How do you cash an International Cheque?

P

PLANT

Established Member
Joined
Jan 23, 2005
Posts
3,350
Hi all,
Had an international cheque that been saving until dollar dropped.
Went to bank and told:
1. Too old, more than 6 months so no able too.
2. Also $28 fee to cash!
No they wont send direct to account!

Is there a cheaper way?
Who with?
Links?
 
I had an int'l chq once and just deposited into the bank account like a normal domestic cheque. Took about 3 or 4 weeks to clear.

That was a long time ago (10 years or so) and I think the fee was about $15-$20 or thereabouts with Commbank.
 
Yep, same experience here. Rec'd a chq from American A for delayed luggage. It cost most of the chq value to cash it. Sorry, not a more useful answer.
 
Intl cheques over 6 months sometimes need to be revalidated. Sent it back to drawer for reissue or revalidation. Or ask drawer to send you a bankers cheque jn AUD.
 
Deposited a Cheque in Euro 2 months ago at Bankwest. Fee was $16.
It took 4 weeks to clear. (Nothing you can do about that). They send it back to the bank in the country it is issued in and then the bank send it back to oz.

I thought it was one year for cheques?
 
The Commbank told me last year that intl chq is valid for a year and it would cost me $10 if I had an account with them....and 4 weeks to clear. Things may have changed since
 
titfilou said:
I thought it was one year for cheques?
Click to expand...

Australian cheques are valid for 15 months. It used to be 12 months, however it was extended to 15 months a few years back. When it was 12 months, people would sometimes forget what year it was, and often date cheques 1st Jan last year insread of 1st Jan this year. That meant that cheques were "stale" the moment they were written. When they changed the legislation, cheques were valid for at least 3 months if people did that.
 
We have received a couple of USD cheques - after using webchat with ANZ I was advised to take the cheques to a local branch to deposit them for a $10 fee each. So I did, only to be advised that the ANZ don't accept international cheques any more and to contact the payer and ask them to arrange a draft instead?!!?!?

I have contacted Citibank who advises us to mail the cheques to their Sydney PO box number with a covering letter.

Does anyone have recent experiences of possibly better options?
 
serfty said:
Does anyone have recent experiences of possibly better options?
Click to expand...
Dont receive cheques.
open an account with Wise.com and get a USA bank account number and get the funds put in there.

otherwise Citi is the best, but post 1st June, probably no more
HSBC might also accepyt checks deposited to their currency account.
 
Six months ago I deposited an international cheque at a small branch of Bendigo Bank. No problems. Cost $10 cashing fee + a 5% FX hit. Didn’t have the paperwork for it and the second cheque in time to arrange for deposit to my USD wise account.
 
I've only just come across this thread - tried both Suncorp and Citibank recently but both no longer accepted international cheques and ended up depositing it at Bankwest before they shuttered all branches on the East Coast last week...
 
In case people are looking for some additional info... I've spent so much time on this topic over the last 6 years... it's incredible how hard it is to deposit USA cheques in Australia I've found personally (for a cheap fee and good FX rate). It's also incredible how no Aussie bank teller ever seems to know what to do with a foreign cheque. Some have even told me they don't accept cheques when I've deposited them a few months prior.

