And yes, I do misplace other people’s checks at times. Sometimes it takes me weeks, or even months to stumble across them. (Because I forget about looking for the check.) There must be many people out there with the same level of ADD that I have (we just haven’t been medically diagnosed with it.) So, bottom line: If you are worried about how long it’s going to take me to deposit your check, GIVE ME CASH.
I just gave back to my sister a check that she wrote me for $60 about 3 weeks before. (I know she is the kind to worry about when it will be deposited.) When she told me she didn’t have cash in her house, I said: “I’d rather wait for cash, than have to go to the bank to deposit a check that I’ve misplaced.” So I can wait for my next visit to her in another 3 weeks.

Well, I didn’t know what to do, i have bills to pay, things that need to be done, so i deposited the check.!

Since we’ve converted to the Euro, cheques are a thing of the past. Everything is done electronically. There are no cheques.

The looks I get, from the local bank, when I insist on a real ‘cheque’, to send to the states, is priceless. Then, to note that I have to pay 40 Euros for the privilege, no matter what the amount.

In any event, here, practically everything is done electronically. Even things like paying for a bus fare, or parking, is done by your ‘Chip’ card. Groceries, etc., are done via your PIN card.

Even better, all your transactions are online, almost immediately. And you can transfer funds around, free, whenever you want.

I think I like our system here.

I work at a bank. If a customer writes a check to someone and it is cashed, lets say 4 months later, all my bank will get is a transaction from our processor which removes the funds from your account at our institution. We don’t get any other detail, so thus any questions the customer has will have to be aimed at the bank of first deposit (the bank of the individual that cashed the check).

If you wrote a check and it has not cleared, don’t “bank” on your institution to catch a 12 month old check. If it has not been cashed, do your due diligence and contact the recipient of the item. If they lost it, the only sure-fire way to make sure it doesn’t clear is to issue a stop-pay on that item (and incur the bank’s stop-pay charge). Not worth $25 to stop $50…unless you’re always near Zero.

this was, oh, six or seven years ago.

I am now much better with money than my father.

Most employers use what’s called a controlled disbursement account for paychecks – that is, it’s an account that starts the day at $0, goes negative throughout the day as checks are cashed and then at night, when the daily bank reconciling is done, the customer has an automatic sweep transfer that transfers the negative balance in the controlled disbursement account from a positive balance operating (or something like it) account.

It allows companies to keep funds in their interest bearing accounts for as long as possible. Of course, there’s a fee for a controlled disbursement account, but it also makes it easier for a company to reconcile because they know to the penny how much of those checks were cashed each day. Also, if you have $500,000 worth of payroll per week but only $250k gets cashed, you can still sit on the $250k in your savings (e.g. money market or investments) account. Of course, $250k can be chump change to a business, but when every penny counts, it makes a difference. (A controlled disbursement account is usually offered as part of a cash management suite of products from a bank – with the cont dsb account comes other perks – higher balances = better rates, larger lending facility, etc.)

As far as stale dated, post dated, depositing checks a month or two or three or eighteen months later – banks don’t have the time or manpower to research the items on every check. If a check is post dated and it’s over a certain amount, usually there’s a department that will call the payer of the check and see if they want it paid. The check could be returned or paid, based on the customer’s discretion. But there is a threshold – if you post date a $25 check, NO ONE at any bank is going to look at that.

Does that or does it not gum up the works for the gigantic employer’s accountants? And what happens when the university reports to the IRS that it’s paid her $NNNN.nn? Does she have to pay taxes on paychecks that she earned but never cashed?

People like Paul’s friend really didn’t notice that their babysitter wasn’t cashing their checks? Really? Did they think the babysitter was working for free? I wouldn’t have waited until writing the second check before asking her to start cashing them or arranging to pay her some other way. She certainly would not ever had to take me to court in order to get her money…

Hi, I’m another commercial lawyer weighing in here. The UCC doesn’t specifically address what happens when you write things like “void after 90 days”(these phrases are called “restrictive legends”) on checks. If a bank didn’t tell you that it won’t comply with restrictive legends, under the UCC (as implemented by that bank’s particular state) it would be obligated to comply with them.

But of course banks don’t want to have to look for restrictive legends on every check they get, and they don’t want to be liable for not complying with restrictive legends. So, they pretty much always have a statement in their terms & conditions for checking accounts, that says that they don’t have to pay attention to restrictive legends.

A big customer like a public corporation or a rebate processing service may negotiate different terms and conditions for their checking account, so that the bank may agree to honor their restrictive legends. But a individual with a personal account almost surely won’t have that kind of power with a bank.

With bill pay or debit card (or cash) you dont have to wait long at all for the money to come out of your account. Much easier this way.

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Austin Hike and Bike

I have subsequently left Banknorth for an awesome credit union that I used before I was married. I will never go back to a national/international bank.

However, to me it shouldn’t be an issue – if the person recorded in the register and deducted it from the balance, then it’s accounted for. If, at the end of the month it’s still in the account when you reconcile your bank statement, why not follow up? I mean, if it’s that important to you.

Thank you JD and others who chimed in.