Cashing a foreign cheque in Spain: fees from €3.80 to €12

Cashing a foreign cheque in Spain: from €3.80 to €12 for the same piece of paper

A worker returns from France with a Société Générale cheque in his pocket and discovers that in Spain no one will exchange it over the counter. His bank tells him it doesn't process foreign cheques. La Caixa, according to one account, deposited it for him while charging 12 euros. Another bank where he already had an account charged him 3.80 euros. The same document, three different answers, and a fee range that triples the cost.

The first lesson is that a foreign cheque isn't cashed: it's deposited. According to the accounts in the thread, no bank pays it out in cash. It's deposited into an account and you wait for settlement, which in practice takes around 20 days. If you don't have an account with the bank you choose, you don't get paid. If you do, you pay the toll.

How much it costs to deposit a cheque from a French bank

The comparison this case leaves us with is small but telling. The 12 euros from La Caixa versus the 3.80 euros from a bank where the person was already a customer. The difference isn't in the cheque or the amount: it's in the prior relationship with the bank. The same piece of paper, from the same source, costs three times as much depending on where you present it.

Some argue that 12 euros is a reasonable price, and the argument holds up: at many banks even a domestic cheque carries similar fees. The complaint isn't so much the rate as the lack of alternatives. Société Générale doesn't handle the process in Spain, and the Spanish banking network has no obligation to deal with the French institution.

The Nigerian cheque that never arrives

The conversation drifts into murkier territory. An acquaintance who claims to have worked in Nigeria and been paid with a cheque from an American bank asks to deposit it into someone else's account and receive the money. The response from the forum members is unanimous: it sounds like the classic scam. The pattern is well known. The cheque is deposited, the bank credits the amount, the victim advances money, and weeks later the cheque bounces. Then the bank reverses the credit and adds the return fee.

The detail that the cheque is from an American bank doesn't change the diagnosis. It's pointed out that US cheques have indeed been cashed at Spanish banks, which reinforces the suspicion that the problem isn't the issuing institution but the authenticity of the document. The request for money to "survive" before getting paid completes the script.

What to do if you have a pending foreign cheque

The actual procedure is more bureaucratic than financial. Find a bank where you're already a customer, deposit the cheque, and accept the settlement wait. There's no counter that will turn it into cash the same day. The fee depends on the bank and the prior relationship, and the observed range runs from 3.80 to 12 euros.

The anecdote that closes the case is the most uncomfortable: the person affected first called his own bank and was told it didn't process foreign cheques. He ended up depositing it where he already had an account. The bank that said no was, in all likelihood, the same one that charged him 3.80 euros.