Ways to bank

Cheques can be paid in via Post Office®, branch or post. 

The cheque clearing cycle refers to the time taken for a cheque to be processed, credit an account and that money to become available.

For cheques I have written

If you have written a cheque and it is paid into a bank or building society using cheque imaging, it should debit your account after two Business Days, once the cheque has been presented for payment at the payee's bank. If the bank or building society isn’t using cheque imaging, this should debit your account after three Business Days.

For cheques I have paid into my Co-operative Bank account

For cheques you pay into your account, once we receive the cheque, it will clear and credit within two Business Days.

Once the cheque is credited, if applicable, you will then start to earn interest or interest charges will start to reduce on your overdraft.

If a cheque you deposit isn’t paid, then a credit won’t appear on your account and a letter will be sent to notify you of this.

If you are paying a cheque into a Co-operative Bank branch, you should expect to see the cheque clear and credit your account within two Business Days.

If you are paying a cheque into a Post Office, you should expect to see the cheque clear and credit your account within four Business Days.

If you are posting a cheque to us, it can depend on how long the post takes to reach us, but once we receive the cheque it will clear and credit the account within two Business Days.

Useful cheque clearing tips:

• If you need to cancel a cheque you have written, you have until the day before the cheque is presented to us for payment to request this. Once a cheque has been presented for payment, and is showing as debiting your account, we are unable to cancel the cheque.
• Occasionally there are circumstances beyond our control, where the credited cheque may be delayed.
• When paying in cheques at the Post Office or posting cheques to us, please ensure you enclose a paying in slip to avoid any unnecessary delays in processing your cheque(s).

Account closures

We're sorry you want to close your account, if there's anything we can do to improve our service, please contact us on +44(0)3457 213 213. Otherwise, please visit our useful forms page to find the relevant closure document.

Useful forms page

Payment transaction history

From 2 February 2018, as part of the Competition and Markets Authority Retail Order, we are required to provide you with up to five years’ worth of your payment transaction history, following the closure of your account. This information will show all of your payment related transactions that have been made through your account up to a period of five years.

We won’t provide this for any period where there has been no payment related transactions i.e. your account has only attracted charges, if your annual turnover is greater than £6.5m or if the account was closed due to:

• fraud or other unlawful activity;
• the death of the account holder;
• arrears
• bankruptcy
• insolvency
• liquidation
• or in certain circumstances whereby the account holder's business or the business has closed

We will write to you and ask you to complete and sign a form in accordance with your Bank mandate.

Once we have received and successfully verified your signed document, we will send the payment transaction history to you within 10 working days. This will generally be sent to the address we held on file for you at the point your account was closed, unless requested otherwise by you or we require further information.

If you do not require this information you can tick the appropriate box on the form and return this to us.

Please note: The number of years’ worth of payment transaction information we will provide to you will depend on the time between your account being closed and you submitting your request. For example, if you closed your account 2 years ago you will be provided 3 years’ worth of payment transaction history. If your account has been open for less than five years, your transaction history will only cover this period.

If you changed your current account product and retained the same account details, your payment transaction history will cover all transactions made during that period.

Can I request a copy of payment transaction history after my account has closed?

If your account was closed after 2 February 2018, you can request a copy of your payment transaction history any time up to five years after your account has closed. In certain circumstances there may be a charge for this request.

Requests for payment transaction history after your account has closed will be sent to you within 7 working days following us being able to complete our reasonable identification requirements.

To request this, please write to us, signed in accordance with your Bank mandate at the following address.

Account Maintenance Team

The Co-operative Bank p.l.c.

P.O. Box 638

Salford

M5 0JQ

If you require information prior to the 5 year limit, this would need to be requested via a formal Subject Access Request. To request this, please write to us at the address detailed above.

Our HID Approve mobile security app is a quick and secure way to generate verification codes from your mobile. This is as an alternative to using your physical plastic security token for accessing your account and authorising payments.

If you’re an existing Business Online Banking user, you can now order a replacement physical plastic security token by completing and emailing the token request form.