What is the time limit on cashing personal checks after receiving them? I paid off a debt by personal check to a friend six months ago and he still hasn’t cashed it. My gripe is that he is so inconsiderate and lazy. I could have kept the money in my mutual funds account and gained a little more interest over this past half year rather than have had it rot in my checking account, which earns zero interest.
His inconsiderateness and irresponsibility have worn off on me. What if I forget about this check, having written it so long ago, and accidentally withdraw money from the account, thereby putting me in peril of having insufficient funds if this clown does eventually go to the bank?
What’s the rule, if anyone knows? Am I required to write a new check? Does the previous one become void? Does the debt become void? I wish!
I believe the rules for this vary by state. Looking through the California Commercial Code online, it looks like your friend can wait up to six years to cash the check.
I thought the time was shorter, like one year, but six years seem possible.
Um, what he means is that since his friend has not cashed the check, the money is still in his (Troy’s) checking account. He’s annoyed because if he’d have known that his friend wasn’t going to cash the check for six months, he would have transferred the money to an interest-bearing account. That way, after these past six months, he would have still been able to pay back the friend, but he (Troy) would be a little richer for having transferred it to the other account.
Troy, I don’t know if there is a time limit on cashing checks. I would bet that your bank has its own policy, though, so the best idea would be to call your bank and ask them. If they do void checks after X amount of time, tell your friend he only has so long left before that check is worthless. If he doesn’t cash it, it’s his loss.
Well, i’d say depending on the amount of the check and the relatioship with the friend, you could call the bank and stop payment on the check, transfer the money, and if the friend asks for the check write him a new one. If its a small amount it may not be worth the effort. If its not a small amount there are a few upsides to this. One, if the guy is an asshole and never remembers then you get to keep the money, not honest, but maybe he deserves it. Two, if its a large amount you could assume he lost the check and by stopping payment preventing anyone from stealing that money. Three, as you say you may acrue interest on it. I know how annoying it is to balance your check book with outstanding checks floating around and it increases the chances of an overdraw. Legally, i don’t think he has any recourse (not that it would get to this) to prevent you from canceling the check. Its a very common occurance when dissatisfied with service.
Get the cash, trade it to him for the check, tear up said check. No more worries. Sometimes you gotta lead your friends by the nose, for their own good.
Oh, yeah, write “tore up check” in your register. Or void it, if you’re one of those people.
Peace,
mangeorge
Work like you don’t need the money…
Love like you’ve never been hurt…
Dance like nobody’s watching! …(Paraphrased)
Cripes, how big was this check?
Stopping payment (the only method to prevent payment down the road, imho) will cost you 20 bucks or so. Banks love this stuff. They don’t care if it’s a stop payment or an NSF, they make money.
This sorta reminds me of something that happened to my older sister. She’d had some very expensive dental work done- she’d been told to expect it to come to several thousand dollars worth. And she didn’t have dental coverage at the time! So she waited for the bill to come in the mail. And waited, and waited. Three months later, still no bill.
Now here was her dillemma: she didn’t want to call them and say “Hi, please bill me for thousands of dollars”- who would? But on the other hand, she didn’t want to one day have the bill come crashing down on her when she wasn’t expecting it. What ended up happening was that she used the time to pay off her charge cards, and she was able to use the credit when the bill finally came after eight months. (The dentist told her his billing system had gotten f****d up).
Is there a limit to how long someone can wait to bill you, or can they put it off for years?
Nick, if your bank charges you anything to stop payment on a check you’d better find a new bank. Bookies and Loan sharks have better policies. Stop payment is a free service from my bank, and I can even do it online so i never need to leave my home. If you honestly have this set up, Id shop around some more.
Just FYI,
I misplaced a paycheck once from a part time job (about $275). Don’t ask- Anyway, I found it, deposited it through my ATM, and it cleared just fine- it was about 1 1/2 years old. I don’t know if they had to honor the check, but they did.
In the future, you can save yourself the trouble with idiots like your friend (or like me) and send a money order instead. That way they money is out of your hands and whatever they do from the time you hand it to them is their own problem
An optimist sees an opportunity in every calamity; A pessimist sees a calamity in every opportunity.
Alot of good advice. Thanks all. I think I’ll cancel this check and write out a money order. But first I’ll talk to my bank and see what are the best options.