My history spanned:
  1. Opened a US Bank of America account. Their app allowed you to take a photo of the front and back of the US cheque and they'd clear it within a few days. This was great to hold the USD. But I then had to transfer it to Australia. That's where BoA charged something like $25 to send it to a non BoA account, and CBA would also charge something like $30 to receive it, and provided poor FX rates
    1. One time BoA used nab as their intermediary and it appeared nab converted the USD to AUD (in error), then converted it back (as for that transfer I had a USD CBA Acc) and so nab charged me for 2 transactions (like $60) plus their FX rate, so it was a large sum lost!
  2. I had a CBA USD account, but they charged me fees to deposit the USD cheque (like normal), but then another fee + the poor FX rate to convert it digitally from my USD account to my AUD account (fees were around $25-$35). That was around 4yrs ago (I didn't want to convert the USD straight away to AUD as I wanted to wait for a good FX hence the need for the USD holding account)
  3. I learnt that Citibank accounts all over the world do free FX transfers so I opened a Global Currency Account which gave me a USD and AUD account. I couldn't deposit cheques (I suppose I never tried due to the below reason), but it meant my US relatives could send money to my Citibank USD account from their Citibank account and it was all free (so no need for cheques). I could then wait for a good FX rate and transfer USD to my AUD Citibank account for free, and then onto my everyday AUD account for free
    1. This was great until nab bought Citibank in Australia... So Citibank transfers from the US to my USD account incurred fees (as it was Citibank US to nab Australia 🤦🏼)
  4. I now use Wise, but I have no way of depositing cheques unless I go to CBA and they charge me $25 and bad FX rates. Plus it often takes 20-30mins in the branch as no one knows how to fill out the FX form
    1. They also often don't realise (and don't want to concede) that the date on US cheques is mm/dd/yyyy so it can often appear the cheque is 6mths old, but it's not. So this takes some strong words to say the cheque won't bounce
Maybe not super helpful for everyone, but hopefully it helps a few!
 
big_RED said:
In case people are looking for some additional info... I've spent so much time on this topic over the last 6 years... it's incredible how hard it is to deposit USA cheques in Australia I've found personally (for a cheap fee and good FX rate). It's also incredible how no Aussie bank teller ever seems to know what to do with a foreign cheque. Some have even told me they don't accept cheques when I've deposited them a few months prior.

My history spanned:
  1. Opened a US Bank of America account. Their app allowed you to take a photo of the front and back of the US cheque and they'd clear it within a few days. This was great to hold the USD. But I then had to transfer it to Australia. That's where BoA charged something like $25 to send it to a non BoA account, and CBA would also charge something like $30 to receive it, and provided poor FX rates
    1. One time BoA used nab as their intermediary and it appeared nab converted the USD to AUD (in error), then converted it back (as for that transfer I had a USD CBA Acc) and so nab charged me for 2 transactions (like $60) plus their FX rate, so it was a large sum lost!
  2. I had a CBA USD account, but they charged me fees to deposit the USD cheque (like normal), but then another fee + the poor FX rate to convert it digitally from my USD account to my AUD account (fees were around $25-$35). That was around 4yrs ago (I didn't want to convert the USD straight away to AUD as I wanted to wait for a good FX hence the need for the USD holding account)
  3. I learnt that Citibank accounts all over the world do free FX transfers so I opened a Global Currency Account which gave me a USD and AUD account. I couldn't deposit cheques (I suppose I never tried due to the below reason), but it meant my US relatives could send money to my Citibank USD account from their Citibank account and it was all free (so no need for cheques). I could then wait for a good FX rate and transfer USD to my AUD Citibank account for free, and then onto my everyday AUD account for free
    1. This was great until nab bought Citibank in Australia... So Citibank transfers from the US to my USD account incurred fees (as it was Citibank US to nab Australia 🤦🏼)
  4. I now use Wise, but I have no way of depositing cheques unless I go to CBA and they charge me $25 and bad FX rates. Plus it often takes 20-30mins in the branch as no one knows how to fill out the FX form
    1. They also often don't realise (and don't want to concede) that the date on US cheques is mm/dd/yyyy so it can often appear the cheque is 6mths old, but it's not. So this takes some strong words to say the cheque won't bounce
Maybe not super helpful for everyone, but hopefully it helps a few!
Click to expand...
I think that CBA don’t accept international chqs any more.
 
So after some more research, I can confirm CBA, Westpac, nab, Macquarie, ANZ don't accept foreign cheques anymore as of early -mid 2022.

I'll have to call HSBC to see if they still accept cheques as I can't find anything on their website.

It also appears Western Union don't accept foreign cheques.

This is getting hard!
 
Citibank stopped in November too, but google it, I think (weirdly) a small credit union or building society still will do it.
 

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