clearing cheque's

[bspahn]

I have a few cheque's coming in from US/International institutions, and in USD$, and my bank is putting 30 day holds on them to my dismay. because this ridiculous process involves these people physically sending the cheque's down to the states where they process them.

due to uncertainty in USD/CAD exchange rate I'd like to exchange in the next 48 hours at ~ 1.06 through a fx broker in Vancouver (Globex) but can't do this unless they give me access to the funds from the cheques.

Now, i am responsible if for whatever reason they do not clear (i know they will clear), is there anything I can do to accelerate this? I'd like for them to put a hold on my stock portfolio and use it as collateral (since the portfolio is worth more than twice what the cheques are worth)

any thoughts?

[ullyeus]

which bank?

[bspahn]

TD, been customer there for 8 years ('99)
have 20k LOC of which nothing is used.
stocks with TD Waterhouse ~ 60k value

value of USD cheques: 27k

[jerryhung]

I once had $2500 USD cheque held for 30 days by TD as well, and this depositing into a USD account, not even a CAD one

I didn't need the money, so it was okay with me
This was 2 years ago

[mapleflag]

Speak to the Bank Manager, or someone at the branch where you do most of your banking as they might be able to help you, especially if you have automatic payroll deposits going into your account. Just not sure whether they'll shorten the hold down from 30 days to 48 hours. Good luck!


I have a few cheque's coming in from US/International institutions, and in USD$, and my bank is putting 30 day holds on them to my dismay. because this ridiculous process involves these people physically sending the cheque's down to the states where they process them.

due to uncertainty in USD/CAD exchange rate I'd like to exchange in the next 48 hours at ~ 1.06 through a fx broker in Vancouver (Globex) but can't do this unless they give me access to the funds from the cheques.

Now, i am responsible if for whatever reason they do not clear (i know they will clear), is there anything I can do to accelerate this? I'd like for them to put a hold on my stock portfolio and use it as collateral (since the portfolio is worth more than twice what the cheques are worth)

any thoughts?

[don242]

30 day hold on US cheques is standard policy at all banks. But you will get the exchange rate posted for the day of the deposit, not the day the cheque clears.

[Thalo]

The risk to the bank is simply that these large cheques from a foreign country don't clear and you've already spent the money. It could be quite hard to collect.

Suggest to them putting a hold on your unused LOC, maybe it can be increased to cover the amount of the cheques. The length of time you've been banking there and your direct deposit also count for something. The teller is just following policy, speak to a manager.

[HammerRFDer]

The currency of the account that you are depositing the cheque into is irrelevant.

For faster results, open up a US Bank Account in the USA (for the US cheques)

That, or have the sender send a money order/bank draft, for which a hold is not usually placed on (at least with the small value money orders I've deposited that were written on US banks).

[sunnybono]

I have a few cheque's coming in from US/International institutions, and in USD$, and my bank is putting 30 day holds on them to my dismay. because this ridiculous process involves these people physically sending the cheque's down to the states where they process them.

due to uncertainty in USD/CAD exchange rate I'd like to exchange in the next 48 hours at ~ 1.06 through a fx broker in Vancouver (Globex) but can't do this unless they give me access to the funds from the cheques.

Now, i am responsible if for whatever reason they do not clear (i know they will clear), is there anything I can do to accelerate this? I'd like for them to put a hold on my stock portfolio and use it as collateral (since the portfolio is worth more than twice what the cheques are worth)

any thoughts?

When I was a bank manager for TD and a situation like this arose, I would check to see if the customer had a line of credit on hand. What I would tell the customer is that I will release the funds immediately, however hold the equivalent in CAD funds on thier unused portion of their LOC. We were comforted with the fact that if there was a chargeback, we would automatically get the funds from the loc and the customer was happy that his funds were released immediately.

sk