Alasdair wrote:
If I needed to borrow a small amount of money and I had a cheque book
and a cheque guarantee card, I could go to a cheque cashing shop and
get a loan to the extent of the guarantee which can be up to £250. The
cheque cashing shop insists that I don't put a date on my cheque and
they will insert a date before they present the cheque to my bank. If
I am unable to repay the loan after, say, the agreed period, the
cheque cashing shop will extend the loan at a suitable usurious rate
of interest. The cheque can, in practice, be presented many months
after receipt by the cheque cashing shop.

This has happened to a friend of mine and she currently owes the
cheque cashing service £250 plus interest plus interest on interest.

She intends to pull the plug on the transaction and let the cheque
cashing service sue for their money but in the words of Lord Dunpark,
that eminent Scottish judge, "they cannot get blood from a stone".

What she doesn't want to happen is that the guarantee kicks in and she
goes overdrawn and the meagre state benefits paid into her account are
used up for the benefit of the bank.

She cites the APACS UK Domestic Cheque Guarantee Card Scheme.
http://www.apacs.org.uk/payment_opti...c_cards_7.html


Under the rules (Rule 2) the cheque must be dated on the actual date
of issue and under Rule 6c the cheque must be presented within 3 days
of issue else the guarantee is null and void.

If she can show evidence as to when the cheque was issued in the first
place, is the guarantee worthless and is her bank likely to
acknowledge this?

Seems to me that you would be in breach of contract with the bank for
entering into the arrangement. I would expect them to cancel the
guarantee card, and they might well terminate your account.

You would still owe the cheque cashing shop and they would either
continue to compound the interest, or would start the process which
would eventually send in the bailiffs. If as a result, they ceased to
be able to pay in cheques to the bank, they might be even more intent on
making an example of you (unless the problem was a rogue local manager.

Issuing a cheque using the card, under the belief that the guarantee was
void might be considered fraud.