What to do with a lost certified cheque?

Factual Questions
1

Since it is late at night I must turn to you, SDMB. I am on edge right now because I can not find a certified cheque I had made the other day. I hadnt signed the cheque yet but if I can not find the cheque what can I expect to happen?

How can I retrieve the funds? I am in Canada. Please enlighten me, for better or worse.

2

You hadn’t signed it? Do you have to sign your own certified checks up there? Every time I’ve gotten a certified check in the US it came pre-signed by a bank official. You could try calling the bank and seeing if the check can be cancelled. Do you think the check was stolen? Can you keep looking for it? How soon do you really need the money?

3

Im actually not sure, but there was no stamp and the endorsement area was blank. I highly doubt it was stolen, but at this point it is a possibility. Ive basically checked every logical and many illogical places that it could be in now. The date I need the money is not very important, as long as I can get it back as I have enough to cover the payment but it is a substantial amount that I seriously do not want to lose for a long time.

4

Does your bank offer a 24-hour support telephone? That would be the most official answer you can find.

I assume you are the issuer of the check, not the recipient? It probably varies by country, but in the US I’ve never known a bank to issue a certified check without the check being properly completed first (payee and amount filled in, and signed by the issuer).

5

I don’t know what constitutes a certified check in Canada, but in the US it would go something like this:

  1. Call/visit the bank and report the check missing (or stolen or destroyed)
  2. the bank will look to see if teh check has cleared:
6

In my bank they always put the name the check is assigned to. I don’t even know if I can get a blank certified check. They always ask.

Is it blank?

7

My post should have read as follows.

I don’t know what constitutes a certified check in Canada, but in the US it would go something like this:

  1. call/visit the bank and report the check missing (or stolen or destroyed)
  2. the bank will look to see if the check has cleared:
    2A) if it has, but not to the person/business intended, you would open a fraud claim
    2B) if it has and was endorsed by the person/business intended, then you paid them and forgot - all is good
    2C) if it has not yet cleared the bank can stop payment on the check and reissue
  3. the bank will likely require that you post a surety bond to cover them in case the check ever reappears and is negotiated.

A hassle, yes, but doable.

8

Mostly right. First of all, apparently having the receipt is really important although I suspect that has more to do with making it easier to find the transaction. You’re error is 2C at least at my credit union. They wait a few days before stopping payment because they are worried that someone will pay with a cashier’s check and then stop payment re: fraud.

9

I can’t speak for every bank or CU, but the situation you point out is the reason for the (customer paid for) surety bond. Waiting a few days is silly, who is to say the fraud would be perpetrated within a few days? Certainly if this were common practice among financial institutions, the fraudsters would quickly learn to wait a week or so before passing the check to some poor schmo.

10

To us, a certified cheque is an ordinary cheque that you fill out yourself that you then take to the bank to be “certified”; they then emboss (not sure if that’s the right word) the value on the cheque and freeze the funds to make sure it’s there when the recipient cashes the cheque. It’s an alternative to getting a bank draft.

11

Same in the USA. The certified check is now a legal obligation of the bank, not the person who wrote it out. As such, payment cannot be refused. Thus the need for all of the steps Doctor Jackson outlined.