In Bright Young Things – http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0325123/ – (which is set in the 1920s or '30s – that part’s not entirely clear; it’s based on a Waugh novel published in 1930 but ends as WWII is breaking out; see this thread: http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=347934), Adam Fenwick-Symes is cornered by his landlady, who wants him to pay his overdue bill. “I have a checkbook right here!” She steers him to her desk, where there is an open portfolio of some kind with what appear to be checks. Fenwick-Symes fills in an amount on one and signs it.
He wrote a check using her checkbook?
Was there a time when a check was something other than a preprinted form provided by the account holder’s bank and bearing the account holder’s name and account number?
If I could write a check just by filling out a completely blank form, how would anyone know what bank account it was drawn upon? Or even, at what bank I have an account? Or even, who had written it? (I would hate to have to go by a signature! I’ve seen few that even marginally legible.)
Banks, and other businesses, used to provide “counter checks”. If you didn’t have your checkbook you could fill one out and it was perfectly legal. I believe the “counter check” required that you fill in the name of the bank. Of course it was a crime to issue these on a non existant account. Quite often you would see a news article where someone wrote a check on some strange thing as a gag, or publicity stunt. I recall one where a guy carved the check into the skin of a watermelon and the local paper dutifully ran a picture of it being presented, at the bank, for payment.
I haven’t seen this for years and I suspect that the banking regs. have been changed, although I don’t know that.
This may sound strange but it is really just a matter of cosmetics. Check printing houses just print whatever information you give them on pieces of paper and call them checks. There is nothing special about them other than the fact that the formats look like other people’s checks.
It is perfectly legal to print your own checks on your computer as well and many people do so. You can go into MS Word now and create some checks freehand that are as legal as any other.
Check laws are unusually liberal and anything with the required information on it will be accepted by the bank. The person or business does not have to accept unusual types of checks if they choose not to however.
There is an interesting story on the internet that I can’t find right now. A man got one too many of those large “instant winner” checks from a promotional company and decided to cash it. It turns out, the “sample” checks that the company had sent out had all of the elements of a valid check and the check went through. The guy screwed with the bank and the company for a long time before giving the money back even though he found out he was under no legal obligation to do so.
I’m sure the requirements have changed.
I recall when they started allowing banks to destroy the paper copies of checks and keep just the images.
They specified that it would no longer be acceptable to submit checks that did not copy, such as those with a red background or signed in light blue pencil.
Now, of course, the banks are shifting to full color images, so that will soon seem quaint, and will eventually be listed in those columns on weird old laws that are still on the books.
As late as the mid-1980s many retailers in small towns in the US still had pads of counter checks from the local bank(s).
When you went to pay at a restuarant, grocery store, or hardware / feed store, the cashier’d hand you a blank check form from whichever local bank you used. In addition to the items you enter on a check today, you’d also fill out your name & address in the upper left where that’s usually preprinted now.
The check had enough pre-printed MICR numbers at the bottom to identify your bank, but not your account of course. After the store deposited the check in their bank, the Fed system would get the check back to your bank, at which time your bank’s clerks would look up your name, add your account number on the bottom, and process the check for payment.
I’m not a small town resident any more, but I doubt that system has survived the advent of expedited processing timelines in the early '90s, not to mention the huge increase in rural-area financial fraud since the late '80s.
As to Ty Cobb’s comments, I doubt Check 21 and the new truncation rules would have any effect on counter checks, assuming such still exist.
Well, then as early as the mid-90’s, when I got my first checking account, nobody took counter checks at all. I was all excited what with my first job and everything, but I couldn’t buy a damned thing until my proper checks came through - don’t know why they even bothered to give me the book of counter checks.
The book of checks your bank gave you with a new account was almost certainly starter checks, not counter checks. The difference is that starter chacks have account numbers pre-printed, just not a name and address. Counter checks have neither a name nor an account number.
And, yes, the mid 80s to mid 90s was a time of exploding check-based fraud and simultaneously consumer protection legilation that transferred essenatially all the risk from the depositors onto the banks & retailers. As a result, they stopped doing a lot of things that were convenient for consumers but exposed them to some risk of fraud.
My grandmother told me that in the mid-60’s, the local grocery store carried blank checks for the 3 banks in town; a few people who were exceptionally wealthy (and had accounts with every bank in town) would go to the store, indicate that they wanted to pay with a check, and when asked “which bank?” would just wave their hand nonchalantly and say “Any of 'em.”
By the mid-70’s, they no longer carried counter checks. Small town in Oklahoma, population about 15,000 at the time.
One thing to keep in mind here–the person or business accepting the check has the right to refuse whatever payment means are offered. In other words, regardless of the legality of the practice, if I were to whip out a blank notepad and write out a “check” to my grocery store, they have every right to refuse to accept it. Many stores even refuse to accept “starter” checks, since they are not pre-printed with the account holder’s name and address.
Similarly, the bank has the right to refuse any documentation that it cannot verify. Even though it is technically possible to print out checks using Word, or even using check blanks designed for Quicken/Quickbooks/Money/whatever, the bank can refuse to process those checks if they don’t meet the bank’s standards–which usually requires magnetic ink for the numbers at the bottom of the check so the machines can read and verify the checks automatically. If the bank refuses your check, the creditor doesn’t get their money, and it’s bad on the account holder.
I beg to differ. In the United States (and most other countries), you are very much obligated to repay any funds erroneously paid to you. The only exceptions I am aware of is if you have diplomatic immunity or if the funds were paid internationally to an account in a country where mandatory reimbursement is not the law.
I have over 20 years in International Depository Banking and have run into many cases under many different scenarios and bumped up against the exceptions too.
What you read is probably an urban legend. First of all, a check has to pass through too many hands (several hands in each of the depository bank, the clearing house, the drawee bank, the issuer’s acccount) for the error not to be caught. Secondly, although it may look like all the elements of a valid check are there, the “elements” are faulty. The ABA number is not valid and neither is the account number it’s drawn on.
Same thing happens today.
I went by the bank last week and picked up several blank checks. I filled in the account number, name, address, everything by hand. Checks are a private contract between the person giving and the person receiving. As has been stated, I might have trouble finding people to take these checks, but when presented for payment at the bank, they will be honored.
I’m sure the links in above posts explained this, but for the benefit of those without time to read them:
The guy in the story about cashing an advertising check received a “promotional” check from a company running some kind of giveaway.
The check had ALL of the elements and also, for some BIZARRE reason, had the advertiser’s honest to God ACCURATE ABA number and account number.
This situation isn’t an urban legend. It only developed because of two failures.
The advertiser was dumb enough to use his real banking information.
The advertiser’s bank failed to dishonor the check until over a week too late. The funny part is that the check put the account into NSF status. Most banks catch that kind of thing right away…
I was told by our Fiscal Department that if Payroll erroneously paid someone too much, that person is under no obligation to pay it back. They might agree to a repayment plan but depending on the amount, the full repayment might never happen. One employee got a check for a million plus and could have deposited it and apparently Payroll couldn’t have done anything about it. Luckily the employee brought it back in without cashing/depositing it.
