Is it rude not to deposit a check ASAP?

[StuffLikeThatThere]

Ugh. I’m so bad about this. I’m sorry. I’ll try to do better.

[Ferret_Herder]

This is why I love having a smartphone and an account with Chase - when I get a check, I just fire up their app and take a photo of the front and back of the check, and presto, it’s deposited.

[Inner_Stickler]

Yeah, wells fargo just updated like all their atms so I no longer have to mess around with envelopes or remember to write down totals, I can just throw all the checks in the deposit slit and it scans and reads them all for me. Takes 30 seconds to deposit a check at an atm now and 20 seconds of that is waiting for it to process my pin.

[Martin_Hyde]

The moment I hand a check to someone I adjust my books appropriately (digitally, I don’t have paper books since this isn’t 1998) so it doesn’t matter to me if they redeem it 10 days later or 180 days later. I believe my bank at least (I don’t know if this is a general rule) won’t honor a check that is more than 6 months old.

[overlyverbose]

I guess I haven’t received a personal check from someone in long enough that I haven’t had to worry about it, but it really never occurred to me that it could be considered rude not to cash a check within a certain timeframe. What’s the basis for the 10-day rule cited in the OP? Ballpark? Business cycle?

[friedo]

@DiosaBellissima

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.

You can mail them in, you know. That’s why God invented deposit slips.

[kittenblue]

I really need any money anyone gives me immediately, so even the thought of dawdling around with a check for $200 or (swoon) $1000 stuns me. The rich really ARE different from you and…well, okay, from me! And who needs to go inside? I won’t deposit checks through the ATM any more, but my bank still has drive-up windows with real people!

[DiosaBellissima]

@friedo

You can mail them in, you know. That’s why God invented deposit slips.

If there’s one thing I’m worse at than going to the bank, it’s mailing things. I don’t keep stamps around, because I literally never mail anything-- all my bills are online. One box of checks will last me until I switch banks for this very same reason.

[Cat_Whisperer]

@Alley_Dweller

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.

What this person here said.

@Sunspace

I think that cheques expire as well, at least in Canada. Six months seems to come to mind.

Last I heard it was a year (that was the rule we used when I worked in payment processing).

@overlyverbose

I guess I haven’t received a personal check from someone in long enough that I haven’t had to worry about it, but it really never occurred to me that it could be considered rude not to cash a check within a certain timeframe. What’s the basis for the 10-day rule cited in the OP? Ballpark? Business cycle?

See Alley Dweller’s post - it’s just better all around to cash a cheque as soon as possible for both parties involved.

I wouldn’t consider it actually rude to not cash a cheque within 10 days, but the sooner the better. Even people with the best intentions do forget about outstanding cheques.

[Anaamika]

If I get a check, I go to the bank within three days. The chances of me losing that check are just too high. It helps that I have branches everywhere for my two banks, so whichever one I choose to deposit in is fine.

10 days is already pushing it. The only check I regularly write now is my rent check, and it drives me crazy when they wait forever to cash it. Aargh!

[SmellMyWort]

I think anything over a week is pushing it for people who are going to work every day and generally out and about.

[Telemark]

@SmellMyWort

I think anything over a week is pushing it for people who are going to work every day and generally out and about.

I don’t visit a bank very often, so 2 weeks would be the minimum to expect for me. Sometimes it takes longer than that.

[sachertorte]

@drewtwo99

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.

Whoa. Apparently I should go to the bank today.

[StusBlues]

@Inner_Stickler

Yeah, wells fargo just updated like all their atms so I no longer have to mess around with envelopes or remember to write down totals, I can just throw all the checks in the deposit slit and it scans and reads them all for me. Takes 30 seconds to deposit a check at an atm now and 20 seconds of that is waiting for it to process my pin.

Likewise. My bank is very convenient; indeed, its proximity is the main reason I bank there. It would be unusual for a check made out to me to go a week before deposit.

I did write a friend a check for concert tickets a while back, and they took a month to deposit it. “Rude” would be too strong a term, but I was certainly put off by it.

[Silver_Tyger]

@kittenblue

I really need any money anyone gives me immediately, so even the thought of dawdling around with a check for $200 or (swoon) $1000 stuns me. The rich really ARE different from you and…well, okay, from me! And who needs to go inside? I won’t deposit checks through the ATM any more, but my bank still has drive-up windows with real people!

I think you’re confusing rich with lazy and/or busy.

I got my tax refund check last week and I haven’t deposited it yet. I don’t think the government is going to care. If I get a personal check (which I pretty much only get from my grandparents as gifts), it sits around about the same amount of time, but it’s only fifty bucks.

I really have no excuse. My bank is everywhere (Chase), but the checks are at home and when I get home I don’t want to go out.

[Frylock]

Well, it appears I’ve lost an argument.

I was expecting something like 99.5% of you guys to say it’s not rude, and for the comments to be like “why would you even ask this?”

Oh well…

[Telemark]

@Frylock

I was expecting something like 99.5% of you guys to say it’s not rude, and for the comments to be like “why would you even ask this?”

That would have been my expectation as well. I can’t imagine thinking it’s rude. Lazy, but not rude.

[Cat_Whisperer]

@Silver_Tyger

<snip>

I really have no excuse. My bank is everywhere (Chase), but the checks are at home and when I get home I don’t want to go out.

The cheques I receive get put in my wallet as soon as I receive them. I usually make a special trip since I have time and I like to walk, but the cheques are always available should an opportunity to deposit them arise.

@Frylock

Well, it appears I’ve lost an argument.

I was expecting something like 99.5% of you guys to say it’s not rude, and for the comments to be like “why would you even ask this?”

Oh well…

Well, like I said earlier, it’s not exactly rude per se, but not a great idea to wait too long to cash cheques.

[Bricker]

@StusBlues

I did write a friend a check for concert tickets a while back, and they took a month to deposit it. “Rude” would be too strong a term, but I was certainly put off by it.

I don’t understand why, though. How did it affect you?

[Cat_Whisperer]

I can’t speak for StusBlues, but for me, an uncashed cheque is a loose end that I have to keep in mind - how much money do we have in the bank? Is it still enough to cover that cheque I wrote? What is the actual amount, less the outstanding cheque? The shorter a time I have to keep that in mine, the better I like it.