Dollar cheques (again)

[Ball Comrade]

I know we did this on the old board, but I just got one today. For work invoiced in january. And for which I paid expenses. Fag packet calculations indicate the exchange rate has cost me nearly 50euro, and my bank informs me that it will be the same again to deposit it.

Is there a cheap way to do this? I live in Finland but have accounts in Britain too, although I'd like to spend the money this summer.

[DCI Harry Batt]

Dollar cheques (again)

No useful advice, I'm afraid. I'm just wondering who these odd people are who give you US$ cheques.

[Gerontophile]

Dollar cheques (again)

what's a cheque?

[Ball Comrade]

Dollar cheques (again)

Americans, TonTon.

It's even worse than I'd feared-apparently as the cheque is a 'private' one, that I tear off from a wage slip, it will cost 130€ to put it into my bank account here. That's nearly a third of the total amount.

Is it any cheaper in British banks?

[Ball Comrade]

Dollar cheques (again)

Finns don't see cheques very often these days. They phased them out when they started doing transfers on t'internet, and nobody here gets a cheque book from the bank. If you want a cheque (for instance to give as a birthday present), you have to pay something like 8 euros as a fee.

So if your cheque is made out in the name of a company, rather than a bank, then they will look at you funny. If the name of your company happens to be 'Walt Disney', then people are probably going to laugh at you. It's just dawned on me why she was smiling so much while telling me she was going to take a third of my wages.

[Banana Banana]

Dollar cheques (again)

You could ask the company to make a SWIFT payment instead - this is the international/interbank payment system. Your bank could give you its SWIFT details and you could arrange with the company to make the payment that way.

You'd have to cancel the cheque, of course.