I am only talking about statutory declarations.

The people I mentioned do them for free.  There

shouldn't be a charge for that

If the P.O charges $4.95 that's a rip off.

They can charge if they want to, not JP's though.

Charging a fee

There is no restriction under Commonwealth law that prohibits a witness from charging a fee to witness a statutory declaration.

However, Justices of the Peace are prevented from charging a fee to witness a statutory declaration under their relevant state or territory codes of conduct.

http://www.ag.gov.au/Publications/Pages/Witnessingastatutorydeclaration.aspx

Wasn't aware of that little clause.  But I only ever

went to those three places I mentioned before.

No-one charged.  It was free.

If the P.O. wanted to charge me,  I would have gotten

very vocal. At ever- increasing decibels too.

I was under a lot of stress at that time and that

would have been the icing.

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@am*3 wrote:

I hope your $$ are in your a/c tomorrow freddie. Might be 3 business days clearance?

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I deposited it Wednesday morning shortly after opening there should be no need to hold a Bank Cheque.

Most Banks have a JP on staff, all Court Houses also have a JP.

There are a lot less JPs than there used to be now that they have to pay a fee to keep their accreditation.  It costs them to give a free service to the public.

There used to be 3 JPs within a couple of blocks radius...just elderly people who had been registered for years.  They all gave it up when they had to pay to keep their registration.

Most post offices have a JP on staff....usually the Post Master.   Ditto with banks.

I never have a problem finding one....my eldest daughter has been a JP for the best part of 20 years.  Usually she can call in on her way home from work the same day that I ring her.

My pet hate with banks is when you pay $15+ for a Priority clearance on a cheque and it still takes the usual 3 days.

When I rang to complain I was told that there is no guarantee that the cheque will clear quickly as there is no way the bank can know if the other bank will answer their fax to clear it.

I actually felt sorry for the poor girl who was on the other end of phone when I made my feelings known about that.  If they offer a service that the customer has to pay for then they should deliver that service....no ifs, but or maybes.

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@azureline** wrote:
If the cheque is from the same bank as your account, it should clear immediately.

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Az, it was not from the same bank.  It was from a Solicitor just a few suburbs away.  I had another one from Link Market Services and the same thing happened.

It was explained to me that my bank sends a fax to the other bank requesting the clearance.  Until/unless they receive a return fax the cheque just remains in the normal clearing service.

There is nothing to tell you if/when it clears other than watching your bank account.

In the "old days" you could go to the bank and request a special clearance on a cheque.  The teller would take the cheque out the back, pick up the phone and ring the other bank.   It might take 5 minutes if they were busy but you had your special clearance and knew it.

Online banking might be handy but it is not always as efficient as the old ways.