If I date a check Sept. 4, 2802 and a bank cashes it will I have to have this amount taken out of my account now? Or can I say your dumb mistake for cashing a check 800 years early?
My experience is that banks will cash a check no matter what the year date you’ve written on it. Every year I go through the “oh, wait, it isn’t 1999 anymore” thing (for whatever year) for a few months in the spring, and every year my bank goes right on cashing the checks.
So yes, I’d say that your bank will accept the check and cash it, even if it’s 800 years too early.
So as I understand it… your scenario involves writing a check (on your own checking account) intentionally dated 800 years hence, “cashing” it (or perhaps depositing it to a different account), but then arguing that the bank should not actually remove (debit) the same amount of money from your checking account for 800 years (or the rest of your life, whichever comes first).
Consider this: If you write a check with the full intent to screw the bank, by post-dating or whatever, that’s called fraud. Yes, the bank will probably bring charges against you if you try to defraud them.
So when you tell the bank “your dumb mistake for cashing a check 800 years early”, they’ll likely reply “No, YOUR dumb mistake for mis-dating the check. It was an honest mistake, wasn’t it?”
At this point, “Yes” is the right answer.
The other choice is “No, I intentionally post-dated it 800 years with the intent to defraud the bank.”
Good luck, and choose wisely.
The bank will either file charges of fraud against you (if the amount was large enough), or will simply ignore what appears to be an obvious mistake and treat the check as if it were 100% legit, i.e. they will debit your checking account the amount of the check (and ignore your protestations).
“But … … … 800 years!”
“Yeah, but we figured that was just a mistake. It was just a mistake, wasn’t it?” (See above for the correct answer.)
As a side note:
We don’t take post-dated checks in our business as they may be uncashable if the writer dies before the date on the check.
What we do is make the customer date the check with todays date and we tell them we will hold it until they wish us to cash it(within reason).
Sorry for the hijack.
Jimbrowski wrote:
The bank will either file charges of fraud against you
How am I defrauding the bank? The check clearly says 2802, not 2002. It is not like I would be using magic ink that changes the date. They took the check, they cashed it, and they should have looked at the date. The way I see it the check is like a contract with the bank, it has a date on it when they can take the money out and that date is in the year 2802.
As a side note, I have no intention of actually doing this.
BZ0000, it’s fraud because you deliberately set out to get money from the bank by cashing in on a mistake they might make.
[slight hijack]
OK, let’s make this a little more down-to-earth, if I may:
What if a bank does cash a purposely post-dated check. For example, I give my landlord a check for the rent. However, I tell him that I’m a little short this week and ask him to hold the check until next week. I date the check with next week’s date. He goes ahead and deposits it anyway, and the back cashes it, causing other checks to bounce. Is the bank at fault for cashing a post-dated check?
[/slight hijack]
Zev Steinhardt
In general terms a check is payable upon presentation regardless of the date on it. A bank will pay the check even if it is postdated so the date you put on the check is merely for the person you are paying and you are trusting they will not present it sooner. Banks do not normally check the date on the check at all and you would have to warn them not to psy it (similar to a stop payment).
Wife who worked as bank teller for 8 years sez:
Sailor is on the money. Dates on a check mean nothing to the bank, only to the check writer or recipient. You may leave the date field blank, or draw a smiley face in it – it doesn’t matter a whit to the bank.
Banking lawyer here. Some previous responses are not completely accurate. (**Sailor ** is close.)
“Except as provided in Section 4-401©, an instrument payable on demand is not payable before the date of the instrument.” UCC Section 3-113(a). A check is an instrument. Bordelund is therefore not quite correct when he says that dates don’t matter. There’s also a 6-month stale check rule that could be important. His specific example, though, is correct. An undated check is considered to be dated as of the day it is written. UCC Section 3-113(b). Also, there’s an important exception which applies to some banks. A drawee bank (the bank which holds the account upon which the check is drawn) may charge the account even if the check is post-dated, unless the account holder first warns the bank the it intends to issue a past-dated check. 4-401©. This exception is fairly new, being added in the 1990 UCC, which was adopted by different states at different times after that. Finally, there’s a fraud exception.
In Zev’s situation, the drawee bank would be off the hook, unless it was first warned about the post-dated check. He might have a claim against the landlord, though.
I remember hearing that in some states, a check dated other than the day it was written is not considered a valid document by the Attorney General’s office.
On a common sense note, checks are intended to be a substitute for cash which one has in the bank. A check is not meant to be a promissory note. What the OP seems to be trying to do is not consistent with the purpose of a check. You’re not going to get very far trying to fault the bank over a detail when the main thing going on is improper (and perhaps illegal) use of the check in the first place.
"Dates on a check mean nothing to the bank, only to the check writer or recipient. You may leave the date field blank, or draw a smiley face in it – it doesn’t matter a whit to the bank.
"
That’s what my bank said. i suggest the OP ask their bank too. They don’t mind questions like this.
My bank did say that any issue if it was cashed, was between me & the person I wrote the check to.
>> There’s also a 6-month stale check rule that could be important
If there are funds on the account the bank will generally pay a stale check. That rule just means you do not have to keep the account open or the money on the account forever. If you pay me with a check I can wait 5 months and the money should still be there when I present it. If I present it after 7 months then you are not obligated to keep the money or the account but you still owe me the money if the payment was received in consideration for value. So, the difference is that if the check is presented before six months and there are insufficient funds to cover it, the bank will bounce it for insufficient funds. If the check is presented after 6 months and there are insufficient funds to cover it, the bank will have a look at it and bounce it as stale. But if there are funds it will be paid. It has happened to me.
I believe the laws against writing bad checks require you to have the funds in the account the moment you write the check regardless of when you date it. Not tomorrow, not the next day, but now.
Here in Australia it’s easier as it is illegal to issue a post dated cheque.
The law varies from place to place, but in most countries the bank is within its rights in refusing to pay a post-dated cheque, and will refuse if they notice that it is post-dated. However for practical reasons cheques below a certain amount are not scrutinised, and so will be paid even if post-dated.
If this happens, and the accountholder objects, the bank will point out that he is not supposed to issue post-dated cheques - technically, depending on the local law, it may be a forgery - and the bank will ask him not to do so. If he persists in doing so the bank is within its rights in closing his account.
If you want the payee of a cheque not to present it until after a certain date, you should agree that with him and if, despite his agreement, he presents the cheque early your beef is with him, not the bank.
To find out how your bank handles thes items (in the U.S.) ask for a copy of your deposit account contract. You received one when you opened your account but most likley did not read it.
Regarding staledated checks, it will read something like this
For postdated checks model language would be
Lots of other good stuff in that account contract that you don’t know about either.