Cheque in joint name but don't have a joint account?
- There are several ways of solving this problem which most commonly occurs when estate agency returns deposit to a married couple at the end of their tenancy:
- ask cheque issuer to cancel current cheque and issue another in one name (in case with estate agencies - they more likely to offer new cheques in names mentioned on the tenancy agreement dividing the owed amount on equal parts)
or - open a joint account (e.g. joint savings account that doesn't need a credit check)
or - try different branches of your bank/s until the cheque is accepted to be paid into your single account
or - previously it was possible to pay such cheque into a single named account as long as you were one of the joint named, and the other joint named authorised the transaction (usually by signing the back of the cheque and writing something like 'I allow my wife to have these funds and will not have access to them'). But with introduction crossing 'a/c payee', the above procedure is frequently refused.
or - go to a cheque cashing place (but these places charge a fee for cashing, i.e. 2-6% + handling charge fee).
