The sad actor and his uncashed cheques: the saga continues

Last week we carried a story about a sad actor who has found it impossible to lodge cheques made out in US dollars and sent to him from US television and film studios because the cheques were deemed to be too small by his Irish bank.

Even when he could lodge the cheques, the actor was hit with enormous fees that would frequently be close to the value of the cheques he was trying to cash.

The bank was PTSB, and although the bank made it clear it was the US banks that were charging the outrageous sums for the processing of these residual cheques and those charges had forced it to impose a minimum cheque size of $250 (€229) on its customers, our acting correspondent was snookered.

It was – all things considered – a bit of a mess – which is why the actor asked Pricewatch for help.

With PTSB’s hands apparently tied as a result of the carry-on of the US banks, Pricewatch asked readers if they had any workarounds we could send to the actor.

Such was the volume of responses that we feel compelled to come back to the story this week.

We received hundreds of ideas – some sensible, some demented and some possibly illegal. Here are just some of the suggestions you had.

“He could sign the back of them endorsing them over to a third-party US-based person,” wrote Owen McDonagh. “He may know someone trusted in the US, a friend or an agent.”

The actor could “send cheques over in the post, ideally in bulk and quickly enough that they don’t expire [and then the] third party lodges them in their own US bank account. Then once a year they could send the total amount over as an international transfer to the actor’s Irish bank account, minus their own bank fees”.

[ The sad story of the actor with a drawer full of cheques he just can’t cash ]

McDonagh said the total cost would be “a few international stamps, plus bank fees”.

He was not the only person to suggest this – some US-based readers even offered to process the cheques themselves.

Dave Cooke had another idea but one that would involve the actor travelling to the US every few months to visit one of the “We Cash Cheques” type shops that are commonly found there.

He also said a lot of Irish bars in New York “have cheque-cashing privileges which allow them to cash customers cheques. Of course, US cheques probably expire after six months, so the famous actor would have to visit the US with a bundle of cheques before they expire”.

Niall Duffy had a similar idea. “Depending on how much in aggregate they are, could the person fly to the US one or two times a year to cash them in at a bank? Appreciate that they would need to aggregate to over $500 for one trip, but could be a nice holiday as well.”

Emma Morrow wondered if he could he set up a US dollar account in AIB? “I had to do this a few years ago as I inherited a small sum from my aunt who died and was a resident in the US for many years. When I had opened the account I lodged the cheque. Once it was cleared I was able to transfer the dollars to euro using online banking.”

She said although “this may take time to set up and involve a bit of paperwork it could be worth looking into. It may also help when the studios catch up with the rest of us in the 21st century and he could eventually be paid into this account directly”.

Keith Mangan said he “got around this by opening a dollar account with Bank of Ireland in 2008. Instead of cashing the cheque, you lodge it (minimal fees) and can transfer it to your savings account”.

We got in touch with AIB and Bank of Ireland.

A Bank of Ireland spokeswoman said the bank’s “minimum value for sending a US dollar cheque on collection is $200. These payments are subject to Bank of Ireland’s cheque processing charge (€25) and also fees charged by the foreign bank – which we have no control over.

“The actor concerned could potentially ask the film company to send him one annual cheque – which could then be processed and he’d only be charged once. Where possible we continue to recommend customers receive foreign payments electronically, as it is quicker, easier and often cheaper.”

He has tried that!

AIB was somewhat more hopeful.

“First of all we recommend the individual contacts the issuer of the cheque to ask if they can process international payments instead as they are generally more efficient and less expensive than cheques,” a spokesman started.

Again, our poor actor has tried this.

“If that’s not possible he could open an AIB US dollar Currency Call Account which will allow him to lodge the US dollar cheques (an account transaction fee of €0.80 will apply). The cheque may be processed on a negotiation or collection basis, and this will attract a higher fee of €15.20 each (a fee from the agent bank may also apply),” the spokesman said.

“When processed by negotiation, we mean processing it to the customer’s account on the day it is received. This will attract a fee of 1 per cent of the value (min €1.27, max €6.35) plus transaction fees.

“However the clearing rules and cycles depend on the country on which the cheque was drawn. In certain circumstances, we have to send the cheque for collection, and by this we mean sending it to the foreign bank on a special presentation basis requesting final/irrevocable payment,” the spokesman said.

“There is no standard payment cycle for this. This will attract a fee of €15.20 and foreign bank charges may also apply. International cheques can experience processing delays through clearing or collection. We may decide at our discretion to send items for collection on the customer’s behalf, regardless of value. The customer needs to be an existing AIB customer before we would be able to open a Currency Call Account.”

Another reader suggested: “Why doesn’t your actor friend do an email shot to everyone with the same name as him in the US and explain his situation – I’m sure they’d be happy to help.” .

While our actor’s name is not uncommon we are not convinced this is a good idea. We are also not convinced it is legal.

Then we heard from Margaret Noone who like our actor correspondent was also with Ulster Bank before it upped sticks and left.

“I then opened a credit union current account. I can’t lodge dollar cheques to my local credit union in Monkstown but I can lodge them in the Dún Laoghaire branch. Fees [of] around €15 with no zero, it does take a while to clear.”

We also heard from the currency exchange company Fexco who told us it has a relationship with credit unions that sees it buy cheques through the credit unions. The actor had tried this avenue but with no success.

Jim Copeland said he had similar difficulties with PTSB last year. “As I’ve over a decade in the financial services sector I had a good chat with my local branch manager about the issue,” he said.

“The crux of the problem is that PTSB don’t have a clearing house for USD cheques – which means that regardless of the cheque value they have to be sent on “collection” to the US bank. This is what leaves customers exposed to their hefty fees.

“However, AIB (and possibly BofI) do possess a clearing house and only send cheques above a certain threshold on collection. As most US cheques are not marked ‘AC Payee Only’, I was able to endorse the cheque and have it lodged into a sibling’s account in AIB for onward transfer.”

He said the actor “could try a similar approach – or merely open an AIB account”.

“However, it would be worth checking with AIB that their policy has not changed in the interim period. Additionally, if the account is also only used for USD cheques it could flag as high risk for anti money-laundering purposes so it would be beneficial to pay the electricity bills and car insurance out of said account also.”

Again, we are still waiting to hear back from other banks as to the feasibility of this idea.

We will give the last word to Mary Duffy who was also getting residual cheques for a role she had in a film called Fur starring Robert Downey jnr and Nicole Kidman.

“I have the same sad story about the actor’s cheques. My creative solution was to try to donate the cheques to the actors’ benevolent fund or another charity. This is an option organised by the Screen Actors Guild,” she says.

“This action, which seemed to me reasonable, also failed on the grounds that, if I remember correctly, I live in Ireland.

“Eventually, I set up a collaboration with an English writer who lived in Texas and to whom I could send my cheques with a signed endorsement on the back. He lodged them and sent the funds to me via PayPal. This worked for a short while but the cheques were so small that it was hardly worth his trouble and I didn’t want to be bothering him.”

We relayed all the suggestions – or at least as many of them as he could process – to the actor and while he was grateful for the help and advice from Pricewatch readers and said as much, we could tell from his melancholy sighs that he has yet to come up with a decent answer to his conundrum.

Then as recently as this very morning another cheque landed. It is for $143, but as sad actor noted, it is now destined for the “dark drawer of doom, never to be cashed”.