Cashing US cheques

I live in the UK and have a number of web sites with affiliate links. Most affiliate programs pay out with a US dollar cheque. My bank, and other UK banks I have spoken to make a charge to pay in a US cheque. This can be £5, £10 or more. I have set up some of my affiliate accounts (clickbank etc)to hold the cheques until they get to a reasonable amount, $1,000 to avoid bank charges. Some other affiliate programs do not have this option so some months I will get very small cheques. This month Aweber $23.94, implix, $73.11 and homestead $90. Once these cheques have been paid in and the bank charges deducted I will be left with £84. (£20 bank charges)
Does anyone know of a way to cash these cheques in the UK without incurring charges? Or perhaps I could open some sort of US dollar account in the US? (I tried a US dollar account with NatWest who said there were no charges but when I opened the account and paid in some cheques I found I had been mislead!)
Any advise would be gratfully accepted.

 

With small checks I just keep them till I get enough to make it worth cashing in

Just check the cheque to see how long till it becomes viod


I did set up a dollar account with lloyds but in the end at some point you will still have to exchange them into pounds and the good old bank would be there to take thier cut

It Sucks but hay every pound in my pockets helps

 

I receive a few cheques a week from the US - so I wait until Friday, and cash them all in then.. you still pay a fee, but it's not as much as paying each individual cheque to your account.

I don't think they are any UK banks that do not charge for this service.

Can you not ask for these affiliate sites to put the money into your bank account?

 

Check out if the programs can pay by PayPal, NETeller, Moneybookers or one of the other similar methods. That way you can lump them all in the one account and you only have to deposit one cheque. Some will also directly wire to your nominated account, depending on the program.

I also became very familiar with my bank's fees (to the point of knowing the page in their manual) as the bank people very often don't know themselves. For example, mine charges AUD10 for up to four cheques in the same currency so I just make sure I have at least four cheques before wandering down to the bank. Unless it is a big one and just want to see my bank account increase...

 

With exchanging USD cheques I use auctionpix.co.uk - Its not free of the charges, but they're usually quite small, like a few pounds.

 

in hong kong
the bank charge me about $3 fee for each us dollar cheque
there is no method to eliminate the fee
just accept it

 

Natwest normally charge me £10.50 for banking a whole pile of dollar cheques. However once when I banked a biggie for $9000 they charged £20 for every cheque I paid in. No matter who you speak to at the bank or however many people you get passed around to, they can never explain the charges.

Incidentally if you use neteller or epassporte you can withdraw cash at an ATM. This should help minimise taxation.