If someone gives you a check for, say, forty bucks, (as a birthday present or something along those lines), and you deposit the check about ten days later, have you been rude?
If not, is there any length of time that would count as rude?
Would failing to deposit it be rude?
Or is “rude” not a concept that applies here?
old people like to “balance the checkbook” and it confuses them to have outstanding checks. I’d say rude starts about 30 days.
It’s kind of like when your dear old aunt knits you a nice sweater: It’s polite the wear the sweater the next time you see her so that she thinks it’s appreciated, no matter how much you hate the sweater. If you don’t cash the check in a reasonable amount of time (no one expects you to camp out at the bank overnight waiting for it to open), the donor begins to wonder if the gift meant anything to you.
With a check you also have a couple of added complications: If the person who gave you the check is a compulsive account-balancer, they will get an ulcer worrying about balancing their account with a check that’s been outstanding for a year. If the person is lackadaisical about balancing their accounts, they may see that extra money in their account and spend it, causing your check to bounce when you get around to cashing it.
Plus you up the chances you’ll lose or forget the check and when you finally remember it, you’ll have to go hat-in-hand to your benefactor asking them to put a stop payment on the check and issue you a new one.
Ten days is quite reasonable, but the longer you wait, the more chance you give the donor to wonder about you.
The answer to the title is, yes, it is rude not to deposit a check pretty quickly, but the answer to the poll is no - 10 days qualifies as reasonably quickly. More than 3 or 4 weeks is pushing it though, longer than that definitely rude.
I think that cheques expire as well, at least in Canada. Six months seems to come to mind.
I hate going to my bank. Hate it. I’ll avoid going until I absolutely have to, particularly if it’s a transaction where I have go inside and wait in line. Heck , I’ll let a few deposits stack up before I go to even hit the ATM.
So, I am that person that will let a check sit for a week or two (or on a rare case, three) before I cash it. Obviously if someone said, “YOU MUST CASH THIS WITHIN 72 HOURS OR I WILL GO BANKRUPT!!!” I’d do it (and be confused), but otherwise, I don’t see why I can’t take my time to do it.
If it’s a matter of someone wanting to balance their checkbook immediately, they are welcome to give me a cashier’s check or cash, but if I have to go through the hassle of going to the bank, I’m going to do it on my own time. Maybe that makes me a selfish dick, but I’m willing to accept that.
+1 for personal checks. As long as you get the business check in within ninety days all is good.
You know what? When someone gives my husband a check for work he did for them and we take it to the bank the next day and then they scream that they didn’t expect us to cash it right away? It really chaps my ass. Your check is a form of PAYMENT - if you can’t make your PAYMENT when it’s due, don’t write the check. Give him cash! Ask us to wait! TELL US! I’m sick and tired of deadbeat customers thinking they can skate on us - seriously. My landlady deposits my check IMMEDIATLEY - so I can continue to live here. If my rent check will be late, I date it for the date it will clear and make sure I TELL HER! She waits! Not that hard! Don’t play games with other people’s bank accounts - they may be waiting on that money. Especially in this economy. So if you can’t COVER your ass right away, DON’T NOT TELL US!
Sorry - I apologize - I get a little strident - but this has been an issue lately for us. If you write a check, expect it to be taken to YOUR bank and being cashed. If you don’t’ tell us otherwise. That day. UNLESS YOU TELL US OTHERWISE! We can work with you - but don’t screw up MY financial life with no information! And MY checks bouncing because you DIDN’T tell us is UNACCEPTABLE!
That’s what I have to do now for my husband’s business. You don’t GET a brand new ceiling when your pipes burst and it fell all over your kitchen and we came out over the weekend and replaced it and worked with you on the price but when we get screwed and you say “we thought you’d wait to cash it?” NO. NO NO NO NO NO! Not when my rent is due! Just freakin tell us!
Again, I’m sorry. Don’t mean to dump on you all. Missy is NOT in a good mood today. And as you can probably tell, I’ve been on the phone for most of the afternoon dealing with the above issues.
Sorry.
I think 10 days is pushing it. I think you should strive to deposit a check within a week of getting it. At the 7 or 8 day mark, I’d start getting worried. At 9 or 10 days, I’m liable to have my back cancel the check and write you a new one.
This and checks frequently bouncing for the same reason is the main reason our business has stopped taking checks. They sell many handy dandy little things you can plug into your smart phone where you can swipe debit cards on the spot. If someone balks at that, that means they intended on writing you a bad check.
I hate checks. We don’t bank locally, so it either has to be mailed to our CU or deposited electronically via a PITA process at the local 7-11. If the signer has dipped below the sig line and made any mark whatsoever in the bar code on the check, it can’t be read. Ten days is usually the minimum it takes for me to work up the patience to go do the electronic thing.
10 days is an acceptable length of time. More than 2 weeks is rude unless you’re really ill, though. Most people get paid every 2 weeks, so that’s a logical unit of time to deposit it within.
This alone is going to give me enough firepower to convince him that my Virgin Mobile Cellphone that’s on the “$25 per month you get 300 minutes and unlimited texts and web” and his TrakPhone “Just make sure I can call you at work, home and on your cell and I don’t CARE how it works just refill my minutes when I need them and don’t give our friends my number” plans need to be “reconsidered” for something a little more - oh - 2007? 
Thanks - I’m glad you understand where I’m coming from - it’s been an extremely frustrating day!
10 days isn’t that long to cash a check
Waiting over two weeks is inconsiderate.
Yes, it’s rude.
And I am horribly guilty of it.
Ha! Yeah, I know the feeling. We used to have to spend an hour a day driving between banks to see which of our client checks were good that day. Those days are long gone, as I’ve just made a blanket policy that we either need a cashier’s check or a debit card. Anyway, one company that does it is Squareup– I first saw people using them at a craft fair and thought it was genius.
Going to check into it - thanks! And I’m gonna get a cool phone! Yay! 
I’ll leave his alone though - he fears change - and this way, I can at least make sure we’re getting PAID!
It depends on the amount, for me. If the check is under $100, I’m not rushing to deposit it until it’s coming up on a month. Once it starts getting to larger amounts, the longer you wait, the ruder it seems because then their account is really out of balance.
And, having said that, I’m so horrible about this. Getting to a deposit ATM for my bank is a hassle that requires planning, and usually I’m just too lazy to do it until the point where it is becoming egregiously rude. I’ve been sitting on $200 from my roommate for almost a month now. Around New Year’s, I had close to $1000 in checks from my parents that I forgot about for like 6 weeks until my mom sent me a rightfully pissy reminder. I know I’m being rude, I feel bad, and yet I keep doing it.
If it’s a gift check like for a birthday or Christmas, I try to do it within a few days. If I let the check languish for a week or more, I send a short pleasant note that I’m going to do some banking in the coming week with the implied message that if that’s going to mess something up, this is your chance to ask me to wait a bit.
Otherwise, I try to deposit checks within the week of receiving it.
Sorry for the slight derail, but I have to say that threads like this always seem to me like I’m watching a bygone world through the thick and slightly distorted glass of a H. G. Wellsian time machine. Here in Finland I was already paying bills online with a 2400 baud modem in 1994, and was amazed when I visited a friend in Sweden who actually went in to a bank to pay bills in 2002 - and here it is 2012 and US has stealth fighters and attack drones and whatnot, and still you guys use checks. It just feels way weird to me, I don’t intend to threadshit or be too smug about it. 