h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

This loophole is not as cut and dried as it, at first appears. The clearing cycle of a cheque does not benefit the drawer i.e. the starving, desperate person, presenting the worthless piece of paper in exchange for vital sustenance (our Hero); or for that matter, the beneficiary. I.e. the grabbing, greedy capitalist retailer (the villain), who accepts the worthless piece of paper in the certain knowledge that it will be honoured, especially if it is guaranteed by a cheque guarantee card. Our hero’s account will still be debited i.e. the money will be taken from his / her account, on the day that the worthless piece of paper is presented to his / her bank i.e. the huge, over profited, heartless, faceless conglomerate (the arch felon). Now it depends on the retailer, as to when it banks it’s cheques but this is usually the day after the cheque was presented; but take care here, as some of the larger retailers have arrangements with their banks to pick up and present the cheques on the same day.
This means that that the drawer can be debited the very same day as the cheque was presented – particularly if the worthless piece of paper proffered by the starving desperate person, was used to pay for his/her life giving pot noodle early in the morning. Which means that the drawers account will go into the red and generate an automatic letter informing him/her of this fact; resulting in the starving, desperate individuals 60p pot noodle costing somewhere in the region of £30.
The 3 day clearing cycle alluded to here only affects the beneficiary; in this instance the retailer or villain, who will not be able to draw upon the funds represented by the worthless piece of paper, until 3 days after he paid it into his bank or arch felon.

To cut a long story short; if you are a skint, starving hero, who thinks it might be a good idea to issue a cheque when you don’t have the funds to cover it; it’s probably not worth it – borrow a tenner from a mate for a couple of days. Lets face it – if there was any benefit to be had from funds held in the clearing cycle you can rest assured that the arch felons would have found a way to tap it!HG