I don’t think it’s rude to not deposit a check until several months have gone by. The 90-day limit on business checks seems like a good rule of thumb.
If you don’t have an accounting system capable of handling outstanding checks, stop writing checks. There are lots of payment methods that debit your account instantly and don’t require you to keep track of things.
Hell, most banks will debit your account, print and mail a check to any 3rd party for you for free, and will handle tracking it so that if it’s not deposited in 90 days, they’ll re-credit your account.
For anyone on a limited income, balancing the account perfectly can easily be vital to not getting overdrawn. Outstanding checks make this more difficult.
Personally I avoid writing checks if at all possible because it makes keeping track of my bank balance a nightmare. OTOH it’s also a pain in the ass to get to the bank to deposit checks.
It’s definitely a good practice to deposit as soon as possible, especially for personal checks, and extra especially for checks from old and/or poor people. Business checks are not as big a concern.
What Cat Whisperer said, only with “check” spelled properly.
If you’re the sort of person who records every transaction you make — from the mortgage payment to $2.65 at Micky D’s — in your check register, and use that as the master indicator of your remaining balance, then outstanding transactions won’t give you any problems. But for those under 70, it’s one more thing you have to keep in mind when you square up your mental estimate with the online banking.
That’s also why, contrary to chizzuk, I think it’s worse to hold on a small check than a large one. It’s pretty balls-obvious if you have an extra thousand bucks sitting around, but it’s dangerously easy to brain-fart that $20 you sent to cousin Ted three months ago, and that can really bite you in the ass if you’re not careful.
That said, I don’t think 10 days is rude. A couple weeks is kosher; a month is pushing it. YMMV, but that seems reasonable enough to me.
We had some trees cut down last month, and it took the guy TWO WEEKS to deposit the check!! I can understand a business holding all checks till their banking day, whatever that may be, but business must be awfully good if they can sit on a big chunk of change for a fortnight! It irritated me only because I check my account ever day or so, and I don’t always remember that the balance should be $XXXX less.
As for personal checks, I’d like to see them deposited within a week, and definitely no longer than a month. One nice thing my credit union offers - you can scan a check for deposit and it generally processes within 2 days. It’s especially nice because my credit union is 800 miles away, so getting to a branch isn’t so easy…
Maybe the poll question should be, “Do you keep an accurate check register, electronic or written, or do you rely on a ‘mental estimate’ and frequent peeks at online banking?”
I am nowhere near 70, and I track every single check I write. How the heck can you manage any other way?!?
I doesn’t matter to me if it is or isn’t. I would be a lot more rude to the person if they didn’t give me the check to fulfill their financial obligation.
I have one in my wallet right now that is 15 days old. I am not too concerned about it. I will get to the bank one of these Saturdays.
I figure if the person who paid me by check was that concerned about their balance and cash flow, they would have paid me in cash.
Writing more that two or three checks a month of substantial size is very, very rare. I’d say most months I only write one check, and all my bills are paid online. For me, there’s no reason to bother recording checks that in total comprise less than 2% of my monthly income.
Count me in the camp of thinking that taking offense at a check that’s been outstanding for merely 10 days is being a little mental. It strikes me as being slightly obsessive, like people who insist they have to wash their bath towels after every use.
Yeah, that’s it exactly. I’m not as wealthy as I’d like to be, and I hate trying to mentally reconcile the amount showing in my account with outstanding cheques.
Anymore I write about 20 cheques a year, so one outstanding entry is something I fret over just a bit.
Well, like I said, three cheques a month is a lot for me. Usually when I write a cheque it’s for a non-trivial amount. When you write a cheque that’s about 15% of your monthly income and it hasn’t cleared six weeks later, you start wondering what’s up. Again, “rude” isn’t the word I’d look for, but you do wonder what’s going down.
Probably 90% of the payments coming into my company are in the form of a check, and I’d say that my mean deposit time is two weeks, with a standard deviation of about three days. I prefer to deposit chunks of three to five checks at a time, rather than one check every few days. But three weeks is about the outside edge of what I push it, because people get antsy if you wait longer. If for some reason I do need to wait more than three weeks (like I’m planning to be out of town for an extended period of time), I will tell the client.
