Work & Money 

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Understand your account

Cheques, credit cards, debit cards, overdrafts, standing orders, what do they all mean?

• Cheques
• Cards


• Banking services

Cheques
A cheque is a written instruction to your bank to pay a person a certain amount. These are still popular, although debit cards have taken over from cheques as the main way to pay for things.

Why would a cheque not be paid?
Sometimes cheques are not paid. This could happen because:

• The person who wrote it didn't have enough money in their account.
• They didn't fill it out properly. For example, there's no date on it or the amount written in figures is different from the amount written in words.
• The cheque is post-dated. That means the date on the cheque is some time in the future and you have tried to pay it into your account before then.
• The person who wrote the cheque has stopped it.
• The person who wrote the cheque may have money problems so the account has been frozen or closed.

For more information on when a cheque may or may not be paid, please speak to your current account provider.

How to stop a cheque
Speak to your bank as soon as possible to find out what you have to do. Normally, you can't stop a cheque that has your cheque guarantee card number on the back of it and if the amount is under your cheque card limit. If the cheque has already been paid, you can't stop it.

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