Is there a ‘default’ period in which checks are still good? There is no expiration date. Should I call the bank.
Six-month limit on presenting your check to the bank.
SO you must bring a check within 6 months of its date, or the payor bank may refuse to honor it. UCC §4-404
htanks, the checks im holding are from a business account. I assume it’s the same time limit.
The UCC states it is 6 months, but the UCC is not universal “law” so the policy can vary based on the drawing bank.
The UCC has been adopted almost word-for-word, in all 50 states – like I said, my response was “may” refuse to honor it.
His bank may give him extra time as a courtesy, just like banks sometimes credit you with money after you deposit a check (before it clears). Esp. if you are a big customer.
I dont see how a business account would matter.
The simple truth of the matter is that only your bank can tell you.
I scanned an old check I found from my employer, indorsed it, and then deposited it at my local bank branch.
Cleared the next day.
I was reviewing my scanned financial documents a week later and noticed that the check was “void after 180 days”.
It’s been 4 years, haven’t heard a peep out of my bank or my boss.
Back before the American Banking Association closed its forums to the public, someone would come in daily complaining that their bank had honored an aged check, with their sobs stories ranging from 110-day-old checks to 7-year-old checks.
Your bank’s legal agreement with you likely permits them to honor any check you’ve ever made out, at your sole risk. Even if you put a STOP order on the check, that will likely expire after some time.
If you can do so legally, the ONLY way to be certain a dated check that scares you will not clear is to close your account.
Incidentally, if your checks are ever stolen or your account numbers exposed to unsavory individuals inclined towards fraudulent debits, the only safe route is to close your account. Some banks will even buy you a free box of checks in this situation, as a courtesy (after all, your account number change prevents them from taking massive potential losses).
How old?
Oh, crap, left that out.
In excess of 2 years.
Nearly all checks are processed by automated systems at the banks. These systems do only what they can do in an automated way, and they do the minimum that is needed for the system to function. Which is basically the bank number, the account number, the check number (all preprinted on the bottom of the check), and the amount (read from the written numeric digits by a character-recognition computer program, and then printed across the bottom of the check – unreadable ones are kicked out to be manually entered by a human, probably some underpaid person in a third-world country).
So:[ul]
[li]They don’t check that the amount in numeric digits matches the amount in textual words.[/li][li]They don’t check that the date written is within 6 months.[/li][li]They don’t check that the endorsement on the back matches the payee name on the front.[/li][li]They don’t check that the check is even endorsed on the back.[/li][li]They often don’t even check that the check is signed![/li][/ul] Out of the millions of checks that are processed every day, only a very small number have a problem with one of these items. And those few exceptions can be handled afterwards, if there is a problem or complaint that comes to the banks’ attention. In most cases, even if one of these items is missing or incorrect, the check will go through the system properly.