It is only for $27 from some companyh that gave me money for putting up bnanner ads on a website I once had. I found it in an old book of mine.
is it safe to assume that it is probably more valuable as toilet paper at this time?
Yep, it’s called stale-dated, and the amount of time the check is good for varies by bank (sometimes it’s printed on the check) but is generally on the order of 6 or 9 months.
I once wrote a check and they deposited it a year later, and it did come out of my account. If there’s no limit on the check, and the company is still in business, I’d say ask a teller at the bank. If they okay it, why not deposit it? $27 is $27!
I remember reading that the IRS is sitting on a pile of dormant money that hasn’t been paid out as refunds. Some of the uncashed checks date back to the '30’s and it’s unlikely they’ll be cashed now, but they’re covered.
Anyway, the story of the dormant checks came out at the time the IRS put end dates on the refund checks. You know, “Cash within…” or the check quits working.
Maybe the same thing is at work here. Is there an end date on the check?
You might want to try this, just take a bunch of checks and endorse them all as “for deposit only,” and then stick the old one in the middle of the bunch. Then deposit it through the ATM.
The bank may not catch it and put the check through. But BEWARE the check could come back and the bank may charge you. Or some later date the money may be taken back.
Your bank may cash the check and give you $27. If the bank cannot get the money from the issuer of the check and it comes back, they will want the $27 back. And they may charge you an additional bad check fee.
So it could end up costing you the $27 you have to pay back plus $35 or whatever your bank’s NSF charge is.
Checking accounts are typically governed by a state’s enactment of a version of Uniform Commercial Code Article 4. In addition, the bank-accountholder relationship is also governed by the account agreement.
In general, a bank is obligated to an accountholder to pay the checks she has written (or “drawn” in the parlance of our times) on her account:
However, and most pertinent to the discussion here, is UCC 4-404:
Once you endorse (or “indorse,” again in the parlance of our times) a check, you make certain warranties to subsequent takers of the item,* including the depositary bank and the payor bank. Upon dishonor, if the payor bank elects not to pay the stale check, a series of charge-back will occur until the amount of the check is deducted from your account.
If the company is still around, and you want the money, you could contact them, explain the situation, mail them the old check and ask them to send you a new one. Or you could enjoy your $27 bookmark.
- Don’t ask for cites, if you’re so damn curious and/or skeptical take Commercial Law and try to stay awake during Payment Systems, the most boring thing in law school ever. And I took Corporate Taxation.
In some old mail I found a check for $1000 (give or take) that a bank in Oregon sent me. (I live in Ohio) It was my money, from an old account. The check was approaching 2 years old.
The bank was no longer in business, having been acquired. I called them and they had me send copies (via fax) of my license and SS card.
I expected they’d send me a new check; after all, the issuing bank no longer existed.
After a couple days, they told me to deposit it, which surprised me.
No problem.
When checks have been sitting around that long, there are three possibilities:
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The check itself has expired. It’ll have a date on it. So far as I know, you can always request that the check be reissued, but this assumes the company is still operating and wants to cooperate. It’s obviously not worth calling your lawyer to collect $27.
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The check has been turned over to the state. I managed to recover some 5-7 year old checks for a client through WA’s unclaimed check procedures. In our state, you can actually look on a web site to see if they’re holding any checks for you.
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The check may still be valid. That client I mentioned had a cashier’s check that was 7 years old. It was drawn on a bank that was bought by a bank that was bought by Wells Fargo. When we called Wells Fargo, they said it had to be cashed at a branch, in person and with ID, but that they would still honor it because it was a bank check.
Most states have unclaimed property laws which basically state that if you owe someone money, you owe it to them until it is actually turned over to them or remitted to the state to hold. Many companies don’t know about these laws and get into trouble. It works the same whether it is an uncashed check, a gift certificate, or credit for an overpayment you made. If the company still exists, they are obliged to honor the debt. If they have already escheated the funds to the state, they still have to honor the debt and apply to get the money back from the state.
Generally, states that require money be remitted after the debt has been outstanding a certain number of years (three is most common in the states I have worked) have a website you can go to to see if any money is owed to you. They don’t publicize it very often, of course. Why encourage people to claim thier money when the state can invest it and enjoy the proceeds?
The bank can also put a hold on the check, just in case it’s not honored. That way, you don’t spend the money, have the check come back, and then have to pay overdraft fees. That’s what the bank I work for would do in most cases.
I once got a cashier’s check for something which I ended up not doing, then forgot about. I found it four years later and redeposited it into my account; the bank honored it without any fuss. But that’s a cashier’s check, not a regular corporate or personal check.
Is the firm that wrote you the check still in business?
This was my experience in a similar situation. I had to ask the teller to take me to a manager to effect the deposit. The check was valid and I got my money.
FTR, in one case I received funds from the state’s unclaimed funds department 1 year AFTER I deposited the 3-yr-old check from my employer. (It was a medical reimbursement check. I’d filled out the deposit form the day I got the check, but just… misplaced it for 3 years.
It’s been 3 years since I got the “unclaimed funds”, and I’ve heard nothing from either the state or my boss about it.
That’s what I’d do. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.