writing checks with no money in the bank
By windymyre
@windymyre (210)
United States
July 28, 2009 12:48am CST
Today something happened that I've been hoping would for a while now. My husband does what he calls "playing the check game". He knows that if he goes to the local grocery store & writes a check on sunday, it will not cash through our checking account until wednesday. So once we've ran out of money, he can still get things at the store, as well as money since this store lets you write a check over the amount of the groceries you are buying & get cash back. The bad thing was, by the time we got paid, all our money was already owed out to cover these check he had been writing. He went to the store today & was writing out the check. The cashier told him just to sign it, that the computer would fill in the rest. She took his check, put it in the machine & it filled in the amount & the name of the grocery store, plus scanned the check for payment. She handed him back the check & he was like, "what is this?" She explained to him that they run all their checks electronically now & that the money comes right out of your account. Luckily we did have a bit of extra money in the bank right now.
Has anyone else played this game with writing checks knowing that they will not cash for a few days?
2 people like this
4 responses
@rosepedal64 (4188)
• United States
28 Jul 09
I don't recommend doing this at all. It will come back and bite you like it just did. I'm sorry that has happened but lets hope it won't again. We have these little country grocery stores outside of our town. They take checks and it takes a free days to get back to your bank. I was like you and doing the same. One day I was in the store and saw someone I knew and I made a remark to them that I was spending money that I didn't have. The clerk heard me and said that she couldn't take the check from me. I guess if you have to do that then do it in a quite little store and keep your mouth shut.LOL
@kid221 (150)
• Philippines
24 Sep 09
Hello Windy..
Issuance of checks without an adequate fund is a mortal sin to drawers of the checks. Checks are medium of exchange for the goods and services that we availed. These are not considered as a collateral for our debts or dues. Checks have its own value and must be treated like money. These checks are called bouncing checks. Other people opened checking account to use their checks to their advantage like issuing a post-dated check to extend the payment period.
Issuance of bouncing checks is punishable by law.
@danishcanadian (28953)
• Canada
29 Jul 09
If you still want me to whack him, I will!!!! I've told you before about my FATHER and finances (and what my Dad taught me about money was all good!!!). Believe me, he taught us early on that "The check game" is a big NO NO!!!!!!
I have a checking account, and a savings account, but the checking account is also my every day money account, so when someone gets a check from me (I have to renew a couple of memberships this month), and they take their TIME to cash it, it really THROWS ME OFF, and makes me afraid to use my money. What I am going to do is open a THIRD checking account, so when something big comes up like an $80 membership, the odd thing I have to pay for with a check, I'll put the $80 in THAT account, and only write checks from there. This way it'll be separate from my "every day" money, and also separate from my savings account.
Would you like me to give J a lesson in financial management? Believe me, I'd like to!!! :)
@sid556 (30960)
• United States
28 Aug 09
My boss keeps talking about getting one of those gadgets and I really wish he would. Many people do that and it is risky. You can't really count on that 3 days as sometimes things go thru quicker and if you get caught it can be really costly. My boss has thousands of dollars in bad checks at this point and he gets charged a fee also which must be past on to the person who wrote the check. In this day and age, who can afford that? Worse are the ones who write checks on accounts that have been closed out....that is out & out stealing. 
