Have you ever had to Bounce a Check ?

chen

Sun, Aug 26 2007, 3:36 pm

what do you mean "had to"? It is illegal to write a check if you know there are insufficient funds in the account. I've had it happen when I had to close the account due to stolen checks--then of course all the outstanding checks bounced. it was a very unpleasant experience, and expensive, too. all the businesses whose checks bounced charged me a fee, and my bank also charged me for every check that bounced.

sometimes checks will bounce if you are drawing against a deposit that didn't clear yet, or if you forgot to record a big check that you wrote, cash withdrawal that you made, or debit card purchase.. The best thing to do is to carry your check register with you and record all transactions when they happen. Some banks will also give you "overdraft protection", which means they will cover the checks even if you have insufficient funds. That coverage becomes a loan, for which they charge mucho interest, so it behooves you to keep sufficient funds in your account.

If you can't make a payment, you are better off negotiating with whoever it is. If you bounce the check, they get mad because their bank charges them, plus they may bounce checks that they've written on the strength of your payment. They will bill you for whatever their bank charged them, plus your bank will charge you. Honesty is the best policy--tell them you can't pay right now and try to work out a payment schedule. It's worth it in terms of a having a good business relationship, and probably cheaper than incurring all those fees.

greenfire

Sun, Aug 26 2007, 3:58 pm

I've bounced a check or 2 in my life ... but purely by mistake ... if I have no money ... I don't write a check ... although I have put things on charge cards ... but those are long gone ... simple addition and subtraction should tell you what the balance is in your checking account ... some banks also have overdraft protection ... up to a certain amount sometimes this is only if you have direct deposit paychecks ...

pinktichel

Sun, Aug 26 2007, 4:03 pm

The part that bugs me about writing checks is when ppl don't deposit them for a while or pass them on. Eventually, I forget I wrote them.

Dh just checked the account and said someone he wrote a check to over a year ago only just cashed it. Rolling Eyes

IMO, if you're going to deposit a check so late, call the person before and ask if it's ok.

shoshb

Sun, Aug 26 2007, 8:36 pm

I am totally opposed to most types of credit in most circumstances. But I have overdraft protection (up to I think $2000 or something), so that if the extreme circimstance arises that I cannot cover a check, the bank will pay it, and I have to pay the bank back with interest. It's better than paying all those fees and all that embarrassment.

amother

Sun, Aug 26 2007, 11:22 pm

We once lent a yeshiva $50,000. When they paid us back, we asked if the check was good, they said it was, and it turned out it wasn't. There was some kind of crazy error with the bank that caused them to subtract 50,000 from our account when the check bounced. Even though there was money in the account, our account showed a very negative balance. We bounced 2 checks like that and it was really embarassing. One was a wedding present so the chosson and kallah would have no way of knowing that we don't bounce checks on a regular basis.

Piper

Sun, Aug 26 2007, 11:37 pm

amother wrote:

The yeshiva LIED to you and wrote you a bad check??!!

chen

Mon, Aug 27 2007, 7:41 am

[quote="Piper[/quote]

shock

The yeshiva LIED to you and wrote you a bad check??!![/quote]

Hey, it's possible they wrote a check drawing upon funds they deposited that still hadn't cleared. Although funds actually do clear almost instantly in this day of electronic funds transfer, the banks can put a hold on your money for up to several days on on out-of-town check, just because in the old days it took that long to clear. Many people assume that the moment they deposit a check in their account, they can safely write a check against it. Not so.

amother

Mon, Aug 27 2007, 12:50 pm

They gave us another check 2 days later that was fine. I'm not really sure what was going through the person's head that said the check was good. He is in charge of the finances in a big yeshiva. I am sure he knows how banks work. Maybe he was hoping that other checks would clear before we deposited our check. I don't know. I could tell you that we would have been a lot happier if he would have told us, "call in a few days at which time I will give you the go ahead to deposit."

TammyTammy

Mon, Aug 27 2007, 12:50 pm

Piper wrote:

amother wrote:

The yeshiva LIED to you and wrote you a bad check??!!

I know teachers who were given bad checks as salary from yeshivos.

When DS came home from camp one year, he had a little money left over in his canteen account (about $20 or so), so the camp wrote us a check for the amount. Sure enough, the check bounced and our bank charged us a fee larger than the actual check amount. We called the camp up and they said that there was some problem with the account but that it should be good now and that we could redeposit the check. (They also said that they'd make good on the bank fee later). Sure enough, the check bounced *again*. At some point, we realized that it was simply far more trouble than it was worth and we let the matter go.

As it turns out, the next year, DH lost his job in June -- a terrible time to do so once you've already signed up multiple kids for camp and had not yet finished paying for them. We had already paid the deposit for them, but we still owed them a few thousand and it looked like we were going to have to pull them out. The camp director, however, listened to our story and, in essence, told us that we should consider ourselves paid in full. So, we don't complain about the bounced check anymore. Smile

Tammy

ange

Wed, Jan 30 2008, 1:13 pm

pinktichel wrote:

IMO, if you're going to deposit a check so late, call the person before and ask if it's ok.

Huh? I don't get it?

1)Checks are generally not good after 6 months.

2)Aside from that, if you wrote a check, it should be deducted from your account total in your mind, so what's the problem?

I write checks and subtract that amount from my total. If someone cashes is a day or a year later, it makes no difference to me since I've already accounted for that amount not to be in my account.

Mommastuff

Wed, Jan 30 2008, 1:28 pm

ange wrote:

pinktichel wrote:

IMO, if you're going to deposit a check so late, call the person before and ask if it's ok.

I thought that checks were good for a year.
Also, if someone takes that long to deposit a check, one could think that they've lost it (the check, that is) Wink

GAMZu

Wed, Jan 30 2008, 9:20 pm

RE: chen's post

You don't have to close an account for stolen checks... and at least the bank could've waived the fees!!

When my wallet was stolen, it had checks in it. The bank canceled those numbers for free (usually it's $15 per check, per month.)

We have overdraft protection, so the other party gets paid instead of getting no $ and a fee.

shoy18

Wed, Jan 30 2008, 9:27 pm

cassandra wrote:

amother wrote:

get your facts straight. it is not illegal to bounce a check. yes, it should not be done, but if it was illegal, so many people would be in trouble for making mistakes and miscalculating....

If you do it willfully it is illegal.

Umm its just like stealing, if you don't get caught who's going to know. If you knowingly write a check that isn't good, its just like stealing!