You receive an order for goods or services and accept payment by cheque – and then the customer pressures you to make immediate delivery. Don’t give in. Don’t rely on the credit entry that shows up on your account as soon as the cheque is deposited. The funds only become available once the cheque is actually cleared (typically after 7 working days unless you ask – and pay for - special clearance within 2 working days).

An important warning in this regard emerges from a recent Supreme Court of Appeal case – you are not safe to deliver or pay out before clearance even if your bank specifically tells you, when you deposit the cheque, that it is “good”.

In the case in question, a businessman delivered product to a purchaser on the strength of cheques which later turned out to carry forged signatures. As a result, he found himself out of pocket to the tune of R137.000. Although a bank official had confirmed to him, when the cheques were deposited, that they appeared to be “good”, the Court held that that was not in any way a guarantee by the bank that the cheques were “good for the money” – just that they weren’t post-dated, and hadn’t been stopped.

The 7 days’ clearance still applied, and the bank was accordingly entitled to reverse the credits made to the hapless customer’s account, and to recover from him the R48.000 which he had withdrawn from the account before the forgeries were discovered.