As a virtual assistant, I have clients all over North America. Most of my American clients pay by PayPal, but there are a few who aren’t comfortable using the service for one reason or another, and mail me a cheque. (Or should I say “check” since we are talking about Americans?)
Most of the time it’s not a problem, but there have been a couple of occasions where it literally took weeks for a payment to reach me by mail, particularly from one client who lives about 500 miles from me. Last month, I was pleased that her cheque reached me in a matter of days, and noticed that she had sent it Air Mail. I emailed her to let her know I had received it and thanked her for sending it by Air Mail. This was her reply:
“If I knew that the simple words “Air Mail” were required, I would have done that 2 years ago. Duh! It’s no more $; it’s just 2 words.”
So keep this in mind when you’re sending mail across the border, especially over the next couple of months when the volume of postal mail is likely to be higher than usual. It might not help, but it sure couldn’t hurt!
How much did your bank charge you for depositing/cashing an out of country US$ cheque? The Big Banks like to charge a hefty ie $20 service charge for this; i ended up having to do a lot of leg work last time to open an account somewhere that didn’t. That same cheque took over 30 days to reach me from Chicago. I didn’t believe the guy had sent it when he said he did until I actually saw the postmark on it… And yes, it too was marked Air Mail – But that doesn’t mean it actually will get sent by air; depending where it originates and where it’s first sorted by US Mail, it may go by truck, rail, air or ski-doo
My bank (TD Canada Trust) doesn’t charge me anything to deposit US cheques but PayPal DOES charge a service charge, so it’s really just one of the costs of doing business and is factored into my rates.
Canada Post is no better than US Mail – I’ve had mail that took a week just to go from one side of Hamilton Mountain to the other – I think it all has to go to Mississauga to get sorted. Fortunately we don’t rely on postal mail as much these days!