My wife and I have recieved a joint cheque for several thousand pounds from a UK insurance co. They would not do a transfer because we do not have a joint bank a/c.

I am coming over next week on a 1 year non imm family (O) visa so should have no problem setting up a joint a/c but will we be able to pay this cheque in to it ?

Any help gratefully recieved.

If you have a bank account here, you can pay a sterling cheque in. I did it over christmas. It takes a while as they have to send the cheque back to blighty.

Yes. Every major bank in Thailand will accept checks in any of the major currencies. You need an account in the exact name that the check is written to. Expect it to take 30 - 45 days to clear, and the exchange rate will be whatever it is on the day the money is finally made available to your account. You can also expect to pay a fee on this side, and a fee for the intermediate bank used in the country of origin. This varies from bank to bank, but doubt the total charges will exceed 2000 baht.

Just head down to your local branch and tell them you want to deposit it.

Yes. Every major bank in Thailand will accept checks in any of the major currencies. You need an account in the exact name that the check is written to. Expect it to take 30 - 45 days to clear, and the exchange rate will be whatever it is on the day the money is finally made available to your account. You can also expect to pay a fee on this side, and a fee for the intermediate bank used in the country of origin. This varies from bank to bank, but doubt the total charges will exceed 2000 baht.

Just head down to your local branch and tell them you want to deposit it.

Yes, I can confirm this is 100% correct.

Takes on average about 6 weeks for cheque to clear, sometimes sooner.

I think you have a period of 6 months from date of cheque to bank it before it becomes invalid.

Would having her sign the check and then mailing it back to your bank in the UK (maybe add a photocopy of her passport as support that she actually signed it if you have a really suspicious bank?) and depositing it there to avoid the fees work for you?

I got hit with a 10% fee the one time I deposited a dollar check here. So mailing them back to the U.S. is what we do with all our U.S. dollar checks.

Mine took two weeks-ish to clear but it was a check from a government department. Maybe personal checks take longer? I paid about 300bht for mine at the thai bank. No scandalous charges. maybe I was lucky..

My grateful thanks to all of you. The time factor is a problem so maybe I will try to get my UK bank to open a joint account.

Would having her sign the check and then mailing it back to your bank in the UK (maybe add a photocopy of her passport as support that she actually signed it if you have a really suspicious bank?) and depositing it there to avoid the fees work for you?

I got hit with a 10% fee the one time I deposited a dollar check here. So mailing them back to the U.S. is what we do with all our U.S. dollar checks.

If you send it by mail, use EMS (which is in fact a courier service). Any other way, the chance of the cheque getting lost is quite high, if my London bank is anything to go by (once they even returned a Registered letter marked "Refused: signiture" (sic) "required"). I pay UK cheques into my bank here which, as another post says, takes 30-45 days... but at least you get the money eventually.