Below is a copy of a letter about to be sent to Nat West who have caused financial loss through a SECRET policy change.

Official complaint re foreign cheque charges.

before presenting cheque I checked info on your website. Your guide to foreign cheques says: QUOTE

Payment by negotiation, purchased with recourse

Payment by negotiation can only be used if the draft or cheque is in the local currency of the country on which it's drawn (e.g. US dollars payable in the US) or is in sterling drawn on a bank in selected countries (currently France, Germany and Switzerland). Even so, we may still have to send it for 'payment by collection' (please see below).

We'll normally pay you the value of the draft or cheque, less our charges, as soon as you present it to us, using a cheque-buying rate if conversion is necessary.

If the payment is not honoured by the paying bank, we'll debit the value of the draft or cheque (plus a handling fee) from your account.

Payment by collection

Sometimes we'll have to send a draft or cheque for collection. Examples are:

• if the amount is the equivalent of £5,000 or more

• if the payment is coming from a country with a high risk rating

• if it isn't in the local currency of the sender's country (e.g. US dollars payable in Greece), we'll send the draft or cheque to the bank on which it's drawn and will not credit your account until we've received the money or been assured that it will be paid

This can take some time, depending on the country the payment is coming from and the bank clearing the payment.

I explained to the bank clerk at the Talgarth branch that the cheques was from my Father and was for 700 Canadian dollars written on a Canadian bank.

By your rules this cheques was NOT from a high risk country.

Was NOT for more than £5,000

Was NOT written in a different currency from the bank on which it was drawn.

also the cheque was written by a person KNOWN to myself, indeed was my FATHER.

Therefore by your own posted guidelines this cheque should have been sent for negotiation not collection.

This was explained to the bank clerk and I asked for the cheque to be sent for negotiation. If she had told me that this would be sent for collection, that it would take 9 weeks to clear and that i would be charged £80.60 then I would NOT have presented it and would have asked my father for alternative payment.

My husband used to regularly present foreign cheques from Canada in his business. They all went through for negotiation with funds credited in under 4 days.

You have obviously changed your policy in the last 6 months so that ALL foreign cheques are sent for collection but this has not been stated. I have received NO letter informing me that this is now your policy and your guidelines do NOT show this new policy.

I have incurred not only the direct loss of £80.60 being the charges levied on the cheque. But an additional £28.00 charge for being forced to go over my overdraft limit during this period.

Also, I was going to transfer a portion of the cheque receipts to my husband so that he could pay our mortgage and our life insurance direct debit. This i could not do so he incurred two fees of £35.00 total is £70.00.

So my total loss due to your SECRET policy change is £80.60 + £28.00 + £70.00 = £168.60.

I am formally asking you to refund me those charges. You may keep the £10.00 that I would have paid for a cheque negotiation.

I am requesting a refund of £178.60.

Please respond within 7 days to this letter. I reserve my right to take legal action to recover these costs if necessary.

the halifax managed to clear a cheque for me in canadian dollars rather than pounds. they also managed to lose a foriegn cheque, it took me 10 months to get that money.

They'll probably blame the so called "War on Terror" - ANYTHING rather than admit the BANK is responsible for any errors or omissions.

NON of the major banks would let my wife have a basic bank account because she's a Canadian citizen on a fixed 2 year visa. They all blamed the "War on Terror" for 'requiring' lots and lots of proofs of address, and even then only the HSBC finally opened an account for her. Natwest wouldn't.

This topic was closed on 03/05/19.

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