There was some more good news and some bad news in the work of Personal Banking this week.

The good news is that Banks seem to have finally bowed to the pressure to clear customers cheques within a set time limit under new rules laid out by the office of fair trading.

The new rules which will take effect in a years time state that all money deposited into any account will start to earn interest, or count against an overdraft within two working days. And you will be able to withdraw funds deposited by cheque within a maximum of 4 days.

It is worth noting that many Banks and Building Societies already meet these timescales, some don’t. At present there is no deadline on how quickly a cheque must be cleared, these new rules will just give clarity to the situation.

What you need to remember about this is the Banks will be losing out on millions of pounds of lost revenue from this new system. And they will want to make it back somehow, so it is my opinion that you will be charged for something else instead.

Already First Direct announced yesterday that they will be introducing a £10 per month charge to their account holders, unless they maintain over £1500 a month in their account or take out a product with them. Hopefully this will not be how other banks follow, but who knows?

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