I just checked my online statement and a check that I wrote October 9th of last year has just barely cleared. Ridiculous! Don’t companies have some obligation to cash your check within a reasonable length of time? Ah well… at least that explains why my checking accounts don’t balance (or it could be my lax record keeping habits… hmm…). So what is the longest amount of time you’ve ever seen it take for a check you’ve written to clear?
Grim
Well, there’s a limit: any check that’s more than 6 months old is considered “stale,” and most banks won’t cash it (assuming they catch it).
But, Early Out, my understanding is that most banks use mechanical check readers and that date checking doesn’t happen that often.
I’ve never had one take a huge amount of time to clear - 2 weeks I think is the most that’s ever happened.
I hate it when places don’t cash checks. I’ve had two over the last few months that were not cashed right away. I had one for 300+ that did not get cashed for almost three months, don’t you want your money? I’ve also got one out now that they’ve had for over a month.
If it’s part of a big batch of checks deposited by a business, that’s probably true. But if you saunter up to the window in order to cash or deposit one or two checks, and one of them is ancient, the teller will probably notice it.
My kid’s preschool regularly takes over a month to cash checks. The longest for me was just over 3 months. It’s not a record, but the regularity of how long they hold checks makes my balancing my checking account always a brain-flexing exercise.
Why does it matter when the person cashes the check? If you write a check, the money in the account is no longer yours, right? At least, that’s how I look at it. So why does it matter if they cash it three months from now?
I’m not trying to be snarky, mind you, I’ve always wondered why people care when the check is cashed.
Speaking for myself it’s just annoying to have outstanding checks for that long. My anal side rebels at the thought of my checking account not showing the actual amount available (which is why I write so few checks). Yeah, yeah… it’s not my money any more. It’s just annoying damnit! 
It’s kind of like a friend who has asked to borrow a book from you but never comes to pick it up. You don’t let anyone else borrow it cuz this other friend asked you first. You ask them if they’re going to pick it up after a few weeks. They respond “Oh yeah, I’ll come by tomorrow” and then they don’t come by until a week later. Finally they pick it up. Then they take their time reading the book and finally return the book to you 6 months later (and it only took them 3 days to read it). Not exactly like that. Sorta like that.
There are regulations about how much time a bank is required to clear a check: Federal Reserve Regulation CC. It depends on what type of check it is, but for checks less than $5000, the rules are the second business day after the check is deposited for a local check, and the fifth business day for a non-local check. There are exceptions, but the bank can get in trouble if they don’t meet the standards (this is the reason why most checks now have a “do not write in this space” area on the back – it allows a space to put routing information).
However, a person can hold on to a check as long as they want before depositing it. After a certain amount of time – depending on the bank – the check is considered old and the bank can decide not to honor the deposit.
Actually the money remains in your account until the check is presented to your bank for payment. You certainly can consider the money gone when you write the check, but the bank doesn’t. And it becomes an issue if you don’t know if the check is lost or not. Is a year-old uncashed check lost, or are they going to deposit it before your next statement (and the bank accept it)?
Excellent point.