expired checks ... can you still cash them?

[udonoogen]

so i graduated college in may and went with my friends to europe for a couple months. i finally picked up the mail that got backed up at my old berkeley address (before USPS mail forwarding kicked in) and tonight i was sorting through it. i found out that a joke i submitted to readers digest actually got published ... so i got a check for 100 bucks. thing is ... it expired last week ... 90 days after may 26. so i emailed them asking them for a reissue. what will happen if i go to the bank and try to cash it? if they dont notice will it go through? if it does "accidentally" go through ... will it bounce?

man ... 100bucks would be nice since im currently job searching. thats all. not trying to scam anyone ... just want to try to cash this check. anyone know anything about this? surely someone has had rebate checks expire on them and knows a bit about this. im in california if that makes any difference.

 

[Deleted member 4644]

I have gotten several very old (5 months) checks reissued. Im not sure if they HAD to though.

 

[Nocturnal]

Often times if you just go in and put them in with a bunch of other checks to cash, it'll get cashed.

 

[Deleted member 4644]

Originally posted by: Nocturnal
Often times if you just go in and put them in with a bunch of other checks to cash, it'll get cashed.

That too, but I tried that once and it didnt work...

 

[Zee]

unless they are careless, you would be hit with a charge for a bounced check. Depends where you are. Certain banks are lazy/careless. I had a young cousin take his mom's check and sign it blatantly in print with his own name and buy a set of dishes and then actually mail it (he was playing around imitating his mom shopping with a catalog).

2-4 week later a set of dishes arrived

 

[cherrytwist]

They have expiration dates for a reason...

It's not like milk.

 

[farmercal]

If you explain why they check didn't get cashed they normally issue a new check without any problems.