Thats what I always did with RBC, foreign checks always went into the ATM, take it into the branch and the tellers would always place a 30 business day hold on it , put it into an ATM and it was cleared right away, full funds available.

I checked with a human at the bank and they said no. In true Canadian style with a smile and a reluctance to do anything else. ie just put it through and see what happens with the other bank.

In the end I rang the people who wrote the cheque and they will send another one. phew

I suspect that RBC counter staff make up the rules for cheques as they go along. Whenever I try to pay cheques into our account I never cease to be amazed at the rigmarole I have to go through

Combinations of actions required/ information demanded/ general refusals include

You have to sign the back
Your husband has to sign the back
The counter staff have to sign the back
You can't pay this in to this account
Is this your account?
Is this a payroll cheque?
I can only release $100

I wouldn't mind but there are only two kinds of cheques I deal with , they are regular transactions but every time I have to go through a different procedure and anticipate what obstacles they are going to place this time

ah, but then you get third party cheques. yep, it really is possible to just sign over a cheque made out to you (by that famous 'endorsement' of a squiggle on the back), and then any random bloke on the street can pay it into his bank account. a cheque not even made out to them. truly bizarre.

(lol at zoe's list though. all are correct in slightly different (but top secret )circumstances )

no, i don't work for rbc...

<whispers> sometimes i 'forget' service charges though...

I know my rant was a bit tongue in cheek but seriously thesecare the circumstances

We rent our parking space out for $xxx a month, paid by cheque made out to Ben

We have a joint account and I regularly encounter the top three. I admit I don't understand this whole endorsement thing but surely I don't need to sign the back , the cheque is made out to a name on the account.

They get shirty when I question it . Paying in Bens expense cheques from work has lead to all of the above.

We had a rubber stamp made up locally that states "For Deposit only to Account# xxxxxxxxxxx" never have any problems.

Mind we've been banking at the same branch for 36 years.

My mum signed Dad's name for years. He was very annoyed when the bank refused a cheque he signed in front of them

Same at the TD. I get paid by cheque from company X, signed by me, payable to company Y. I deposit the cheque into the account of company Y and then use a cheque drawn on that account, signed by me, to move the money into my personal account. I've done this every month for, I dunno, fifteen years. Every month it's like the first month, "we'll have to hold the cheque", "you didn't last month", "it's our policy", "no, it isn't" yadda, yadda. On top of that, changes in the GST/HST rate cause great consternation "this isn't the same transaction as last month", "yes, it is, but there's now more tax".

The concept of branch banking is that the bank as a whole doesn't know a person, individuals at a specific branch know a person, so there can't be a bank wide approach to handling an individual account. This fails because the staff at the branch don't seem to last a month, it's always a new set of staff. The bank may as well keep notes about a customer in a central facility, perhaps using a computer, and offer that customer the same service at every branch, that'd save me driving for a couple of hours to get to "my" branch only to find that they don't know me from Adam anyway.

That about sums it up. It also irritates the hell out of me that I have to wait in line for 20 minutes to get the usual runaround.

No wonder they call a bunch of bankers a "wunch" !

The TD used to have a gimmick whereby if you stood in line for longer than some number of minutes they'd give you $5. Only once during the promotion did I fail to get the $5. Strangest promotion ever, it was like a reverse bank charge, every time you dealt with the bank you had a little bit more money than you'd expected.

Sums it up perfectly. Once I managed to get round this when they tried to refuse my cheque ny asking to withdraw $40k from my account.

They asked me , why. I just asked if they would let me theorerically.
When they said they would I pointed out the stupidity that would allow me to withdraw vast amouns of money but not deposit 100 bucks

Is it me or did banks in the UK not care about money being paid in. They'd take it from anyone , its just when you tried to withdraw they might ask q's?

Hides under desk, and thinks it may have been a bad idea to ever mention I was going to work for a bank

No not at all , if you can explain to me the reasoning behind the seemingly random encounters i have at the bank i will be extremely grateful

For example , please give me " the definitive answer to this question

I have a cheque for $160 made out to Benjamin Bell. I go into the bank and attempt to pay it into an account in both of our names

Do I need to sign the back ( if so , why?)
Does ben need to sign the back ( if so, why)

Should I be getting this much hassle for a simple transaction?

The problems aren't with the people it's the bloody pisspoor IT systems. Now if only some smart immigrant could get them sorted. Oh.

It does seem bizarre. I will fill you in if I ever get let into the secret of the annoying randomness! I'm used to the lovely lady at HSBC in Halifax addressing me by my first name, and doing whatever to get the job done, so I will probably have a bit of culture shock as I 'have' to be a customer of my new employer.