We came across the following piece this morning in The Sunday Times financial advice page "A Question of Money", by Diana Wright. It surprised us and may well affect some Pontnoir members who are selling their homes and going back to Britain:

MB writes: I asked my local Barclays branch for advice on clearing a large cheque in euros about three months ago. The cheque was drawn by a French solicitor and it was the residue from the sale of our house in France. I was told it would take “a couple of weeks”. After two weeks and no sign of the money, I asked again and was told it actually took four to six weeks. After six weeks, I was told the money would be credited to my account only 65 days after the money had arrived in the UK — and that was two weeks after the money left my solicitor’s account.

Since the bank’s first two statements were untrue, can I rely on the third being correct?

Diana Wright replies: As it turned out, yes you could — but a great deal of anxiety and uncertainty could have been avoided if only you had been given the correct information at the outset.

According to Barclays, cheques from French banks can be sent on the basis of Collection or Negotiation. When the former is used (as it was in your case) French legislation requires that banks hold recourse on all cheques for up to 65 days (in other words they can bounce the cheques during this time if there are insufficient funds in the account).

It is only once the funds are cleared that they can be credited to your account. Under the Negotiation process, funds could be cleared more quickly, although there are charges associated with that. Barclays reckons that in fact you have made a “profit” of about £3,000 thanks to changes in the sterling-euro exchange rate during this period.

[Passed on by Annik]

Paying in a Euro cheque to a UK bank isn't a very smart way to transfer money - better to pay the cheque into your French account (cleared in a few days at most) then transfer the money to the UK bank using an IBAN number (which they will give you if you ask) or an ForEx specialist (who will offer a much better rate especially for large amounts). That way not only will you get a better rate, but fewer charges and the money will be in your account and available for use within a week.