paying a USD cheque into a UK bank account

Whatever you get charged, expect the cheque to take at least 2 months to clear. US banks are a complete joke.

Lloyds Bank says they will just use thier 'standard exchange rate'. Probably not too expensive. Your bank website or phone bank should be able to give you similar info.
https://www.lloydsbank.com/online-banking/payments-and-transfers/international-payments/receiving-a-payment.html

Well my normal bank, Nationwide, doesn't accept foreign cheques. so I have just opened an account with Lloyds for the sole purpose of paying  in this cheque....

You need

Nationwide is a building society that identifies as a bank! 😀

I had a largeish cheque from a US bank and paid into The Halifax.  No issues, cleared quickly (couple of weeks) and exchange rate was not too bad. It was about 4 years ago

Well my normal bank, Nationwide, doesn’t accept foreign cheques

is it because you’re a Politically Exposed Person? 🙂

Largish cheque paid into Halifax last month, lost a fair chunk on the crappy ‘standard’ rate. Electronic transfer next time I think - the fee would have been less than we lost on the exchange rate.

There’s basically no good way to do it. Encourage people to buy you fuel, or use PayPal, or basically anything other than give you cheques!

Electronic transfer next time

Do Americans actually know what this is?

You'll probably have to go into a branch to pay it in. Where they will (if it's anything like Barclays) stare at it incomprehensibly as if it's the lost scrolls of Ankor Wat.

Thanks Canadian MIL. - I do wish the North Americans would join us all here in 21st C Banking

Wise is your go to on this to get electronic transfers. Rates are reasonable and use mid-market for exchange plus a fee of $5 to $30 (the upper rate is for an international wire transfer, the lower rate can be below $5 for some transactions). Accounts in many major currencies are available.

Having worked for American companies for ages... take it into your bank and they should be able to pay it in. It depends on the bank that issued it in the US as to how long it takes to clear. 1-3 months is quite common.

I have a USD UK account but that took some organising!

I used to get quarterly dividend cheques in USD and just took them to my local Bank of Scotland. They cleared within a week or so and there was a small charge. When Lloyds took over the BoS systems, the whole thing got expensive and involved them being sent to one central clearing point. I eventually bit the bullet and pay a small fee on each to have them issued in GBP which means I can now just scan them on my phone app.