You may find that a signature from your wife will not be sufficient for your bank. How do they know who signed the check? Sometimes they will accept the second party with identification in the teller’s presence. Sometimes they will want a signature guarantee, which means taking the check to her bank and having them essentially stamp it with their indication that her signature really is her signature.
YMMV depending on your bank’s policies.
When I said “a check made out to two parties” I meant two parties-not one party or the other party.
Were I in the OP’s situation, I’d simply let Mrs Pedant know I’m forging her name on the check, and go cash it in the ATM–criminal that I am.
(As it is, my life is even easier: Mrs. Pedant gets the check and it goes into her account.)
Also, just to clarify **Kimmy_Gibler’s **answer: the endorsement must come from all parties on the check unless it’s made out to X OR Y. While endorsing it makes it cashable, everyone to whom it’s made out must endorse it. I can’t deposit a check from the IRS made out to me and the Mrs without her permission, IOW. That’s the whole point of putting more than one party on the check from the IRS. It belongs to both of us. In practice, of course, this is un-policeable and the first person to touch the check can easily get the money into their personal account. If there is fraud involved, it won’t be caught at that point. A valid check would clear if my dog signed it. My own signature is illegible.
It varies from bank to bank. Wells Fargo requires the people on the IRS checks have a joint account. One branch required that all account holders signed the checks even if they were listed on the check. Another local bank just took the check as is. From personal experience, if I deposited a check by ATM, the check always went through, even if it was someone else’s paycheck. As long as the original person signed and I signed with my account number. We got as much as we could then and the rest the next day. It beat the whole ID and fingerprint deal inside the bank.
These “clarifications” are all so cute…
My bank would have to pull a signature card to know mine… and my wife has signed my name on checks in the full view of the teller… My parent’s banking situation is exactly the same. My Father-in-law probably doesn’t know where the bank is in the first place. We’re at small banks though. (A credit union, and a cooperative bank, depending on couple & time)
If you’re worried, have her sign it, and take it to the bank. It’s $600, and destined for deposit. If you have a problem, you need a different bank.
Well, i got my wife to sign it, i signed it and added my account number, and i deposited it in the ATM before closing on Friday.
It shows up in my online account as a Cleared transaction, so it appears that no-one thought to question it in any way.
I don’t know if the US uses the same procedures, but Canadian cheques deposited into an ATM are sent to a central processing location and run through automated scanners, which verify the wriiten and figure amounts, date, and other info on the front. A small percentage are kicked out for secondary review by an actual person, where the scanner can’t understand a particularly sloppy handwritten cheque, but 99% are never even seen by a human. While there might be a verification that there is *something *in the endorsement space on the back, an actual check of the signature(s) would normally only happen if the cheque was subsequently questioned in some way by the payee or payor.
The fact that it showed up in your account has no bearing on whether they decided to accept it or not. ATMs are normally emptied weekly or so, the ATM just did not see it was a fraudulent check. Checks are cleared the next business day unless they warrant a hold, but that doesn’t mean that the deposit can’t later be canceled. This principle is why craigslist cashier’s check scams work.
When I was a teller processing federal refund checks, I think we needed to have both individuals present and check ID if it wasn’t a joint account. I can’t remember if we did this if only one name was on the account but they each had accounts, or whether only if one individual did not have an account with us. We weren’t being unnecessarily strict. Some customers had the check returned (or a check-21 copy) because of that reason, so we enforced it to protect the customer.
OP, just make sure you don’t spend that money for awhile, in case the bank decides to yank the money out of your account without warning… would suck to get a bunch of overdraft fees, or worse yet, items returned for non-sufficient funds :o
Right, but in Craigslist scams the checks themselves are fraudulent, which is clearly not going to be the case here.
In Craigslist scams, the bank assumes the check is good, releases the funds, and them grabs the money back again when the check is found to be bad. In this case, the check itself is fine.
If they do that, my wife and i will both cancel our accounts immediately and take them elsewhere.
Who would probably treat you the same way.
I just had this situation - a Treasury check (amended tax refund, coincidently) made out to both of us, where we had both endorsed the back of it, and I took it to deposit into my personal account. The bank also has our joint account, as well as a personal account for my spouse.
I went to deposit it alone, and they would not accept it without her there to present identification. This is a bank where we have both had accounts for over 20 years. But, as we do most everything online, we were not personally known by this teller. He did agree to deposit it into our joint account. As we can easily transfer funds online, and since I wasn’t trying to pull a fast one, I was able to accept without any further concern. But I was surprised.
Turns out, Treasury checks are “special”. Banks have more strict guidance to their tellers for Treasury checks than any other. This FAQ aimed at bankers describes the issues from their view. Read the last two FAQs listed.
Feel free to be upset about it, but the banks are just trying to protect their interests (pardon the pun).