Possible cheque problem

[Bob A Job]

Hello, I am getting married next month in america. I live in the canaries, but am having the wedding reception for the family in the UK.
The problem is this, although i have told most of the family, i just know that some of the family will give us English cheques and i dont have an English bank account anymore.

So, if i get a cheque made out to me can i cash it into my wife(to be)s account, or anywhere else? and if we get cheques made to both our names can my wife(to be) cash it into her bank account?

And if they make the cheque out to her married (to be) name, what can we do with that?!?!?

P.S. we will only be in the UK for about 1 or 2 days so opening a new account will be nearly impossible.

[lady_p_gold]

Well I have had American cheques paid into my English bank account there is a handling charge, but I don't see why you couldn't. As for the married name, I am sure if she notifies her bank that there is going to be a change of name shortly then that would be fine as long as she produced the marriage certificate. Be careful about booking tickets in the married name though because I had a problem with that because the passport was in the single name and the tickets were in the married name, I made sure I took my marriage certificate with me as I thought it might cause a problem and it did !

[spudqueen]

If your wife (to be) has a bank account in the UK then no they won't accept English cheques payable to you or to you both into an account in her name only. All cheques these days are crossed 'account payee' which means they can only be paid into a bank account which has the same name as the payee. If you get any could you maybe ask your in-laws to have a word with the people who give them to you to let you have the money some other way?

[lady_p_gold]

Oh I see, I misread the problem, I thought you meant you had an American account and you were going to get cheques made out to you in pounds. As Spudqueen says can't you get them to pay you in something else ?

[stevie21]

Go with the assumption that the names on the cheques has to match perfectly the name(s) on the account.
If someone give a cheque signed to "Mr and Mrs Smith" then it would seem that they want you to have an equal share of it.
If this cheque goes into a single account, then legally the 2nd person has no right to it anymore.

A cheque made out to one person can go into a joint account though, as that's your choice to give access to the other person.

The easierst thing, surely, would be to say that any cheques are to be made out to whichever name suits you. Just announce this to everyone - is that such a problem?

[Bob A Job]

The receptionis in a week, and we wont see anyone until that day, by then great aunt fran...tec will have already written out cheques and cards.

I guess theres nothing we can do.

[WoWo]

I think you will just have to suck it and see. Worst case after the wedding you write to the people who give you such a cheque and say that while their gift was most welcome you can cash the it, you will destroy the cheque (giving the cheque number) and that if they wish to send another one the name should be .....