How long to clear a cheque?

By Value hunter on Jun 5, 2010 | In Money chat, Bad business

If you are a customer of Santander/Abbey, you will know that paying a cheque into your bank account and having your funds cleared, is like pulling teeth!

Three working days is the standard time for a cheque to clear, it is instant in bank accounts with money in them over a set limit (like £100,000) - the balance used to be available as soon as it was put in, not any more.

Santander staff tell me that it is "Three banking days for cheque funds to clear into an account."
Why then, did I deposit a cheque Tuesday morning and the three "banking days" have passed and still no funds?
"It will clear on Monday next week," says the advisor like I am getting a good deal.
"So Saturday is not a banking day then?" I ask,
"No it is not!" came the reply.
"So your banks don't open on Saturdays then?" I teased,
"Yes, this is so we can help our customers" once again, said as if it was the bank doing me a favour by delaying my cheque funds,
"So how exactly does it help me, for the bank to keep my funds in a clearing account so they can make interest on mine and everyone else's funds?"

Before she could reply, I started laughing at her... "Your bank are useless" I stated as it is factually accurate, "Can you provide access to the funds for my cheque, that has now been with your bank for five days and will be until monday next week?"

"I'm afraid not sir!" said sounding like a robot,
"You are useless then!" I put the phone down on her.

If you are wealthy, money transfers, cheques, etc, all get actioned by banks within 24 hours, if you are normal and need access to funds quickly, then banks take an incredibly long time to clear a basic cheque.
So much for modern technology eh!