Hi everyone, I have a quick question. As some of you may know, I work offshore, and I am currently at the beginning of a 4 week long hitch. A check came in for me at my house that I would like to get deposited into my personal checking account, so that the funds are available to me electronically. My boyfriend is willing to go down and deposit it for me at a local bank branch, but obviously I am not there to endorse it for deposit. He talked to a friend that said all we have to do is write "For Deposit Only: " and then my account number, and he’ll be able to deposit it into my account for me by walking into a local branch. Does this sound right to you? Has anyone ever done this before? It is a fairly large check so it might raise some eyebrows, but it is made out to me, and we are trying to deposit it into my personal checking account, so I think it should be ok. What do the dopers say?
I think that will work. It’s made out to your friend, being deposited into an account with her name on it, and you will make a trace easier by putting the account number on the check, should anything happen. If in doubt, speak to a bank officer first.
You are sure the check is good, right? If there’s any doubt, don’t draw against it until it clears.
Um, no. The check is made out to me, with my name on it. My boyfriend is the one who is going to be depositing the check on MY behalf. The check is from the Comptroller of Public Accounts of Texas, so it better be good! I’m offshore, so I can’t really speak to a bank officer, unfortunately <_<
Depositing into an account is a lot easier than withdrawing from it.
Here’s what I would do if I were in your boyfriend’s place:
Endorse the check with your name (as written on the payee line of the check). This can be printed in block letters, it doesn’t have to be a signature.
Fill out a deposit slip. If he has one preprinted with your name and account number, great (less writing necessary). Otherwise use a blank one from the bank, entering the pertinent info.
Present it to a teller and get a receipt, or put it in the night depository.
Easy peasy.
On the back of the check, in the endorsement space, have your boyfriend print your name as it appears on the check’s payee line. Below that, have him print “For deposit only.” Below that, he will print the account number. Next, he takes (or mails) the check, along with a completed deposit slip, if required, to the bank.
ETA: ninja’d by Gary T!
This confuses me. Do cheques work differently in the US? In the same position I’d just ask my wife (or a friend) to pop down the bank and pay the cheque in for me.
Or just pop it in the slot outside the bank.
Are there restrictions on paying in to an account in the US? I can pay money into any account - cash, cheque, or card. It’s withdrawing money that’s the hard bit - I have to be me.
Alright, thanks guys, I hope it goes well! I always thought that the check had to have your genuine signature on it before it could be deposited anywhere. Glad to know there are other ways.
I make deposits for my boyfriend all the time. All you have to do is write for deposit only and the account number on the back of the check, and fill out a deposit slip from the bank counter. They don’t care much about who puts money into your account, only to who is taking it out.
If you want to turn a check into physical cash on the spot you generally need to go through hoops, including having signed it with your signature and present photo identification and etc.
For depositing checks it’s much easier. I literally deposit mountains of checks into business and personal accounts throughout the year and I literally have a rubber stamp I use to stamp the endorsement area with “FOR DEPOSIT ONLY” and basically just throw them at the bank and they take care of the rest. Not literally just throw them, but I have dropped them into night deposit boxes and etc…they take care of the rest. For deposits into a personal or business checking account I can tell you at least at my bank they require no identification, no signature, and it reliably goes into the appropriate accounts.
My bank will hold large checks (it’s happened every time I’ve deposited a check > $10,000 but the threshold may be lower) from being part of your “available balance” electronically for longer periods than normal. Normally if I get a check deposited by 2 PM it is 100% available to draw on electronically that same business day. If I get it in after 2 PM then they make $100 available until next business day (so if I do it on 6 PM Friday only $100 is available until Monday.) However when it’s been a really big check it’s sometimes been 3-4 business days to become available.
I was a teller in the 90’s. Just “For Deposit Only” and the account number underneath, in the endorsement section on the back, and a deposit slip are all that’s needed for a 2nd party to make a deposit. I’ve never heard of someone else signing/printing or otherwise attempting to put the payee’s name on the back of the check. Since it’s a deposit-only transaction, they still probably won’t look twice at it, but writing someone else’s name on an endorsement area, even if not an attempt at looking like a signature, can still be technically called forgery. For those who have done it, ultimately the tellers probably just don’t bother with it (I certainly wouldn’t have) since it’s just a simple deposit. But you shouldn’t do that.
