Because I use my debit card more than I write checks, I use my deposit slips faster than I do my checks.
When I told my banker/cashier that I’d rather not order new checks just because I’ve run out of deposit slips, and I don’t want to use their generic ones (mine and D’s accounts are linked, and this always throws them into a tizzy because they’re never sure which account to put the money in), I don’t want to order new checks, this is what she told me to do: “Just use a regular check. All we need is your account number.”
I used to do this in the 1980s. It was no problem then. But banking has changed, and a lot of the things that used to be routine now cause bankers to freak out.
Don’t they give you non-preprinted deposit slips at the bank? Where you can write in your account number in the space provided? (which you can, indeed, find on your checks).
ETA: if you do use a blank check, leave everything blank and don’t sign it, and ask if you should write VOID across it.
Our bank did not need the deposit slip, and I suspect this is the case for most banks. When we processed the daily deposit mail, we didn’t machine-read it. We’d look at the number printed on the deposit slip and type that in. Some people just wrote the account number on one of our blank deposit slips, and that was fine. It also would have been fine to write the account number on a blank piece of paper, a cocktail napkin, or on the back of a nude photo. We didn’t care. We just wanted the account number.
When you fill out your deposit slip, make sure nobody has written anything on the back, like “This is a holdup. Give me all the money.” Otherwise there will be a big delay in processing your deposit, which is what happened to me.
When I make a deposit inside the bank, I just show the teller my checkbook. She keys in the account number from that. Even on those rare occasions when I make a deposit at the ATM, I don’t have to use a deposit slip because the ATM thoughtfully prints the necessary information right on the envelope.
I don’t know how your bank works, but this is what happened to me.
I refilled my checks and deposit slips. They arrived by mail. Seemed fine. I get a letter in the mail that shows I’m overdrawn, and fees are racking up. Not having time to balance the account, I went to the bank first thing the following day and deposited a lot of money from another account. The next day another letter arrived, more overdrafts, and it didn’t show the deposit, but showed a withdrawal in the amount I had deposited. Went to the bank. After the tellers and managers scratched their heads for a while, someone finally figured out that the deposit slips had the same magnetic encoding as the checks. Everything I deposited with those slips had been taken as withdrawals. They fixed it, sent letters out to everybody that had a check returned, and then ordered new deposit slips for me.
So, personally I would not recommend using a check as a deposit slip based on that experience.
Otherwise, as others have noted, the bank should have blank deposit slips you can write your accound number on, and the bank I go to now doesn’t need any slip at all.
I haven’t used a deposit slip in years. At my bank, the tellers have a card reader and a keypad so I just swipe my ATM card and it automatically brings up my info. They print out a reciept at the end which I stick in my checkbook and sort of acts like the “for your records” carbon copy. I’m fairly sure when you do use a deposit slip, they just enter the account number and then round-file it.
Wow, it’s been literally many years since I’ve made a deposit anywhere except at an ATM. And now that they have ATMs that read deposited checks directly, without an envelope, I couldn’t use a deposit slip even if I wanted to.
I’m not seeing why this should be a problem. If you write the desired account number on their generic deposit slip, how do they not know into which account to deposit the money??
But yeah, I order books of deposit slips all the time. They’re like 5 bucks from the same place where I order my check (which I rarely use anymore, so I go through a lot more deposit slips than checks).
I learned the hard way that the routing number on a deposit slip is different than your check.
In my case, it was a tax refund. I wrote the routing # off a check for a direct deposit. After a long delay, my tax refund came as a check with a note that the direct deposit had failed.
That’s the only reason I try and use my printed deposit forms. They do have a magnetic routing # on them that’s different from your check. I have often wondered why they do that.
You shouldn’t use your checks because it’ll cause confusion.
What you can do is just order deposit slips from many of the third party companies that print bank checks. They’ll give you 500 deposit slips for the same price as 500 checks. That’ll last you a while.
I’ve noticed that the transit-routing (now called simply “routing” number (the one preceeding your account number is different on the deposit slips than on the checks.
If you are handing the slip and the deposit to a real, live person - no problem.
Put a check in with your deposit and drop it in an ATM belonging to your bank - probably problem - it will go to be treated as a check, and there will be an un-matched amount in the ATM till.
Put that check and deposit in a FOREIGN (not belonging to your bank) - and you may never see it again. I don’t know how they would get that mess straightened out - ask the next teller you see. I’m curious (you should be talking to the back-office folks doing what is known as “account clearing” - the folks who exchange paper and electronic blips representing that paper with the Federal Reserve Bank all day and night 7/24/365
When I was a kid, a contestant on the TV show Truth or Consequences had to cash a check written on a watermelon. Anyone try that lately?
I write very few checks, so the ones with the date’s year preprinted as 19___ will last me “forever.” So far, the IRS has had no trouble cashing them anyway!
