Cheques payable to "cash"
 

Had a new one on me today - my mother-in-law was handed a few cheques for her home church, but the "pay to" field was just written as "cash". Everything else was the same. I hear that you can just exchange it for cash at some banks - but what happens if the cheque bounces? I guess the idea was that she could just cash it in as she's going back to the Philippines tonight (:thumbsup:) and has no US bank account.

Re: Cheques payable to "cash"
 

Some banks won't accept checks that are made out to "cash".

Those that do will use the same policies that they apply when accepting any check with regard to whether they will actually give you "cash" for it or whether they will just allow you to deposit it in your account (and, possibly, place a hold on the availability of funds from the deposit until the check has cleared).

Re: Cheques payable to "cash"
 

Whether a check is made payable to "cash" or to an "individual", both carry the same financial risk to the bank that cashes the check. The term "cash" only has the meaning that "anyone" can be the owner of check.

Whether made payable to "cash" or to an "individual", most banks won't accept either if the person trying to "cash" the check doesn't have an account with that bank and even then, the bank may possibly put a hold on the check if the amount is over $100 or the person trying to cash a check had the account for less than 30 days. If cash is given for any check or deposited, the person's bank account number is associated with that transaction and is therefore liable to make the check good as well as a likely hefty bounced check fee if the check is bad. If the depositor doesn't make the check good, that depositor will likely be reported to ChexSystems and will usually not be able to open a bank account for 5 years.

If someone doesn't have an account with a bank, usually they will have to pay 5% or more to a "check cashing" businesses to cash checks.

Even when a hold is put on a check, that offers a bank and/or the depositor very little protection. The "hold" may possibly be long enough to "clear" (check is written on an funded account number) but it doesn't guarantee that the person that wrote the check owns that account number. It may take a month or more before an individual or business realizes that some unauthorized person has been writing checks on their account number.

Re: Cheques payable to "cash"
 

I haven't seen anyone write a check out to cash for like 10 years... Didn't think anyone still did it.

Banks if you have an account probably won't be too concerned about them if you deposited them as they can find you, but if no account is held, some banks may choose not to cash them, although the bank they are drawn on should with proper ID and probably a thumb print.

Re: Cheques payable to "cash"
 

Generally speaking a cheque can only be truly "cashed" at the bank the cheque is drawn on - so you receive a cheque drawn on an Acme National Bank account and you take it to Acme National Bank and they give you cash for it. Hopefully Acme National Bank would notice if there were insufficient funds in the account, though there is no guarantee they will do so, but then the loss is all all theirs unless the account holder deposits more funds.

To continue the above example, if you take the Acme National Bank cheque to the bank where you hold an account they may give you cash for it, but they will come after you if the cheque bounces, in the first instance by debiting your account, so you might have cashed the cheque, but you can't be sure that the funds are actually yours until at least the next day, often three days, and occasion longer even for a cheque drawn on a bank in the US.

If the cheque is drawn on an overseas bank it could be weeks, and as much as a couple of months before the underlying funds have been received by your bank and you can be sure it won't bounce. ...... It is common for foreign banks to hold an account in the US, most often in New York so that their customers can buy a "cashier's cheque" in USD drawn on account held in the US and therefore subject to clearing overnight, or at least within three days.

Re: Cheques payable to "cash"
 

Even if there is sufficient money in the account to cover the check, often there is no way that the bank will know if the check was written by the holder of the account. Many corporate accounts use watermarks on their checks but with modern forging processes and equipment, watermarks can be duplicated and until the corporation runs their balance sheet application, forgeries usually go undetected. Even if the check doesn't have the correct watermark or a watermark, bank employees may not know whether the check requires a watermark or what type of watermark is supposed to be on that corporation's check.

For checks on individual accounts, there aren't any watermarks and are easily forged.

If a check is forged, the person that cashed the check is responsible to make the check good.

Re: Cheques payable to "cash"
 

My earlier post assumed a cheque known to be "good" (genuine), but yes, you are correct, banks have very little chance of detecting a half-decent forged cheque, and virtually no chance of identifying a fraudulent facsimile or stolen cheque. Contrary to popular misconception cheques are not routinely signature checked prior to the cheque being cleared, and only rarely afterwards.

Re: Cheques payable to "cash"
 

i'm going to watch "catch me if you can" :)

Re: Cheques payable to "cash"
 

Thanks everyone. I guess the payors also forgot that banks were closed yesterday so the cheques were pretty much useless with them currently at 35,000ft near Japan. Western Union it is then (I use XE but that doesn't work to rural provinces of the Philippines with no bank account).

Re: Cheques payable to "cash"
 

Is this what is known as a "cahier's check" Or is that something else ?

I prefer specie myself. Nothing like gold coins to pay for transactions !

I am living in the past !

Re: Cheques payable to "cash"
 

Or according to the Arizona state legislature, "the future"! They are apparently about to approve a measure that makes gold, silver and platinum legal tender.

Re: Cheques payable to "cash"
 

Sometimes people refer to a "cashier's check", but the correct terminology in the US is "officials check". If a check has "Official Check" printed on it, then any bank is required, by regulation, to deposit it as if it was cash, or to cash it. Needless to say this causes problems with good quality forgeries or stolen checks. :eek:

Re: Cheques payable to "cash"
 

Few years back a friend opened a second hand furniture store ,he called the business .....Cash .

Re: Cheques payable to "cash"
 

That's something else - you go into your bank, fill out the details, the money is deducted from your account immediately (including a fee usually), you hand the check to the recipient, they have a virtually guaranteed check instead of one that may or may not bounce.

Considering "Cashier's check" is exactly what is printed on the Wells Fargo ones I've used, I'll stick to their terminology! :p

This is actually a counterfeit but doesn't look too far different from real ones from what I remember

Re: Cheques payable to "cash"
 

Wasn't there a bloke who changed his name to Barclaycard then stole the mail and cashed all the checks made out to the aforementioned card company?