Years agi when my dad was on vacation, I would pick up his check at work take it to the bank, print his name and under that put “deposited by my name” then sign under that. the bank teller always accepted the deposit. But I could only deposit it no cash back.
Generally, when I deposit a check into my own checking account, the teller doesn’t care what is or isn’t written on the back, and they don’t ask me for ID either. Often, I hand the check to the teller with NOTHING written on the back, and the teller just rubber-stamps it with the words “Within-named payee”.
Note also the latest new-fangled ATM machines that actually scan the check when you insert it (no more putting the check into a deposit envelope), and they even figure out, just from looking at the check, the amount of the check. (And no, there’s no OCR or magnetic printing on the check with the amount at this point. It can only get that by actually reading the hand-written amount.) The machine doesn’t care if you haven’t written anything on the back. (To deposit into your bf’s account at an ATM, of course, you’d need his PIN or password.)
Yup, do it all the time. Print “For Deposit Only” and the account number in the endorsement space.
In Canada, about 10 years ago the banks here issued a bulletin saying that it was unnecessary to endorse cheques being deposited to an account via the ATM deposit process. (I.e. an ATM belonging to the bank your account is on.)
Not sure if the US banks have the same policy, but the logic as mentioned above is pretty simple - putting the cheque into an account owned (by name) by the person to whom the cheque is payable, is pretty much as solid evidence as possible that the cheque has been paid to the correct person. If, after that, the bank wants to give money out of that account - then that’s their problem, not the cheque issuer’s. (I assume the bank required proper ID to open an account).
It’s true for me, at any rate. I use a tiny credit union in Ohio. When I need to deposit checks, I stick them, unendorsed, in an envelope with a deposit ticket and drop them in the night depository. Never had any problems.
It’s been a long time since I’ve looked at the back of a cancelled check, but last I saw, the bank automatically put a stamp on ALL deposited checks that said, “endorsement guaranteed.”
Just an update for everyone. When my boyfriend went to the bank with my check and a filled-out deposit slip in hand, they ID’d him, found out he wasn’t me, called the police and hauled him off to jail!
Ok no really, it all went well. He emailed me a picture of the deposit receipt and I checked online and the deposit is “processing.” Thanks for the help guys! I was always taught that checks HAD to be endorsed with a valid signature on the back for whomever they were made out to, so I’m glad to learn something new. You all were a big help!
I was a teller in the mid-2000’s, and I endorse your message. If I saw a printed name on the back, I wouldn’t have any method of determining the signer, but checks that are completely blank or “for deposit only” are the most preferred. I wouldn’t balk at receiving these, and I’d stamp the back.
The only requirement is that he NEEDS your account number. The teller cannot look you up by name because a) they’re not supposed to share info with someone not on your account, boyfriend or no, and b) they could potentially find the wrong Drew Too and put it in their account.
A further update!
Just talked to my boyfriend and it turns out that he had to go to TWO different branches, because the first one said that they required my signature in order to deposit it. Luckily I bank with Bank of America, so he just tried a different branch and they did it for him. But evidently I’m not the only one who believed that you needed a valid signature in order to deposit a check into your account.
And yes, he DID write “For deposit only:” and my account on the back. So… evidently there are some tellers out there who won’t deposit the check without a classic signature for endorsement.
ETA: When he asked the first teller why he couldn’t deposit it without my signature, the teller told him it was because of the type of check that it was. (From the State of Texas, large amount, maybe?)
Glad it worked out! It doesn’t always, though. A while back, Mom asked me to deposit a check for her since I was going to be next door to her bank. Stupid teller wouldn’t let me, since my ID didn’t match the name on the account. Mind you, I had done the same thing a zillion times, since my route to work went past Mom’s bank, where she maintained her business account and two personal accounts. It was definitely a WTH moment! But tellers are allowed the occasional brain fart, too. (In fact, the nice girl at my bank did so recently - Tony accidentally took my debit card to work with him, so I figured I’d just cash a check for $20 for whatever small thing I needed. Drove to the window, handed the teller check and ID, and she told me she needed my thumbprint. I was all ???, and asked whether there was a new policy, since my name was on the account and printed on the front of the check. Oops - she just hadn’t noticed that there are two names on the household account, and she assumed that I was cashing a check as a non-account-holder. Ultimately, no harm done.)