Do personal checks expire?

[manlymatt83]

So I wrote this girl a check like 3 months ago and she still hasn't cashed it.

Do they expire at all?

 

[FoBoT]

no

 

[Wapp]

Some places may refuse to cash a check after so long. I tried to cash one from my mom at the PX on Ft. Belvoir and they said after three months they won't touch it. =(

 

[j00fek]

90 days i think, might be 130 check with your bank/cu

 

[Scarpozzi]

Didn't you see that episode of Seinfeld.

<uncle leo>SHE DOESN'T HAVE THAT KIND OF MONEY???!!!! STOP THE SHOW!!! STOP THE SHOW!!!! SHE'S ON A FIXED INCOME!!!!</uncle leo>

 

[krunchykrome]

Originally posted by: mjuszczak
So I wrote this girl a check like 3 months ago and she still hasn't cashed it.

Do they expire at all?

Yes, they do expire. How long?...it depends on the financial institution. Some banks won't honor a check after 3 months, and some it's 6 months. But they do void. You can't write a check 10 years ago and have someone cash it tomorrow.

 

[QED]

No, personal checks do not expire. And anything you write on the check is not enforcable by the bank (i.e. you can't write "not good after Dec 10th, 2006" and expect the bank to honor it).

In fact, for most purposes the date on the check is entirely ignored.

A teller might look at the date on the check and not cash it on a personal whim, but there is nothing to stop the person holding the check from going to a different bank or teller.

 

[QED]

Originally posted by: krunchykrome

Originally posted by: mjuszczak
So I wrote this girl a check like 3 months ago and she still hasn't cashed it.

Do they expire at all?

Yes, they do expire. How long?...it depends on the financial institution. Some banks won't honor a check after 3 months, and some it's 6 months. But they do void. You can't write a check 10 years ago and have someone cash it tomorrow.

Not true for personal accounts.

The only time banks, as a policy, allow checks to expire is for corporate customers who request it. For the most part, I can write you a check today, date it ten years in the future, or ten years in the past, and you'd not have any problems cashing it (as long as I had enough funds in my account to cover it, of course).

 

[Zenmervolt]

Originally posted by: QED

Originally posted by: krunchykrome

Originally posted by: mjuszczak
So I wrote this girl a check like 3 months ago and she still hasn't cashed it.

Do they expire at all?

Yes, they do expire. How long?...it depends on the financial institution. Some banks won't honor a check after 3 months, and some it's 6 months. But they do void. You can't write a check 10 years ago and have someone cash it tomorrow.

Not true for personal accounts.

The only time banks, as a policy, allow checks to expire is for corporate customers who request it. For the most part, I can write you a check today, date it ten years in the future, or ten years in the past, and you'd not have any problems cashing it (as long as I had enough funds in my account to cover it, of course).

Funny, because I've found old personal cheques that were 8+ months old and my bank refused to cash them saying that they would not cash a personal cheque after 6 months from the date.

Banks can, do, and will, expire personal cheques.

Also, what you write on the back of the cheque IS enforceable IF the person signing the cheque can reasonably be assumed to read it in the course of signing. For example, if you pay your uncle Joe for a car and write on the cheque "payment in full", if he cashes it, he's bound by it because he will have seen that while signing it. If you write the same thing on your CC bill, they are not bound by it because they have a machine process their cheques and they cannot conceivably see your stipulation.

ZV

 

[QED]

Originally posted by: Zenmervolt

Originally posted by: QED

Originally posted by: krunchykrome

Originally posted by: mjuszczak
So I wrote this girl a check like 3 months ago and she still hasn't cashed it.

Do they expire at all?

Yes, they do expire. How long?...it depends on the financial institution. Some banks won't honor a check after 3 months, and some it's 6 months. But they do void. You can't write a check 10 years ago and have someone cash it tomorrow.

Not true for personal accounts.

The only time banks, as a policy, allow checks to expire is for corporate customers who request it. For the most part, I can write you a check today, date it ten years in the future, or ten years in the past, and you'd not have any problems cashing it (as long as I had enough funds in my account to cover it, of course).

Funny, because I've found old personal cheques that were 8+ months old and my bank refused to cash them saying that they would not cash a personal cheque after 6 months from the date.

Banks can, do, and will, expire personal cheques.

Also, what you write on the back of the cheque IS enforceable IF the person signing the cheque can reasonably be assumed to read it in the course of signing. For example, if you pay your uncle Joe for a car and write on the cheque "payment in full", if he cashes it, he's bound by it because he will have seen that while signing it. If you write the same thing on your CC bill, they are not bound by it because they have a machine process their cheques and they cannot conceivably see your stipulation.

ZV

What I meant by "enforcable" is that a bank will not act as an arbitrating agent between the check bearer and the person who wrote the check. In other words, whatever you write on the check will not have a bearing on whether the bank honors it or not. Of course, if you write legal terms on the check as part of honoring some sort of contract, that is an entirely different matter-- and you are right-- the courts have ruled that implied contracts written on checks are enforcable.

 

[krunchykrome]

Originally posted by: QED

Originally posted by: krunchykrome

Originally posted by: mjuszczak
So I wrote this girl a check like 3 months ago and she still hasn't cashed it.

Do they expire at all?

Yes, they do expire. How long?...it depends on the financial institution. Some banks won't honor a check after 3 months, and some it's 6 months. But they do void. You can't write a check 10 years ago and have someone cash it tomorrow.

Not true for personal accounts.

The only time banks, as a policy, allow checks to expire is for corporate customers who request it. For the most part, I can write you a check today, date it ten years in the future, or ten years in the past, and you'd not have any problems cashing it (as long as I had enough funds in my account to cover it, of course).

No, I worked at a bank for almost two years. Generally speaking, all banking policies are the same. It is true, the teller might go ahead and deposit a 3-6 month or older check. Thats the teller's fault, and it doesnt reflect bank policy, and 9 times out of 10, the back office will catch such an error. When I was working at a bank, we did comparisions with other banks with regards to services and policies, and I doubt much has changed in the last couple years. Google The Uniform Commercial Code, it says that banks can refuse to honor checks that are more than 6 months old, and Im not aware of any bank that will honor such a check.

 

[Garet Jax]

Originally posted by: mjuszczak
So I wrote this girl a check like 3 months ago and she still hasn't cashed it.

Do they expire at all?

Most banks will only honour them within 6 months of the date they were written. I do not believe this is a law, but it seems to be a general practice.