# What the fuck, bank?! Lies I say, LIES!! **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [May 28, 2013, 12:27am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-fuck-bank-lies-i-say-lies/659503 "2013-05-28T00:27:52Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 7\ **Page:** 3
**Author:** ![Max\_Torque](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/e9bcb4/32.png) [@Max\_Torque](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Max_Torque)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2013, 7:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-fuck-bank-lies-i-say-lies/659503/41 "2013-05-28T19:13:56Z")
I ran into a similar bit of stupidity at my bank. For some unknown reason, my current employer can’t do direct deposit, so I have to pick up my physical check, then deposit it into my own bank, which is in a town roughly 60 miles away. I took it to an in-store branch one afternoon, where I had this conversation: Me: So, the money will be ready tomorrow, right? Them: Well, it’s next-day, so it’ll be Friday. Me: (_confused_)…but it’s Wednesday, so the next day will be Thursday. Them: Deposits after 3 PM are processed the next day, so it’ll be deposited Thursday and available Friday. Me: Say what? Them: But if you deposit it at an ATM, their cutoff isn’t until 9 PM Pacific, so it’ll be available tomorrow. Me: So at the ATM, it goes in faster than if I actually hand it to you here and now? Them: Correct. And of course their ATM was out of order, so I had to drive 2.5 miles to a (closed) branch with a working ATM, and presto, my money was in my account the next day. Apparently actually having a human being touch the check costs you a day. ---
**Author:** ![perfectparanoia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a5b964/32.png) [@perfectparanoia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/perfectparanoia)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2013, 7:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-fuck-bank-lies-i-say-lies/659503/42 "2013-05-28T19:18:08Z")
Up here, you can’t post date a cheque. Well, you can but the minute you write it, it can be cashed regardless of what date you put on it. Banks will cash a post dated cheque since the date is actually meaningless. ---
**Author:** ![Ambivalid](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/a5b964/32.png) [@Ambivalid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ambivalid)\ **Post date:** [May 28, 2013, 7:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-fuck-bank-lies-i-say-lies/659503/43 "2013-05-28T19:26:51Z")
nm ---
**Author:** ![septimus](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/septimus/32/410_2.png) [@septimus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/septimus)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2013, 7:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-fuck-bank-lies-i-say-lies/659503/44 "2013-05-29T07:08:38Z")
> [@perfectparanoia](#): > > Banks will cash a post dated cheque since the date is actually meaningless. The date can’t be completely meaningless, because many banks will reject checks _pre_-dated by more than 180 days. I know this, to my loss, as I often set checks aside waiting for more before posting, and end up forgetting. The check-writer will generally send me another – at least if I send them the old void one – I wish I had a way to “stick them in an ATM machine or something” to bypass the pre-date validity test. 🆒 ---
**Author:** ![perfectparanoia](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/a5b964/32.png) [@perfectparanoia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/perfectparanoia)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2013, 6:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-fuck-bank-lies-i-say-lies/659503/45 "2013-05-29T18:54:44Z")
> [@septimus](#): > > The date can’t be completely meaningless, because many banks will reject checks _pre_-dated by more than 180 days. > > I know this, to my loss, as I often set checks aside waiting for more before posting, and end up forgetting. The check-writer will generally send me another – at least if I send them the old void one – I wish I had a way to “stick them in an ATM machine or something” to bypass the pre-date validity test. 🆒 Yeah, okay, that is a point. But post-dating is meaningless. ---
**Author:** ![obfusciatrist](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/4af34b/32.png) [@obfusciatrist](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/obfusciatrist)\ **Post date:** [May 29, 2013, 7:09pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-fuck-bank-lies-i-say-lies/659503/46 "2013-05-29T19:09:06Z")
The date isn’t entirely meaningless, it just isn’t _obligatory_. If the check has the minimum required information (signature, endorsement, amount, MICR information, the bank where it is deposited can accept it and request funds from the bank that issued it. That said, a bank does not have to take any check for which it has a reasonable expectation that they will not be able to get the funds requested. Banks can use the date on teh check for this (“the date is six weeks in the future, we think the writer was intending to post date and there’s a good chance that they won’t have the funds there until then”; or “this check was written nine months ago, there’s a very good chance a stop payment has been put on it or the writer has written it off and won’t expect the draw”). And at side of the process where your bank gives the money to the bank where it was cashed, many state laws (can’t remember if it is in teh federal regulations) say that a bank _can_ (not that it has to) decline to fund a request for a stale dated check. The key thing is that when you write a check and give that check to someone else, you should be prepared for the possibility that the money will be drawn out of your account 15 minutes later. If you have written a check that you don’t want cashed right this minute, contact your bank immediately. And as for the OP and the question of why different parts of the bank have different rules for the same thing, the answer remains (without a specific bank to talk about): There are usually pretty logical internal reasons for when such differences happen, but regardless of that internal logic it’ll almost always seem stupid to the customer when they run into them. ---
**Author:** ![alphaboi867](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/alphaboi867/32/3898_2.png) [@alphaboi867](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/alphaboi867)\ **Post date:** [June 1, 2013, 3:33am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-fuck-bank-lies-i-say-lies/659503/47 "2013-06-01T03:33:58Z")
> [@Joey\_P](#): > > A)The date on the stamp is meaningless. If you really wanted to press the issue ask them for the rule that states this, they likely can’t find it…But, back to the question at hand, I don’t think there’s any actual banking rule that says you can’t cash a check before the date it says. Next time, calmly, ask for a supervisor or branch manager. > [@obfusciatrist](#): > > No, there is no obligation to respect the date written on the check. It is supposed to be an indication of when the check was issued and is a recordkeeping tool for the person who issued the check, not any indication of when the check will be good. In fact, in my places writing a check that you know is not covered by funds _at the time you write it_ is a crime… I remember the conversation I had with out of out clients over this from back when I worked customer service in the credit card department of a huge megabank. He’d sent us a check dated on his due date, but it arrived 3 days early. Like all checks that arrived at our large mail centre it was automatically scanned into a check reader that same day & destroyed. It didn’t bounce; his bank payed it, but charged him a huge ($30) overdraft. Naturally he was outraged, it was all our fault, we broke the law, and we owed him money. :rolleyes: I kept going back & forth with him telling that the check date isn’t binding; it’s purely for organization purposes. He wasn’t buying it and kept saying he does this “all the time” with local businesses (ie mom & pops where a human being is actually looking at the check). He kept going on about that overdraft fee, and my manager just told be to keep repeating that we can’t refund a fee we didn’t charge, it’s his bank he needs to speak to, and to remind him that it’s illegal to write checks when you know you don’t have enough in the account to cover it. And also to educate him re free online banking & phone payment options (old people just _love_ that). Ironically if his check had bounced I could’ve waived our return payment fee just to shut him up. :smack: > [@monstro](#): > > All the ATMs I go to scan the check and automatically “know” how much it’s written out for. But I think this is more of a courtesy thing than a security thing. I’m pretty sure there’s an option that allows you to manually enter the dollar amount. When I deposit checks at the ATM it doesn’t ask me how much; I just feed the check into the machine (no envelope) & it reads everything off the check. I even have the option a miniature image of the check printed on my receipt. > [@Bob Ducca](#): > > …I once mistakenly put my own check in for deposit (against the same account) and it immediately halted the deposit and let me know I couldn’t write checks to myself. Oddly you can do write a check out to yourself if you go to the teller, but in that case you’d just be withdrawing cash from your account instead of making a deposit. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/what-the-fuck-bank-lies-i-say-lies/659503.md?page=2)