The courier cheque payment method is a method by which one sends a cheque payment via a courier company from your premise directly to the premises of your intended recipient.

Perhaps slightly outdated when compared to modern banking methods like Ozan and PayPal, but the cheque never really seems to go out of style. This is why certain online casinos still offer the method of cashing in your withdrawals through cheque. The availability is steadily decreasing though, since it will take players a long time before they can see their casino winnings appear on their account. Perhaps one of the most noteworthy casinos that still accepts this good old-fashioned payment method is Ignition casino, who still displays a handy guide on how to receive your winnings via this method.

Take note that there will be some fees imposed on having the cheque delivered, depending on your bank and the online casino. For UK based players, this service is free. Some casinos will allow for a free of charge cheque being send out every 90 days, making it a nice little gift for the player.

What Is A Cheque?

A cheque (UK) or check (USA) is simply a document that you fill in to order your bank to pay a specified amount of money from your bank account to a specified recipient. A cash cheque will release funds immediately into the recipient's hands in real cash money, whereas a cheque made out to an individual or institution must be banked, where-after within several days of clearance the funds will be made available in the recipient’s bank account.

Cheques can only be issued if you have a transactional cheque account at your bank, and have applied for and received a physical cheque book in your possession. Cheques are a bill of exchange, and were developed so that people could avoid carrying around large amounts of cash money on their person, due to safety concerns.

How The Courier Cheque Service Works:

• The payer/drawer will fill out a cheque in full, stipulating the payees name, the amount in digits, the amount in writing, and the date. It must then be validated or verified with his/her unique signature on the bottom.
• The payer will then contact their favourite courier delivery service, who will collect the cheque from their premises and take it directly to the premises of the payee/recipient.
• The recipients must then physically take the cheque to the bank to deposit it into their banking account.
• The cheque will then clear into the payees account within 5-7 days (country dependent).

Fees

Fees for this service vary greatly due to a number of factors:

• Depending on your bank, and the country you live in, you could be charged quite dearly for cheque deposits due to the clearance procedures involved in the service. The United Kingdom however have this as a free service.
• Courier costs will vary depending on which country you are residing in, whether the parcel must be delivered across borders, and which courier you are using. Tariffs also differ from company to company, so be shrewd in choosing your service provider.
• Sending Courier Cheques can prove to be a costly exercise for both parties involved as cheque deposits may attract deposit fees for the recipient as well as costs for clearing to you.

Courier Cheques For Online Casinos

Courier cheques have been around for decades but with the rapid improvement in payment processing, they are becoming less popular within an industry that processes millions of transactions on a daily basis. Many online casinos still accept cheques as a payment method but the payment method is slowly being eradicated due to the slow processing time and the fall in demand.

To check whether an online casino accepts courier cheques as a payment method, you will need to head over to the ‘Banking’ section, which can be a standalone page or can be found under the general terms and conditions.

Deposits And Cashout Times

Courier Cheque services are probably one of the slowest payment methods available to online payers due to several reasons:

• Arranging a courier to collect and deliver incorporates travel time. The further away the recipient is, the longer it takes to get there, especially if it is across borders. In today’s day and age anything longer than 24 to 48 hours for the initial 1st step in the transactional process is a very long time.
• Once the cheque is received, it is not guaranteed that it will be banked the same day, but even after it is banked you will need to resign yourself to the fact that the funds will only reflect in several days because of clearance times. Cheque clearance times can vary from country to country, but an average of 5-7 days is taken from date of deposit to date of funds reflecting.

Security

Most reputable courier companies provide a safe and secure service for those needing cheques to be couriered, however nothing is ever full proof, and it is therefore strongly advised that one endorses the cheque strictly for deposit purposes only. Working with cheques has its weak points, and I believe that this is why a number of countries have already discontinued this form of payment method. Other countries are currently moving away from this slowly but surely. Cheque fraud is the number one security risk to this method of payment. Cheque fraud is rife for the following reasons:

• Forgery of cheques is sometimes easy, by individuals adding numbers to the amount to withdraw larger sums of money. By the time the payer is made aware that excess funds have been paid out, it is too late, and the thieves have withdrawn the cash already.
• Some cheques have your personal details printed on them, producing a lot of sensitive information on them which could lead to identity fraud.
• Cheques can only be authenticated by a signature, and although the bank will be able to compare the signature to one they have on file on the computer screen, there are professional fraudsters out there who can provide convincing forgeries.
• There are measures you can take to limit the amount of risk in issuing cheques, like crossing and endorsing cheques, but frailties in the system still remain.

Rewards

You will find that there are generally no rewards offered by financial institution for using Cheques for payment. The reason for this is that it costs the bank more to process these types of transactions. The opposite is actually true, as most banks will promote payment via either credit card, debit card, or Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT) or Bank Wire Transfer. They will often attach a rewards system for these more sophisticated and ‘worker friendly’ systems of transaction.

Support

In the case that queries or complaints arise, and you need customer support, you will need to contact either one of two institutions:

• For delivery issues, one must contact the client services division of the respective courier hired to deliver the parcel. There is usually a tracking number attached to the waybill that you can use as your point of reference when consulting them.
• Should the issue be related to clearance issues, fraud alerts or in cases surrounding the honouring or dishonouring of cheques, or perhaps you want to stop a cheque; then you will need to contact your personal bank and speak to a customer services representative.

Often, if you do regular work through one specific courier, you will be able to prepay for their services. Here you will be given a certain budget which will be used, and topped up at will. Some companies may even offer an account that can be settled in arrears at the end of the month.