Thursday, November 22, 2007

Bankers!

Bankers, yes I type it correctly although I'd be forgiven for a Freudian slip I suspect...

Well I'm finally back from my world tour of travelling to Amsterdam/Prague/UK/Las Vegas/Bangalore (I'll post later on how to get a good cup of tea in these places)...
But for now let's look at banking...

We charge in $US, it makes it easier that way. Sure we're from New Zealand but charging in a single currency makes it easier for you customers out there. I THOUGHT!
Here's the rub... If you pay us by cheque from a bank using $US (and you're not physically in the USA) then the banks cannot clear the cheque without sending it back to the country of origin who will then charge approx. $100 to clear it.
Any bankers out there who can tell me why this is and why it makes any sense at all?

Mr Grumpy ;-)

2 comments:

freitasm said...

I use BNZ. They charge $0 for U.S. cheque deposits and they clear the funds (if under $5000) in three days - and I receive about three to five U.S. cheques a month.

Peter O'Dowd said...

But are they $US cheques drawn on a Canadaian bank (or any other foreign bank)?
That seems to be the problem, when the funds are from a foreign bank in yet another currency.