And the thing is, I have to go to the bank. I had the Chase mobile deposit app on my phone, but they have daily and monthly limits that wouldn’t work with my business. Else, I probably would deposit more frequently.
I only write actual, physical checks to my house keeper ($60 every two weeks) and my gardener ($50 a month, but I pay him 6 months at a time because, as I mentioned previously, I will absolutely forget to mail something. . . so I just pay him in advance so I won’t forget). It’s easy enough for me to remember those two things, plus my bank account is rarely in a place where $60 is going to lead me into the scary world of overdraft fees.
Because I pay virtually all of my bills online, things are almost always debited from my account within minutes of me hitting “pay my bill” on their site— and, as such, I can just take a looksee at my online banking page to see what my balance is.
Maybe there are some folks who pay hundreds of bills each month, but mine aren’t so numerous that I can’t remember each thing.
I manage because we spend a lot less than we make.* But that’s not possible for everyone, of course.
I did read somewhere (sorry for no cite) that the research seems to show that close detailed household account keeping has a small negative effect on financial well being. Can’t remember what the explanation for this was. And the effect was small.
*And as for checks specifically, there are only five that I write each month–the rent, and the money for our after-school babysitter.
I haven’t balanced my checkbook in 25 years. I generally keep well more than I need in my checking account, and if I need more precision I look online or at an ATM.
As others have said, by not writing checks. I write one check a month, which is for the rent. Other than that, I know how much money I have to within about $20, and I start keeping more accurate track if something forces me to drop below $100. Not that difficult for a single guy who doesn’t shop much.
I hope it was clear that the 70 crack was tongue-in-cheek, but I can honestly say I don’t know anybody other than my (81-year-old) grandparents who writes down every transaction they do. If you stop at the 7-11 for a Coke, do you really pull out a register and record it?
Well, my rent is $800 and I still don’t have any worries about it being paid or not - we live well within our means. HOWEVER we are not rich and I would still like to know when that $800 gets pulled out, and I would like it to leave within, oh say, a week or so after the first of the month. I’ll give it ten days.
It’s when they don’t deposit it until the end of the month that I get frustrated. It HAS happened before that they deposit one check, say, on the 25th, and the next check on the 5th - quick like a bunny.
Last year we had a repairman come out and repair our dishwasher. I authorized a payment from my debit card, and had to call the company three weeks later to ask them if they were ever intending to present the transaction to my bank.
To me, that’s not a sign of a well-run business; I’ve worked in various functions in accounting departments for businesses, and one thing that is pretty standard - when someone gives you money, YOU TAKE IT! It’s not unheard-of for a cheque to bounce if it’s not cashed right away, and then you’re in for all kinds of hassles with fees and getting them to re-issue the cheque, and charging them for the fees you incurred, and it’s just better if you cash it right away.
I have so few non-electronic bank transactions that I only handle them quarterly, and I only handle the electronic ones once a month when it’s time to pay bills. I’m not even sure when last I wrote a check rather than ordered one sent from my bank website. I certainly don’t need to carefully keep track of my checking account, as all of my purchases are either cash or credit. I can’t see being annoyed by someone taking a few months to cash one of my checks.
Me too! I don’t understand the “rude” part. I’ll put it into my bank when I’m good and ready. What’s it to the issuer? Do they not balance their checkbook? The check was written and the money IS GONE. :rolleyes:
Half the Grandparents age, but I write down every debit and credit that is paid by check or debit card. I don’t record cash transactions though.
I am really surprised at how many people don’t. More than once I have caught transaction errors. Granted some pennies here, or a buck there, isn’t going to break me, but I do want to know if my financial institution of choice is struggling to do a good job with my money.
Just don’t be like the shitface who I paid $180 to (for a debt that shouldn’t have existed in the first place but that’s another story) who then waited 4 months to cash the check. I wish I’d canceled it in the interim.
