Charged extra interest when redeeming

Could I ask an opinion on this please?
My solicitor sent a bank draft to my bank to redeem my mortgage following the sale of my house. It was for the redemption amount quoted by the bank and arrived on a Friday at 5pm. The bank lodged it to my current account (not my mortgage account) on the Tue. On the Wed they transferred the amount plus approx another 5 days interest from my current account to my mortgage account to pay off the mortgage. I'm feeling a little overcharged ... is the bank in the right?

It's a very interesting question. What did your solicitor say? Why did he present the cheque at close of business?

I think it's probably a bit much for you to expect that you would get value for a cheque on a Friday which was presented on the Friday at 5pm.

I would think that it takes two working days for a cheque to clear. (Are bank drafts any different I wonder?)
If it was presented late on Friday, I would have thought that you should get value for it on the Tuesday or Wednesday, so 5 days seems about right.

But what if you didn't have a current account with the bank where you had your mortgage? I imagine that they would have simply accepted the draft in full and final settlement.

Thanks for your reply Brendan.
After several months of wrangling the buyer wanted to close at short notice (to my relief) & it happened on the Friday. My solicitor thought receipt of the draft should have meant full & final settlement. He was a bit alarmed when I rang him on the Tue to say my online banking showed the redemption amount in my current account rather than my mortgage a/c., he said I could have swanned off to Bermuda with it.

Interesting, as Brendan said.
There is a myth around which suggests that a draft has a status similar to cash. Not true! A draft is merely a cheque drawn on a bank, and has the same status as any cheque issued in the name of the bank - and in these days, the banks name counts for a lot less than in the past..
A related issue is the prevalence of frauds perpetrated using fraudelent or forged drafts.
I'm assuming that the draft was issued by a bank other than your bank. I'm also assuming that the redemption figure quoted was based upon the loan being paid off on the Friday.
If the bank had paid the draft directly into your mortgage account, and it subsequently was found to be worthless, the bank would likely have considerable difficulty recovering the funds from you. When they placed it in the current account, they could simply debit it to your current account if it bounced. So the bank was being protective by holding it in the current account first.

On the question of interest, it is normal practice for banks to charge interest on uncleared cheques (including drafts) until the day on which the bank gets funds. In your case, if the cheque reached the bank after their cut-off time on a Friday, then the cheque should be included in their clearing of Monday, which would be exchanged with the drawer bank on the Tuesday, and your bank would then receive payment on the Tuesday. So, if they had done things correctly, they might expect to charge 4 days - Fri, Sat, Sun, and Mon.
You could quibble with them about one day. But, don't forget that they still carried a risk associated with clearing that cheque for a further couple of days.

The sooner that the banks and the legal profession move to electronic settlement of this type of transaction the better.

Gulliver said:

The sooner that the banks and the legal profession move to electronic settlement of this type of transaction the better.

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totally agree - cheques are the most stupid form of payment dating from a hundred years ago and it is a sad indictment of our poor country that we still use the d**n things so much. Any amount over 10k should be electronic as a start, and then work down from there. just got a book of cheques sent out to my by my bank with a stamp duty of 12.50 for 25 cheques, add to that the postage costs and time lost in clearing cycle compared to an electronic payment saddens me and my bank account.

Why isn't IPSO doing more to stamp it out, starting with the government agencies who produce about 30% of all cheques used in the country. mainly for social welfare payments, and payments by county councils etc.