9457 Are cheques safe in the post?

We have to send two cheques to Italy, drawn on our Banca delle Marche account. One is for about 300 euros, the other for about 1700 euros. One person says 'Ooh! no, it is not safe to do this', the other person seems quite happy about it. Both are Italian. Is there any reason to suppose that crossed Italian cheques are not safe in transit?
Annie.

Category
General chat about Italy

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 04/30/2008 - 09:06

If you are worried, then get in touch with the International branch and arrange for a direct transfer from your branch to the payees account. We have done this numerous times as we also bank with Banca della Marche.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 04/30/2008 - 09:46

Annie AC Payee is not fool proof as I discovered yesterday when I went to cash a cheque in euros that was AC Payee only. I had to plead but won because the amount was very little, in their eyes. There are also companies around that will also cash AC Payee cheques too.

Things too get lost in the post. Two parcels at Christmas from me failed to arrive in both France and Italy. There is a Royal Mail service for a small fee which means you can receive compensation if your item is stolen.lost. - [url]http://www.royalmail.com/portal/rm/jump1?catId=400023&mediaId=400033[/url] However I don't think Italy yet is part of their Airsure service alas.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 04/30/2008 - 11:01

[url]http://www.italymag.co.uk/forums/general-chat-about-italy/9404-new-rules-30-april-2008-cheques-cash.html[/url]

Whilst we have never had need to send a cheque to Italy from the UK we often send them in the other direction and have never had a problem. If you do decide to send a cheque rather than use an electronic transfer remember the new rules highlighted recently by Noble (link above) which come into effect today. As of today, all cheques will have "NON TRASFERIBILE" printed on them (or must be written, if an older cheque book). BdM cheques have a box printed on them where you can write this if necessary. The new rules are aimed at E5000+ but assuming 'Non Trasferibile' is on the cheque, regardless of the amount, it is useless to anyone other than whoever it is made out to.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 04/30/2008 - 11:09

I omitted to say that you would obviously need proof of your identity if you did try to cash it. But then hey there's identity fraud these days.

If these cheques are for Utilities like say Enel, of course you can pay online with a debit card.

Submitted by Anonymous (not verified) on Wed, 04/30/2008 - 15:15

In the Royal Mail site Sally posted, I found "International Signed For" which seems to give you the peace of mind you are looking for. Also, follow Anne2's instructions making the cheque "Non transferibile" as this could apply to any amount. I have sent Italian cheques from Spain to Italy following a similar procedure... no problems. And I would say that the Royal Mail is more reliable than the Spanish Post Office....