My wife and i have been married for just over 5 years, and we still have our original, separate checking accounts. There’s no particular reason for this, except inertia. We just never bothered to close either of them, or to open a joint account. We transfer money between them frequently, and bills get paid out of whichever account happens to be most convenient at the time.
Anyway, earlier this year i submitted a few amended tax returns to the IRS, changing our status from “Married filing separately” to “Married filing jointly.” We initially filed separately because i was a nonresident alien and we didn’t think that we could file jointly, but i discovered this year that nonresident aliens married to US citizens can choose to file jointly and be taxed as residents. Because filing jointly lowered our tax burden, i put in amended returns.
The IRS has now processed one of the amended returns, and i have a check for about $600 (we were both grad students, so we had pretty low incomes during those years). The check is made out to both of us, but as i said earlier, we have no joint account.
My question is: If i just take this check to the ATM and deposit it in my account, will the bank honor the deposit, or will they require the deposit to be made in person, with my wife present also?
My sense was that they would want both of us there. My wife thinks it will be fine i i just deposit it at the ATM. Any thoughts?
There is difference between checks made out to “A or B” and checks made out to “A and B”. If there is no word, then “OR” is usually assumed. However, this only matters as to who has to endorse the back of the check. You can still deposit it into either account, just have both of you endorse the back of the check if it’s made out to “A and B”.
Most banks will (in my experience) accept a check for deposit (as opposed to cashing one) endorsed by only one of two payees, simply to avoid the time and frustration of returning it for the missing payee’s endorsement, as 90%+ of the time the intent of the two payees is identical. But it makes perfect sense to me to make a simple short phone call to find out the bank’s policy: “My wife’s in Tallahassee for a month, and I’ve got our tax refund check made out to both of us, which she said to go ahead and deposit in my account. Will that present any problems?”
Thing is, though, my wife’s not in Tallahassee. She’s here, and could theoretically go to the bank with me. It’s just that we see no point in dragging both our asses there unless absolutely necessary.
As for calling, i’d be willing to try that, but the last time i tried calling my local BofA branch, i could not get through to a live person no matter what i tried.
IME, you don’t need to both go to the bank–you just both need to endorse the check. There’s no rule at any bank I’ve presented checks at requiring that endorsements be made in front of the cashier; if it has her signature on it as well as yours, they should accept it for deposit. But I had an issue once at my credit union trying to deposit a check endorsed only by me but made out to both of us to our joint account! The teller told me that if neither of us had endorsed it, I could have written ‘for deposit only’ in the endorsement section and they would have accepted it for deposit to the joint account of the parties … But once I’d signed it with my own name, they needed her signature as well to accept the check. :dubious:
Huh? As i said, i’d be happy to spend a minute or two to call the branch. But last time i tried that, i literally could not talk to a real person, but just got shuttled all around a stupid menu.
Wow, thanks. It could be that my prior experience trying to call had more to do with Baltimore than with BofA.
Anyway, she’s clearly wrong about needing a joint account.
It could be that my wife needs to be there in person in order to verify her identity and endorse the check in front of a teller, but the idea that we actually need a joint account is ridiculous.
By the way, that’s another reason i asked here rather than trying the bank: in areas like this, i think i’m more likely to get an accurate answer from people here than from an actual bank teller.
In my experience, bank tellers often have no fucking clue about banking rules and regulations, and in situations where they’re at all unsure, they’ll just give the answer that is most likely to cover their ass.
For the record, I picked a random branch off of their big map. I’m in Indiana, so I think I grabbed one in South Bend. When you do call, ask to speak to an account manager, not a teller. If someone there knows, they will.
So instead of calling the bank and getting an answer from an actual bank teller, you got an answer from Munch, who got it from a teller. What’s the difference?
The difference is that i’m dismissing that teller’s answer, because it’s clearly wrong.
We have deposited checks made out to both of us before, into my account. But on those occasions both of us were present. So, the teller’s answer that depositing a check made out to two people requires a joint account is completely contradicted by my actual experience.
My question, in this case, is not whether we need a joint account, but whether both of us need to be present in the bank, or whether simply depositing it in an ATM after we both sign it will work. The teller that Munch spoke to would argue “no,” but i’[m dismissing that teller’s answer because he or she is giving information that is clearly contradicted by my own experiences with the bank.
And also by common sense. The idea that one party on a check can’t sign over their interest in the check to the other party without having a joint account is completely ridiculous.
Going by the rules on endorsing checks, there’s absolutely no reason a joint account is required, just two signatures. As far as the law is concerned, once a joint check is endorsed by both parties, any complete stranger can deposit it to any account or cash it.
In practice, banks try to filter some of the riskiest options by requiring ID, preventing checks from being cashed, etc. If you show up with a check that has your signature and your wife’s on the back, I don’t see how they can refuse to deposit it.
If you really want to avoid any protest, have your wife endorse it and write either “Payable to mhendo” or “Payable to Bank of America, for deposit to acct #12345678.”
So, if the check is payable to “mhendo or wife” or “mhendo, wife” or “mhendo/wife” or variations on that theme, he may deposit it on his own.
But what if it is payable to “mhendoand wife”? All that’s needs to be done is to blank indorse (this is how the UCC spells “endorse”) the back of the check (i.e., just sign the back, with no other language – no “For Deposit Only” and certainly never “Without Recourse”). That converts the check to a bearer instrument and my be enforced merely by presentment to the collecting bank. UCC § 3-205(b) (“If an indorsement is made by the holder of an instrument and it is not a special indorsement, it is a ‘blank indorsement.’ When indorsed in blank, an instrument becomes payable to bearer and may be negotiated by transfer of possession alone until specially indorsed.”).
There is what’s legal, what usually happens, what sometimes happens, and how to get around all of it.
What’s legal (as far as I know) is that a check made out to two parties needs endorsement by both parties–if it goes into an account owned by only one party, the other party should really add “pay to the order of” and the account party’s name so it’s clear what’s going on–an endorsement of the check to a single party.
What usually happens is that no one checks. Sign your name. Sign your wife’s name. Deposit the sucker. Done.
What sometimes happens is that you get caught doing this, particularly if you take it into a person to deposit instead of a machine. No consequence if there is no fraud, except the teller person might refuse to process it. If there’s fraud, then you are on your own…
How to get around all of this is to use the ATM. Done. It is highly unlikely the check will be screened for appropriate signature. Bazillions of checks are processed, mostly in an automated fashion. If the check itself is good, it gets processed.
All of this is my opinion, but based a few checks over the years, plus of course the requisite Discovery Channel (or similar) education.
IME, you can deposit just about anything in the ATM. Here’s what you do:
Both sign the back.
Deposit in ATM.
Profit.
I’ve done this before and never had a problem. What’s required is that the check be indorsed (glances at Kimmy_Gibbler) by both parties and presented to the bank (by ATM in this case). There is no legal requirement that they look at IDs, and if you deposit it at the ATM, they generally won’t bug you about it.
I think i’ll just get her to sign the back, i’ll sign it, and then deposit it using the ATM. If i get any problems from the bank, i’ll come back and let you know.
Well no, as I and Kimmy_Gibbler pointed out there is a difference between checks made out to both parties (“mhendo and wife”) and checks made out to either parties (“mhendo or wife” or pretty much anything other than the word “and”)
