Savings

We've reduced our cheque clearance time by two days.

When you pay in a cheque to your account, it will take a minimum of
five bank working days to clear (excludes day of receipt and withdrawal). Bank working days exclude Saturdays, Sundays and Bank Holidays in England.

The table below shows a cheque paid in on a Monday (no bank holidays) will usually be available for withdrawal on Tuesday of next week. Where a cheque is paid in shortly before a Bank Holiday, the timescales would be extended by the Bank Holiday period.

Cheque clearance cycle

Cheques in Great Britain are cleared through an organisation called the Cheque and Credit Clearance Company. It usually takes 3 days for that organisation to clear a cheque and this is called the ‘cheque clearance cycle’. Only high street banks have direct access to this facility, so Britannia has to clear its cheques through a high street bank.

You will not lose out during this administration period. Interest on your account is accrued from the day the cheque is paid in and not from the day the cheque officially clears.

Cheque clearance and fraud

We do not believe that it is in our members’ interests to try to clear a cheque immediately because of the risk of fraud. Fraudulent cheques often take longer than 3 days to identify. So, although we have introduced new processes which have reduced our cheque clearance period, we still take a minimum of five bank working days excluding the day of receipt and withdrawal, as detailed above.