Philippine cheque

[Moy]

I had a Philippine cheque paid to my name but the problem is my Philippine account (BDO bank account to be exact). Today when my mum tried to deposit the said cheque, the account was already closed as the bank said it had only been used last Oct 2014.

Any idea if she will still be able to deposit that cheque in my name? Tried to go online but I can't access my account now as it has been locked Can I just let them send that cheque to me in the UK and deposit it in my bank here? Is there any way they can deposit it to my name with my UK bank account?

Anyone here have any idea?

Many thanks

Moy

[Terpe]

Hi Moy,
On the face of it there's not a lot you can do about your BDO account being closed at the moment. Don't forget that even a Philippine bank cannot legally close your account and just take your money. That's a different problem for another day and you'll need to manage that issue another time.

The best way forward appears to be to have that cheque forwarded to you here in UK and for you to present it to your bank here. They will be able to clear the payment but be warned it might take quite some time.

My own experience with a Philippine cheque in Peso was a bit of a nightmare and took almost 2 months to resolve, but actually did get sorted OK. Most Philippine banks are very very slow to do anything.

Your UK bank just doesn't have any control over the time needed to clear and most likely need to send it back, as in my case to the specific branch of the issuing bank the cheque was drawn from to secure authentication and clearing.

There's going to be some charges to have this done. Talk with you bank to get some idea just how much. My bank charged me around £30 but I got lucky with exchange rates running in my favour and actually made a net profit. It can easily work the other way and go against you though. Just be sure the amount involved is worth the trouble.

My experience was some time ago and I've no idea if anything major has changed. I doubt it, but check out what I've said with you bank here before doing anything further with the cheque.

Good luck Moy and take care