Zoe Bell

Please can you answer a question for me...

Why does it take so long to pay a freakin cheque into my account?

I swear back i the UK , many millenia ago when people still used them, you handed over the cheque and either your paying in slip or bank card, they ran them through a machine and boompf!, done.

Today ( and apart from a small oddity) this is the usual way it plays out, it took me 5 minutes at the actual teller to pay in a cheque.

I simply can't comprehend why it takes so many mouse clicks, moments of staring blanky at the screen, more mouse clicks, rubberstamping and scribbling of various codes just to put some money in my account.

Today was a little special in that the conversation went like this

How may I help you

me: I'd like to pay this into our chequing account ( I hand over the offending item plus my bank card)

<card is scanned , I enter my pin as requested>

she peers intently at both sides of the cheque, "this is a joint account"

me: yes

"the back of the cheque isn't signed"

me " ermm Ok" (I've given up trying to find the logic behind the fact that sometimes they appear to want me to sign these stupid bits of paper and can't offer a sensible reason why)
I pick up a pen and go to take the cheque back to sign it

The teller looks confused "this is a joint account"
again I agree that it is indeed a joint account, with my husband.

"Zoe Bell needs to sign the back of this"

I may have gotten a little testy at this point "She's standing right in front of you"

at this point the penny finally dropped that the person handing over the client card emblazoned with the name "ZOE BELL" , the person on the cheque made out to "ZOE BELL" and the person standing in front of her were the same person.

She apologized
but then it still took her another 3 minutes ( I was timing) to click her way through the presumably multiple screens required to out the money where it belonged.

So I ask in all seriousness , how can a simple task possibly take so long?
Why isn't it more automated?

JonboyE

Use an ATM. It's MUCH quicker.

Zoe Bell

you are probably right but i don't like the idea of posting my cheque into the proverbial black hole with no record that it was ever there.

Still doesn't answer my question , and I'm genuinely interested, as to WHAT they are actually doing on that computer that takes so long.

Almost Canadian

I pay in cheques all the time. Frequently, they are refused (cheques given to me by clients). I used to ask why they are being refused, but they have never informed me so now I don't bother. I assume that there is a way that the banks are able to cheque the account against which the cheque is drawn and that, when it is refused, it is because there are insufficient funds. I don't know if this is the case and, hopefully, someone in the know will be along soon.

Zoe Bell

TBH I doubt that's the case
Banks don't seem to be linked here so I wouldn't think that RBC could check a BMO cheque on their system like that. I am truly baffled by the whole palaver

Thanks for the suggestion though

Auld Yin

When one deposits a cheque it is not considered presented for payment until presented to paying bank. That bank/branch would decide the following day to pay or not pay the item. If not, it would be returned to presenting bank/branch for any of a number of reasons. I very much doubt that any bank can check account balances at another bank. It is certainly not the case in Canada. Banks can check balances between its own branches obviously but it should not be done on the premise that the cheque writer may well have made a deposit not yet processed or could well do so later in day but before presented for payment.
Unless you have a poor record with your bank, there is no reason why your deposit should not be accepted without question.

Zoe Bell

maybe they are just playing Tetris then?

Auld Yin

The ATM will provide you a receipt for your deposit. If the deposit is not recorded go into bank and raise Cain. You'll never know what the clerk was doing on/with the computer so why be knotted about it. She may be new to the job and being ultra careful not to make a mistake or she may have been playing, as you suggest, Tetris.

Zoe Bell

despite my mini rant I am genuinely curious as to the obvious differences in bank procedures.

If it was just that one time then you may have a point but in the UK , card plus cheque ran through machine, job done

Canada, card scanned, PIN entered , 3 minutes of furious tapping on computer screens.

I find most things over here to be fairly hassle free , I'm just curious as to why the system is that much more inefficient.

orly

When I go into my bank (well credit union) it takes maybe 20 seconds to pay in a cheque. They all know me. Sometimes they don't even bother asking me for my card as they can presumably just look me up as fast on their screen themselves.

Maybe you need to switch over

Sally Redux

Maybe it's like ordering a pizza at Dominos here.

There was less key-tapping to send a man to the moon.

Zoe Bell

fair point in that I've only ever dealt with RBC, albeit with numerous branches (doesn't seem to be a significant difference branchwise) so I guess it could be a bank thing.

I suspect that changing all my accounts just because it takes a a few minutes to pay in a cheque could be considered to be overkill !

Of course if work could pull themselves out of the dark ages and actually pay my expenses into my bank account along with my salary rather than cutting a stupid cheque the point would be moot.

Or I need a promotion so that I can join the hallowed few who are blessed with a corporate credit card

withabix

I paid a cheque for $5000 into my account over the counter at a Scotiabank branch the other day and the teller had to go off and get a more senior teller to approve the deposit at such a 'massive' cheque was over her authority limit...

Despite this being less than my cleared balance anyway, maybe they thought I was going to run to the ATM and draw out the huge $200 pre-clearance that would have resulted, before absconding.....

I appreciate that they have a stupid cheque system in Canada, such that any Tom, Dick or Harry can probably obtain a printed cheque book in your name by ordering it over the internet from a cheque printing company and giving them your account details, but all the same, this was cause for raised eyebrows.

On this subject, WHY on earth can you order cheques from anywhere other than your own bank? Seems crazy.

montreal mike

at work we order our commercial chqs from an external supplier and the fees are charged to the corporate bank account, it takes less than a week to get them by mail and it works well

however we could go via the bank but all that would happen is the bank would order from the same source and it would cost us more

this way we cut out the middleman

montreal mike

tellers are a dying breed and are going the way of the dodo

they are usually young females who, in time, are expected to graduate to a 'financial advisor' position to push bank products and contribute to the bottom line

as tellers they are merely overhead and that is why there is an abundance of ATM's and the bank is only too happy when you use this facility

ATM's are, in truth, NOT designed for customer convenience as they can in many cases do the same job more efficiently, they rarely make mistakes, they always show up for work and on time, do not have to be trained to be cheerful and polite, never go on strike, plus do not need time off to make babies

isn't technology great?