Depositing Usd cheques

[thor666]

Hi there, i have a few Usd cheques that i would like to bank in with minimum/no additional charges. Cheques are from local bank dbs. Does anyone have recommendations of how to bank these cheques?

I have standard chartered esaver and investment accounts in usd if that is viable choice.

Many thanks in advance.

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[specuvestor]

I used to bank USD cheques into POEMS because it's free and I can do conversion to SGD at spot rate

[soros]

Best to ask the local dbs bank what charges are made to cashing USD cheques.

[wee]

you may want to try asking DBS bank first. I was told about 2 months back by their banker that they waive off charges for depositing USD cheques issued by DBS.

[lanoitar]

Most local banks allow you to bank in local USD cheques without charges (with the exception of HSBC, I think), if u bank into a local USD acct. If you bank into a local SGD acct, there'll be a forex penalty. I've deposited multiple times into StdChart USD without fees.

[HitandRun]

If your interest is just in "depositing" the cheque, you can try this relatively new account offered by DBS:

DBS MCA

The beauty of this account is that you have ~12 currencies with just 1 account.

I think the minimum balance required is ~ SGD3k without cheque issuing facilities but I could be wrong. 

No charges for clearing local USD cheques offered by the usual cartel. *


* Used to cost a bomb and take many weeks to clear USD cheques. Someone had a great idea to form a USD cheque clearing system in Singapore and initial members were exclusive and only the bigger banks have membership but I suspect that nowadays, most local (i.e. issued by local branches operating in Singapore) are recognised. If you have a non SGD and non USD cheque, it will still take a long time plus hefty charges to clear the cheque.....

[thor666]

Hi specuvestor, soros, wee, hitandrun,lanoitar. Thanks for all your advice, definitely help. I will call dbs and std chrt to find out details hopefully can share findings with u too.

Raymond

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[thor666]

Standard chartered charges $10 to process usd cheques into sgd account. If you open usd acct, foc.

Dbs is foc even for sgd acct, convert at prevailing bank fx rate (quite close to actual fx). Hence am going for dbs.

Thanks valuebuddies.

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[hh488]

Most local banks allow you to bank in local USD cheques without charges (with the exception of HSBC, I think), if u bank into a local USD acct. If you bank into a local SGD acct, there'll be a forex penalty. I've deposited multiple times into StdChart USD without fees.

Yes, I just called a RM & he confirmed no charges if deposit into a USD settlement a/c with SCB.  

I've not tried it before but will do it the next time round.