From: bigbrian 
Newsgroups: uk.finance uk.legal
Subject: Re: cheque 'guarantee'?
Date: Thu, 01 Jul 2004 14:23:45 +0100

On Thu, 01 Jul 2004 14:12:09 +0100, Mike  wrote:

>"Dave Mayall"  wrote:
>
>>"Mike"  wrote in message
>>news:2kif7fF2nlg4U1@uni-berlin.de...
>>
>>> >So does that mean that a guarantee card is effectively useless?
>>>
>>> Yes and no.
>>>
>>> The "guarantee" works if everything else in respect of the
>>> account is in order. However, I have known a bank return
>>> "guaranteed" cheques from a long standing and respected customer
>>> who then fell on hard times and had his account suspended. So
>>> closed accounts, fraud, etc..  You've got no chance.
>>>
>>> Furthermore, there's no point in persuing as all that time,
>>> energy and money invested as simply being spent to no avail. The
>>> police genuinely don't have time to prioritise these things, the
>>> courts award judgement against a ghost, etc..
>>>
>>> *If* the original account was all in order, it might be worth
>>> contacting the banks' ombudsman and/or independent bodies ie:
>>
>>You are talking crap!
>
>Speak for youself, sunshine.
>
>>A Cheque Guarantee Card is a guarantee from the bank that, provided the
>>cheque has been accepted in accordance with the conditions of that card, the
>>cheque will be honoured.
>
>  *rapturous applause*
>
>>This applies even if the account is not in good order. That is the whole
>>purpose of the card!
>
>Yes, but I'm pointing out what *actually* happens, not what's
>*supposed* to happen. You are welcome to believe what you like,
>but I know from personal experience that it does not work that
>way.
>
>In fact, it once happened to me, many years ago. Midland Bank
>(now HSBC) bounced two cheques of mine, Made payable to the
>Inland Revenue, for £100 each and "guaranteed" with a £100 cheque
>guarantee card.
>
>Think there must have been other reasons? There were not. 

Actually there probably  were. You're not allowed to settle - or the
recipient allowed to accept - a debt for more than the cheque card
limit by splitting it into two smaller cheques. Whether this is what
was actually happening, the bank could easily have assumed it.  Its
almost certainly not a coincidence that your two cheques and the one
that the OP referred to were all for the maximum value guaranteed by
the card.

Brian