Back in January I wrote my stepson a cheque (paid to his school) for graduation stuff. When I wrote it, the account the cheque was on had a balance 7 times the amount on the cheque.

Over the following three weeks, I made a series of deposits in readiness for a single on line payment of a bill. By now the available balance was 18 times that of the cheque.

And then I made my payment.

Then it seems, the school presented the cheque.

You could argue that I should have ensured the cheque had been deducted, but come on, three weeks during which time I'm seeing an ever increasing balance way way more than the cheque.

Isn't there some expectation that a cheque presented is cashed timeously?

Now there's a $40 fee and the cheque is still not paid on.

Do I have any redress over this? Has anyone had any luck with something similar?

I know with my UK bank that whenever something like this happened, not only would they "right" it - refunding the money charged - but they'd make a gesture of goodwill by depositing something ectra too.

Really?

I doubt it. You wrote a cheque, then spent more money than you had if the cheque had been cashed.

Why is it the bank's fault, and why should they pay you a goodwill sum?

Edit: I always was under the impression that cheques were good for 6 months, but maybe that's not right either.

Don't you have overdraft facilities at your bank?

Cheques are good for 6 months. If you've never had other problems with your bank then go and explain what happened to the Manager. He/she may well reverse the charges. Believe it or not Banks work on the premise that it's much easier/cheaper to retain an existing client than find/sign-up a new one.

I think you must have misread my post. I didn't say it was the bank's fault. It's the school that delayed matters.

They had a deadline for these payments to be made. Then they waited another three weeks to present the cheque.

As Auld Yin suggests**, the bank may waive the fee - as UK banks have previously when I wasn't in error and, in fact TD also did when I was in error.

Not the Canadian one, no. I've been happy enough to get the free banking. I might look into it now though.

**

you dont have any redress over it, as its simply your fault you didn't leave the money in there, yes the school could of deposited it earlier, but they dont have to.


I would however go in and speak to the manager or a personal banker and have a nice chat, as if its not a common occurence they will often reverse the charge, if they wont you can always go down the official complaint route to see if they will refund it as good will as well.

It's PC so they only have the staff at Loblaws/Superstores. I haven't found them very good for anything other than opening accounts.

Last time I wanted to query something there, they suggested I phone.

I'll write and see what happens.

FWIW I think I pay $3 a month for $5000 overdraft protection on my current account with TD. It's been many years that I've been paying this and I can't recall ever needing it.

Perhaps the odd $40 very infrequently is a better deal after all.

You might not have a lot of luck with the bank, but try the school - their delay in cashing the cheque caused you problems; you might have some redress with them.

I have a line of credit attached to my checking account. This has advantages and disadvantages, both related to the fact that I can go 25K overdrawn without a question or a fee.

But you will pay interest.

Yes.

To the op. I've had this thing happen to me many times, but it's not the banks fault... If anything, it really is your fault. I know sometimes it can be hard to keep track of money in and out your account especially if you write cheques.

I tend to check my account online on a regular basis when I've written a cheque until it has cleared.

It's still annoying though.

You could be right. I found something about that.

How nice that with a UK bank you can simply overdraw with no problem - other than a bit of interst.

Pre-internet it was easy. Handwrite your regular payments and cheques written and the net figure is what you have to play with until next payday.

Isn't technology supposed to make things easier? Just as my bank lists a balance it also lists a funds available - often less as a deposit hasn't cleared yet. So you know you can only touch the available part for now.

How about a nifty little feature where you can input cheques written and pre-auth'd payments, so it shows you your available funds in a similar way.

Of course they'd probably charge for it.

tbh... its not hard to keep track of what money you have spent / awaiting to come out.

I have an excel spreadsheet that has all my set outgoings each month. I stick in the wages, then add anything i've spent or cheques written from my recipts. I then get an ongoing total left of avaliable funds. which at the month end carries over to the next months page and starts again, making it simple to see whats left or whats not come out yet. Then i just have to open my bank account and check they match. allows me to easily spot any fraud if it where to happen.

its sad i know, but makes my life easy