Is this accurate???

[Baba]

I won an auction for a guitar last night, and the seller's payment options were money order, personal check, or western union. When I checked out western union, they wanted $62.00 as a transaction fee. Um, no.

I didn't have that much cash on me (I never do!) so I decided to send a check, which I did today. Here's the email I got from the seller about my check.

"Baba,
That's fine, but I would use a USPS money order as personal checks take a minimum of 14-30 days to clear.
Thanks
S******"

I know there's a C.Y.A. aspect to things, but no check I have ever written has taken more than a week or so to clear. No real problem, it's already gone, and I'm not in a hurry, but is that accurate?

[itsjustgas]

Baba-

If I receive a personal check from an auction, I wait
a full two weeks to make sure the check clears.

30 days seems somewhat extreme in my book.

[tibobibo]

My understanding is that cheques are not really "cleared" until two weeks or more. It can sometimes take them that long to do all the final checks and actually take the money from the other bank. Even if they've officially cleared it for you before, they will still take the money back afterwards if they find the cheque is fraudulent / has no money. It happened to me and I had to seriously fight with my bank to get the money back! :confused:

Tibo

[Baba]

I see. Okay, thanks guys.

[Doug Lewis]

I think Money Orders are the best for everyone. .90 per money order. It's guaranteed good, and it can be written out to the person like a check. If it were a real high buck item I'd look to a cashiers check (unless there's no rush to wait for checks to clear).