Cheques Set to Be Cleared Same-Day

Cheques paid into your account will soon be able to be cleared the same day. Currently cheques can take as much as six days to clear. These changes will be phased in from October this year. This development has come from the Cheque and Credit Clearing Company.

Several banks - including Barclays and Lloyds - allow their customers to pay in cheques via pictures on their banking apps. However, this can only happen when the cheque is issued by the same bank.

Now cheques, can be cashed by cheque cashing companies like Cash Generator or Cash & Cheque Express that change a fee and organisations like Cash Converter.

For people with a poor credit history the Coop Bank and Post Office provide basic bank accounts. 

Bacs

Bacs Payment Schemes Limited Bacs has been maintaining the integrity of payment related services since 1968, with responsibility for the schemes behind the clearing and settlement of UK automated payment methods, Direct Debit and Bacs Direct Credit. A membership company limited by Guarantee, Bacs currently has 16 members from the UK, Europe, and the US. Bacs also provides managed services for third parties, such as the Cash ISA Transfer Service, and the company owns and manages the Current Account Switch Service which has 43 direct participants. 

CHAPS

CHAPS Clearing Company Limited. CHAPS are the UK’s same day high value payment system for both wholesale financial and retail payments. Payments of any value are settled individually and irrevocably intraday in central bank funds, transferred over SWIFT. CHAPS are an international scheme focused on systemically important, high value and time-critical payments. Currently 24 domestic and international financial institutions are Direct Participants, with a high level of future joiners planned, the widest Direct Participation base of the UK schemes. These serve over 5,000 Indirect Participants. CHAPS is used by banks, building societies and other payment service providers to pay each other in wholesale financial transactions and international sterling flows, accounting for most of CHAPS’ value. 

The Faster Payments Scheme Limited

Operated by Faster Payments Scheme Ltd, enables internet, mobile and telephone banking payments as well as standing order payments to move from account to account, normally within seconds, 24 hours a day, 365 days a year. As at the end of 2016 there are 12 direct settling participants, with a number more intending to join in 2017. Given its scale and reach, it is considered one of the most advanced real-time payment services in the world. Cheque and Credit Clearing Company. The Cheque and Credit Clearing Company has managed the cheque clearing system in England and Wales since 1985 and in Scotland since 1996. As well as clearing cheques, the system processes bankers’ drafts, postal orders, warrants, government payable orders and travellers’ cheques. The company also manages the systems for the clearing of paper bank giro credits, euro cheques (drawn on GB banks) and US dollar cheques (drawn on GB banks). There are 11 participants in the cheque clearing system and the credit clearing system, 10 in the euro debit clearing system and 5 participants in the currency clearing system.

The Belfast Bankers’ Clearing Company Limited (BBCCL)

The Belfast Bankers' Clearing Company was formed in May 2007 as a means of formalising existing rules and standards for sterling paper clearings and Euro debit clearing in Northern Ireland, and has 4 members. The role of the Company is to maintain the integrity of the clearing arrangements and ensure the system is efficient and effective.

It is also worth noting: 

There are three main types of cheque fraud:

Counterfeit – a cheque that has been created on non-bank paper to look genuine. It relates to a genuine account, but has been created and written by a fraudster for the purposes of committing fraud.

Forgery – a genuine cheque, however the signature is not that of the account holder. The fraudster has forged the signature by signing the cheque themselves.

Fraudulently altered – a genuine cheque made out by the genuine customer but it has been altered by a fraudster before it has been paid in (e.g. by altering the recipient’s name on the cheque or the amount. It is no longer a genuine cheque).