incompetence watch- banks


I wrote a cheque on the eighteenth. The money left my bank last thursday. Jessops still haven’t received the money and won’t give me my shiny new camera until they do. They also expect it to take a fortnight for them to get money from a cheque payment.
What exactly is their bank doing with my/their money for the week and a bit between taking it out of my account and putting it into jessops’?


0 thoughts on “incompetence watch- banks

  • Duncan

    The banking system works in such a way that once the cheque has been approved by your bank, the funds will move within a day (3 at most depending on credit scoring). However, the initial approval stage can take some time, typically 3-7 working days as the paper moves through the clearing house.

    If you bank with a building society, there is a secondary layer of admin and it will add a day or so to the system.

    The delay at jessops is not because they haven’t got your money, it’s because your bank could approve the cheque, send the funds and the recall them with no time limit (eg you could have requested a stop on the cheque you used). To reduce risk to themselves, they are holding the cleared funds for a few days before “accepting” as cleared funds.

    The advantage of working in Corporate Treasury- I can even understand how interest rates work on borrowings and invstments… Much more interesting than straight accountancy!

  • Duncan

    Nearly forgot- if you are selling, accept cash (unless you need to pay handling fees) and if you are buying use credit (not debit) cards or direct debit.

    Cash cannot be recalled, credit cards are insured and a good one will give you a warrnanty for 12 months on top of the manufacturers (eg Nationwide) and direct debits are technically never “cleared” funds from a legal perspective as you can recall them under the direct debit guarantee without a delay. (The banks do count them as cleared and pay interest to the benficiary though…)

  • Duncan

    And one final one, can I complain about the firefox ad…

    I have to use IE as Firefox won’t work with the java engines and bank encryption systems I have to go through.

    I did try and have grudgingly reverted…

    (It’s not that bad, I just felt I should moan about it as it’s big and yellow and I’m sulking about firefox not working)

  • Ian

    The Firefox banner thing is for a limited period, probably a fortnight, then I’ll go back to buttons and banners.

    I don’t have a credit card, after screwing up badly with the last one and, excepting mortgages, I’m going to stick to only paying for things when I have all the money for them in my bank. That’s the annoying thing, I have enough to cover the cost in the bank, I just have no easy way of transferring it to the shop.