Australian Term Deposits

[Snoopy]

@ Snoopy: I think the key trouble why Westpac mislead you is that they won't simply "cash" a foreign cheque in one go. All my foreign cheques I deal with through BNZ are deposited into their respected foreign currency and there's a 2 or 3 week stand down period before those funds could be drawn out. It's shown on their computer screen on the posted date and the cleared date with funds showing respectively how much I can withdraw before the cleared date. Also I never try to exchange rate the foreign cheque on the spot, as you say, the rate fluctuates so much throughout the day that it leaves them with this excuse not to do so. So, I think if you did things in 1 step at a time, the end result would be no problem.

SBQ, I would have no problem if Westpac, like the BNZ, put a foreign cheque into escrow for two to three weeks while it was cleared. That is entirely sensible policy on behalf of any bank. The problem is that, with Westpac, this option is simply not available. Instead Westpac is touting the benefits of your foreign cheque deposit being available immediately as cash. It was entirely Westpac's choice to implement this policy. It is nothing that I asked for.

If they are worried that someone might take advantage of their policy and clean out the cash before the cheque is cleared, well, why have the policy to start with? Shooting yourself in the foot is a perfect analogy for this kind of corporate behaviour.

The 'benefit' for Westpac customers now is that overseas cheques cannot be deposited at all, unless Westpac can recover the cost of doing so by charging you for other services in other ways (i.e. you fit the Westpac Cookie Cutter Customer pattern).

SNOOPY