Missing the point

By THIS IS MONEY
Updated:

 

I recently deposited two hand written cheques, one for £813 and the other £2,434, into my First Direct account. I have discovered that I was credited with £8.13 and £24.34. When queried, First Direct told me that the cheque scanning machine occasionally misses the point and therefore decimalises the number. Is cheque scanning a common practice in the cheque clearance system? What is the percentage of errors when using this method? NW, Windlesham.

Sandra Quinn at the Association for Payment Clearing Services says: This does happen sometimes - usually because of unclear handwriting on the cheque. Banks have machines called Reader/Sorters that read the amount on cheques at high speed as they pass through and are sorted into bank order. This is how the millions of cheques written every day are sorted and processed.

Occasionally there are errors, but as a percentage of the total amount of cheques processed, mistakes are rare particularly as banks have to balance their work (and for all cheques, there should be matching credit slips).

It is very unlikely that two cheques should be mis-read in the same way, and quite a startling coincidence, unless the amounts were poorly written in the first place. It is easier to envisage an error the other way round where the amount intended was £24-£34 and the machine 'missed the point' as your question says that the bank said. In this example the machine has introduced a point!

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