If your post-dated check was cashed early and you suffered a significant financial loss, a civil attorney might be able to help you recover damages. If a post-dated check (or any check) bounces, it’s important to take steps to remedy the problem right away, so that it’s clear there was no intent to defraud. There are a few ways you can determine if a check is stale-dated, whether you received the check or have concerns about a check you’ve written. The offers for financial products you see on our platform come from companies who pay us.
If you live in the greater Kansas City area, NBKC won’t feel like an online bank since there are a few branch locations throughout the region. However, the bank’s Everything account is open to everyone – even if you don’t root for the Chiefs and Royals. NBKC lets you make cash deposits at select MoneyPass ATM locations, which you can find by filtering to solely include “deposit-taking ATMs” here. The one downside to consider is that deposits at MoneyPass ATMs can take a long time to show up in your account – up to 5 business days. People pay by check much less often now that so much banking is done online.
A defendant also will have to make restitution to the victim for goods or services received with the bad check. The idea behind a postdated check is that the issuer of the check is giving payment for goods or services at the time services are rendered or at the time of receiving a goods. However, they are requesting that the check not be deposited until a later time. If you do not want us to pay a stale-dated
or postdated check, you must place a stop payment order on it. If you don’t have a local bank and the issuing bank doesn’t have a branch nearby, another option is to use a check-cashing service. These services are offered by standalone check cashing companies as well as money service counters at retailers such as Walmart.
- Now, if you’re the one writing a post-dated check, just know that it means nothing to post-date a check.
- You may also need to write your account number below your signature as an added verification step.
- The option you go for will determine how and where you process the paper payment.
- Compensation may factor into how and where products appear on our platform (and in what order).
- If you’re trying to stop a check from being paid, providing notice within 2 business days should be sufficient in most cases.
When you write a check, you are essentially giving the payee’s bank permission to take the money out of your account when the check is presented for deposit as discussed above. The funds won’t actually be transferred until the check clears, which can take a few days. These types of post dated checks can serve as electronic proof of a business transaction in the event that accounting records become lost or damaged.
Legal disclaimer
There isn’t anything in the Uniform Commercial Code saying a check has to be dated. In fact, if a check has no date on it at all, it’s assumed that it was written on the day that you attempt to cash it or deposit it. If you receive an undated check you can fill in the date yourself. According to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau (CFPB), most checks are good for up to six months. … While most checks don’t expire, you may not be able to cash old checks that are more than six months old. The six-month rule applies to checks that have an expiration date, too.
Banks have different policies for how long they will continue to monitor to prevent premature payment. If the payment is rejected, your bank is generally responsible for covering any overdraft charges that occur. When this happens, you can receive additional consequences through your bank such as getting your account closed, or steep fees. If your check is cashed prior to the postdate, and funds are not available, be prepared for a headache and additional fees. Many bigger banks, however, will honor postdates as part of banking agreements. Be sure to check with your bank about specific account disclosures for more information.
If that’s the case, it’s best to keep the funds available in your account for at least six months. There is no guarantee that a bank will honor a request to release or hold funds for a postdated check, but it depends on the bank. There are a few ways to give your bank reasonable notice that you have written a postdated check.
- That means the bank must wait to cash the payment until the date stated on the paper or until six months is up, whichever comes first.
- Opinions expressed here are author’s alone, not those of the bank advertiser, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser.
- The only exception to stale-dating may be a certified check, which must be honored, even after 180 days.
- We are not contractually obligated in any way to offer positive or recommendatory reviews of their services.
When someone writes a check intending not to cover it, they can be guilty of a theft crime. Some states might have a specific name for the crime such as theft by deception, passing bad checks, or negotiating a worthless instrument (checks are a type of “negotiable instrument”). Whether the crime is a misdemeanor or a felony often depends on how much money was involved. The six-month time frame generally applies to personal and business checks — including payroll checks.
The money we make helps us give you access to free credit scores and reports and helps us create our other great tools and educational materials. The amount that is immediately paid out can depend on your account, your bank’s policies, the value of the check, and even the type of check you receive. MyBankTracker generates revenue through our relationships with our partners and affiliates. We may mention or include reviews of their products, at times, but it does not affect our recommendations, which are completely based on the research and work of our editorial team.
Contact the issuer of the check and ask them to write you a new one. Danni Santana has spent seven years as an editor and business journalist covering industries like sports, retail, restaurants, and now personal finance. He is a graduate of the Craig Newmark Graduate School of Journalism at CUNY. His biggest loves outside of the newsroom include, running, cooking, playing video games and collecting sneakers.
Postdated Check: Is it Legal & How to Write One
If a check you’ve written has resulted in any criminal accusation, investigation, or charges, you should consult with a criminal defense attorney right away. But when someone does intend to honor a check meaning of depreciation and post-dates it to make sure they can cover it, they haven’t committed any crime. That said, there might still be some things to think about when it comes to post-dating checks, as noted below.
Can you cash voided checks?
Ask the cashier, or better yet a manager, if writing a postdated check would be an acceptable form of payment. Do not be surprised if they do not allow it even if it is in line with state laws. Banks and credit unions generally state rules about postdated checks in their account disclosures. Some of the biggest banks, for example, note specifically that they can honor checks that are made out for future dates. A debt collector may not accept a check postdated by more than five days unless the debt collector notifies in writing the check’s maker of the collector’s intent to deposit the check. The written notice must be provided at least three but no more than ten business days prior to the collector depositing the check.
How do I know if a check has gone stale?
We do not endorse the third-party or guarantee the accuracy of this third-party information. We believe by providing tools and education we can help people optimize their finances to regain control of their future. While our articles may include or feature select companies, vendors, and products, our approach to compiling such is equitable and unbiased. The content that we create is free and independently-sourced, devoid of any paid-for promotion. Curious as to what happens when I defy the concept of post-dating, I checked with banks to their rules on the matter.
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To cash a check, you’ll either need to visit a bank where you are an existing account holder or, in some cases, a branch of the bank that issued the check. You can also cash many checks at check-cashing businesses or retailers that offer check-cashing as a service, though either of those options will incur fees. You should also check your state’s laws and your bank or credit union’s policy before writing a postdated check.
Thanks to automated payments and online banking, many of us rarely (if ever) write checks, but millions of Americans still pull out their checkbooks every day to pay their bills. Because they might not always have enough money in their accounts on the day they write those checks, some folks will postdate their checks so that they aren’t deposited or cashed until after that date. Unfortunately, the fact is that there’s generally no actual obligation to honor the date on a check. Recently learned this the hard way when her bank processed a postdated check several weeks before she’d intended. Had sent the check to a car dealership to cover the remaining $1,500 payout resulting from turning in a leased vehicle ahead of schedule. “Since we were still short a few hundred dollars, why not cover most of the payout, and send a postdated check for the rest later on,” she tells Consumerist.
A personal or business check that’s older than six months is technically considered stale, but that doesn’t mean it’s void, a bad check or that your bank won’t honor it. It simply means the financial institution has the option to refuse the check. A “check” is a negotiable instrument intended for immediate negotiating, NOT as a promissory note). While big retailers like Walmart don‘t offer the service, cashing post-dated checks is still very feasible through banks, credit unions, and check cashing stores. Just because it’s legal to write a postdated check doesn’t mean things will work out the way you intended.