I’m pretty sure that only means that specific check is void after 120 days. If you haven’t deposited it after 120 days, they’ll assume you never got it, and send you another one. And since the first one is now void, you can’t deposit both of them. Because, you know, they have to make sure you can’t scam them out of an additional penny.
Back when I used to go to the bank, I would have done this. Having had the ability to do online deposits for a couple of years now, I probably wouldn’t bother because for every check I deposit (after opening the app) I need to
- endorse it
- write “{bank name} mobile deposit only”
- take a pic of the front
- take a pic of the back
- type in the amount.
While that’s only about 30 seconds my time is more valuable than $1.20 / hr.
Seeing this thread, the first thing I thought about was Jeff Lebowoski writing a check for 63 cents at Ralphs for a carton of half and half.
I have a friend who was a child actor (teen, really) in the early 90s. Had a few extremely minor roles in a handful of mainstream movies, but he had a brief line in at least half of them so he gets residuals. Only a few hundred dollars even at their peak, they rapidly declined after a couple of years, but since, he still gets a check at completely random intervals for usually just a few pennies. He saved the first one. Every subsequent one he deposits.
On a side note about small checks…
The book Boys, Bombs, and Brussel Sprouts by J. Douglas Harvey: The book is about Canadian soldiers who flew bombers for the British during WWII. Some of these soldiers were decorated (given medals) and the decoration included an ongoing cash payment “for gallantry”.
Fast forward to the time the book was published and the author describes STILL receiving monthly checks for about $2.00 (Canadian). And the check has printed on it “for gallantry”. Every time he cashes one, he believes the bank teller is thinking “Whatever he did for her, it must not have been too gallant for only $2.00.”
I’m in the UK and had dual UK-US nationality for a while. For reasons too mundane to go into, I had several years of US tax forms recalculated and resubmitted. This resulted in the IRS sending several cheques for silly little amounts, amost always less that $20. My UK bank charges around £15 to deposit foreign cheques so it would have cost me money to cash them. They went straight into the shredder.
I think if you dislike the payer and it’s some corporation, not cashing it would be the real dick move. They’ll have to track that debt to you, and eventually some person is going to have to analyze it and maybe issue another check, or in some cases it’ll have to be turned over to the state as abandoned property. Just a ton of nonsense for them to deal with by paying employees.
I got an envelope from a Swedish newspaper. Inside was a note that they’d seen a cartoon of mine and reprinted it in an article. They were sorry that their editorial budget was so slim, but they hoped I’d accept their check…
…for the equivalent of 23¢.
I’ve still got it somewhere, as a souvenir of my extensive International Cartooning Career.
He was in prison and working for small amounts of money so he could buy snacks and stuff. Child support was able to take something like 10% of that for her. If he ever is able to collect social security, she will start getting monthly checks for probably 10% of his social security until his debt to her is paid.
As to me, it depends on how I feel about the check writer. Am I mad at them for something? The check gets ripped up and thrown away. I know they will end up writing off the overage, but it’s going to mess with their books for a short time.
If I’m not mad at them, the check gets deposited the next time its convenient for me.
This is why I would deposit the check. I balance my books to the penny, and I would expect the check writer to do the same. I pass by an ATM for my bank at least once a day, so it takes almost no time and energy to make a deposit.
I once read that Pablo Picasso would deliberately write checks for small amounts, reasoning that people who rather keep a check from him than deposit it. Not the amounts we’re discussing here. No one would cash a check for a penny, but most people would probably cash checks for $10. But if it was from Picasso …
I doubt if he personally deals with his own checks. Most likely they get put into a pile of checks received and whoever’s job it is to deposit them has no discretion about it.
“Damn it, Pablo, WHY did you have to draw a cubist bull frolicking on your check? Now I can’t cash it!”
“Heh, heh, heh…” <-(evil neo-deconstructionist chortle)
Minor hijack: There was an old story about Picasso lounging on a beach when a young boy came up with a pad and pen and asked for an autograph – no, that wasn’t it – he asked for a quick sketch. (With parents hovering greedily in the background.) So Picasso took the pen and made a quick sketch on the boy’s chest.
And I believe that there was a celebrity who complained about not being able to balance his checkbook - because people were keeping the checks.
You could leave it casually laying around as decoration. That’s what we do with a $2 bill we have.
The wife did not receive such a check, but she recently received a medical bill (after insurance paid its share) for eight cents, and they would only take a check. So she wrote a check for eight cents.
Pablo Picasso’s favorite watering hole let him drink free, in exchange for the sketches he left on napkins and scraps of paper.
I have a strict principle of picking up coins from the ground, even pennies - I think it would be decadent not to. So I would certainly not leave this cheque unclaimed to save myself the hassle of claiming it. I can, however, see the point of framing it as a conversation piece. Reminds me of the story how Buzz Aldrin famously claimed, and received, $33.31 in travel expenses for the Apollo 11 flight and kept the reimbursement slip in is home as a conversation piece.
I pick up pennies too, it is my only superstition. My wife dislikes it, but I keep them all in a jar.
The jar has been stolen twice so far. I start anew every time.
I think it is astonishing that I find a penny every two or three weeks.
But a check? Yeah, I would put it in the jar too, I guess.
Many years ago, when I filed my taxes the software I used rounded all entries to the nearest whole dollar. My quarterly estimated payments to the feds were each something like $344.50; the software rounded each of the four payments to $345.00, meaning my total estimated payments were reported as being $2 higher than they actually were. My estimated payments to the State were something like $79.75, which was rounded to $80.00, and reported as $1 higher in total than what I paid.
The IRS sent me a letter reporting that my actual estimated payments were indeed $2 lower than I reported, but because the amount was so small I didn’t need to do anything. The State billed me for the $1.
(BTW, when I read the thread title I thought the OP was asking if I’d accept just a penny as the fee for cashing someone’s check.)
“Find a penny, pick it up. All day long, you’ll have good luck.”
Unfortunately, I never find pennies until after someone else has already won the big lottery jackpot.