So I wrote my friend a check for some antique items he sold me ($350). This was over a month ago and he still hasn’t deposited it yet. I don’t know if this is my OCD kicking in or what, but it’s driving me bonkers!
I’m not worried about having the funds in the account, I just want to clear that check off the books.
Am I alone in being bothered by something like this? I’ half tempted to call my friend and ask him to deposit the check already! But I wont, because I guess that would be rude.
I do crap like this all the time. I’m awful about it. I also agree that it’s annoying as hell when somebody does it to you.
My parents and in-laws get frustrated at us because I very delinquent in depositing checks they give us for kids’ birthday’s, Christmas, etc. I sometimes will go 3-4 months before I deposit them, because I rarely go by the bank. I guess I could start using the iPhone app to take a picture and deposit them that way, but I haven’t.
I don’t think it would be rude to just drop him text or email - “Hey, I noticed that you haven’t deposited my check to your for the antiques. I just wanted to make sure that you hadn’t lost it. Let me know if you need me to send you another one. Thx - Shakes”
If he’s really a friend, I’d call him up, and say “Hey buddy, my checking account still doesn’t show that the check I wrote you has cleared. If you’ve lost it let me know, and I’ll write you another.” Maybe he will get the hint.
(dang, ninja’d by Omar with almost exactly the same words.)
I do this too, even though I can use the iphone app. Worse are checks from my mom. Her signature usually loops though the account number on the bottom of the check and the app doesn’t like this. Thankfully she’s given up and started sending money electronically.
I used to think that using a smartphone to deposit checks was a gimmick, but boy, has my opinion changed!
The new BofA app is the cats’ meow!. Log in, take two photos, confirm the amount and done. I can deposit a check in 30 seconds.
I would get to the point and let him/her know that you would like them to deposit the check soon as it is throwing off you reconciling your statements as opposed of just asking if he lost it.
I rarely have an opportunity to go to the bank during normal business hours. In my small side business, some of my customers pay with personal checks, so once a week I put them (the checks, not the customers) in an envelope along with a deposit slip, and go to the bank in the evening (when it happens to be convenient for me) and put it in the night depository slot on the bank’s outer wall.
Bank of America also lets you deposit checks at the ATM. The machine needs to read each check and have you confirm the amount. That’s fine if you’ve got one check, but if you’ve got ~10 checks, holy shit it’s a hassle.
I also like the night depository method because I only spend a few seconds making it happen, minimizing vulnerability to robbery (as opposed to a couple of minutes of paying attention to the ATM).
I deal with checks quarterly, at most. I don’t balance my checking account, so I wouldn’t notice if someone didn’t deposit a check. Not that I use many.
I did that to my sister once. She insisted on paying me back for something, and I said I would not deposit the check she wrote me.
After a few months of arguing about it, I went to her house and tore the check up.
I don’t think it’s rude to ask him to deposit it, at all.
I also think that smartphone apps that let you deposit checks are awesome.
You should have told him at the time that this was an issue or used cash, a money order, or direct transfer. He has six months to deposit it (and possibly more). If this is stressful for you, maybe you shouldn’t use checks.
I live 2600 miles from the nearest branch of my bank. And they don’t have an app for my brand of phone.
I’ve been mailing in deposits for 20-plus years. No need to drop by some silly night depository as somebody suggested above. Call your branch; they probably have preprinted envelopes specifically for mailing deposits to the branch. If not, just use their street address.
Endorse the checks “for deposit only”, add a deposit slip and a first class stamp & USPS does the rest. It’s less work than fooling with trying to take pix with your phone that their flaky app may or may not like.
No, it’s not instant gratification. But if you’re like me and the check’s been sitting there for a few days (weeks?) anyhow before you deposit it, the extra few days for the USPS isn’t going to make a difference.
I think it’s rude not to deposit personal checks within a week, two at most. It messes with statement reconciliation. Even my dinky community bank has an app for virtual deposits, but even without that there are plenty of options to make a deposit happen without having to walk into the lobby.
Meh. If people are too stupid to figure out their statements, they can pay other ways.
In this modern world many of us don’t deal with checks very often and so often go extended periods without depositing checks that show up. I try to not sit on birthday checks to my kids from my Aunts as it messes with them apparently but in general I am slow about getting checks where they belong.
SeaDragonTattoo It is not rude, it is just not to your liking. Do you go to the bank every week or 2? It sounds like you do. Do you realize many of us do not even go monthly. So to accommodate your record keeping we need to inconvenience ourselves instead. You have placed a minor burden on someone else and then find it rude if they choose to do things according to their own schedule.
I’m saying it’s rude as the receiver. I write maybe one check a year. I receive maybe six. I haven’t stepped into my bank’s lobby in over a year.
Before I had an app to deposit directly with my bank electronically, I had ATM’s and mail carriers. Scant few live so far out in the sticks they can’t find an ATM or a mailbox to drop a check into on their way somewhere.
The people writing me checks are not inconveniencing me. They are giving me money. I’m inconveniencing them by not depositing it and letting it clear their account and reminding them monthly that I still haven’t accepted their gift or payment.
That, and if checks are really such a hassle for you, you shouldn’t have accepted a check in the first place.
I use a stamp even less often than I go to the bank.
Sitting on a check is just not a big deal. If you don’t like it, don’t write checks.
At work I no longer accept checks, but back when we did there were two complaints. Either, “why hasn’t my check been deposited yet?” (they went to the bank once a week) or, “why did you deposit my check right away?” (from people writing checks without having available funds)