm an idiot too. That doesn't help.