[Aliantha]

Over here, any cheque that's not made out to 'cash' or isn't a regular pay cheque takes usually 10 days to clear unless you pay a fast clearance fee of usually about $30. Sometimes if you're friendly with your bank they'll cash cheques sooner if you've never had one bounce etc.

On the whole though, we don't use personal cheques here very much. It's mainly businesses that pay with cheques. Most people pay with credit or debit cards.

As far as paying a mortgage by cheque, that just seems weird from where I'm sitting. These days most people over here have it come out of their account automatically on a scheduled day, or they transfer it online. Very few people even go into banks for things like mortgage payments.