Talk:Cheque/Archive 1

Exchanges: Viewpointe, SVPco and Federal Reserve Banks

A new type of exchange has come into existance. These electronic exchanges provide virtual mailboxes for banks. Each bank sets up a mailbox and then they can exchange. The bank of "last resort" is the Federal Reserve Bank, where any banks cheques can be exchanged. The speed of cheque exchange at some of these exchanges is a fraction of a second. A far cry from the days of 10 years ago, when cheque exchange might take 10 days. Huge machines are now obsolete, and check scanning can be done at a tellers window, or even at a point of sale. Note: The cost savings from check-21 have been huge, and these benifits have tricked down to the customer in the form of lower cost checking. But....like I said....trikle....they also make big money on float....(when they dont pay interest on your money).

PMO Postal Money Order.

A Postal Money Order IS a cheque. It will not be rejected due to lack of funds. The bank that pays the cheque, is the Federal Reserve Banks.

Moved from Talk:Check

The stuff about order checks doesn't make sense to me. My understanding is that a 'bearer cheque' is one explicitly made out to 'bearer' or 'cash', and which can therefore be exchanged by anyone who has posession of it. A cheque made out to a specific person can be exchanged for cash only by the person it is made out to. Whoever cashes it can of course be more or less vigilant in demanding proof of identity. A 'crossed cheque' can only be paid into a bank account of the payee. In Britain at least most cheques are 'crossed' at the time of printing.

Anyone have any more details, and whether other European countries work differently? DJ Clayworth 22:47, 4 Feb 2004 (UTC)

No need for ()

We don't need the (finance) if we just spell "cheque" correctly. Chamaeleon 12:43, 11 Mar 2005 (UTC)

I agree. Maybe someone should do a cut and paste move and mark this for Wikipedia:Speedy deletions. We will need an admin to copy the history though. —UTSRelativity 02:32, 20 Apr 2005 (UTC)

I think that the 'give me' a ding dong is the best one, if you ask me.

Page move

As pointed out above, moving to Cheque meand there is no need for additional disambiguation. Jooler 12:46, 25 Apr 2005 (UTC)

• Support, though I do have BE bias. violet/riga (t) 18:13, 28 Apr 2005 (UTC)
• Support. I admit a BE bias, too, but "cheque" is also used in the US (at least by AmEx), apparently, and alternative-word-spelling-disambiguation, when widely understandable, is greatly prefereable to paranthetic disambiguation. James F. (talk) 01:46, 2 May 2005 (UTC)
• Support. My reply is belated, but I'm posting to provide an American perspective. While relatively uncommon in the US, the "cheque" spelling is fairly familiar to Americans and far less ambiguous than "check." —Lifeisunfair 10:13, 8 June 2005 (UTC)

This article has been renamed as the result of a move request. violet/riga (t) 10:24, 2 May 2005 (UTC)

Spelling consistency

This article currently has a dizzying mishmash of spellings, in some cases using both "check" and "cheque" in the same paragraph (if not the same sentence). This looks very ragged and should be fixed. Most of the text describes US usage, so those grafs at least should probably spell it consistently as "check". 18.26.0.18 02:20, 5 May 2005 (UTC)

I've fixed it to match the title. violet/riga (t) 12:18, 8 Jun 2005 (UTC)

It's cheque btw, not check. 202.191.106.29 16:44, 1 April 2006 (UTC)

[ WP:RPA by 68.39.174.238 05:26, 5 February 2007 (UTC) ]. They are both correct in their respective regions.Cameron Nedland 03:58, 6 August 2006 (UTC)

According to the OED, they are both correct in both regions. But different spellings do dominate.65.87.181.2 03:36, 27 June 2007 (UTC)

I spell it as check, but I've seen cheque used here in the United States, so I'm fine with the current title. --Evice (talk) 21:18, 29 June 2009 (UTC)

maybe spelled as check by some people but no-matter who spells it that way it is still wrong check it like spell check, or check your oil. Says in article even only one is actually correct. Cheque is the correct way even tho my spell check will disagree.

Problem created by the spelling change.

It seems ridiculous that parts of this article say flatly untrue things such as "cheque has, in the US, come to mean any of these items." There's got to be a better way to put that. Twin Bird 13:40, 28 August 2005 (UTC)

Spelling history

I have added a paragraph that explains the history of 'check' vs 'cheque'.

Atyphoon 01:35, 20 October 2005 (UTC)

This history, presumably as provided by the text cited, disagrees completely with the word's usage history as provided by the OED2. Most importantly, the history here suggests that the spelling 'cheque' was invented in 1828, while the OED2 finds extensive usage of 'cheque' and 'checque' throughout the 1700s. I am compelled to assume that the etymology provided is fallacious and that the OED is not simply making up usage including

1708 Act 7 Anne c. 7 Such part of the said Cheques, Indents, or Counterfoils as shall relate to the Bills...

or

1717 Minutes of Court of Bank of Eng. 24 Oct., Ordered..that Mr. Woolhead desire all persons who keep accounts by Drawn Notes to use cheques, who do not at present.

As I consider the OED to be the obvious authority in this area (that is, English etymology) and as its content contradicts the present article, I'm going to pursue some revision to eliminate this disagreement. --Yst 13:44, 4 March 2006 (UTC)

The term possibly derives from exchequer, hence the spelling.

Islamic Empire 1 century CE?

Um, Mohammed was born only in the 6th century CE. This needs to be corrected.

American version?

Should an article about American checks be created? Or at least have some redirect so as to avoid spelling confusion? Also, I'd like to see articles about bounced checks, protesting a check, etc.--D-Day 17:25, 11 November 2005 (UTC)

No. Just learn to live the the confusion, like we do when we read about pavement, sidewalk, cilantro, zucchini and a million and one other things. Jooler

I don't think a separate article is warranted, but an entire section devoted to cheques in the US banking system would be very useful. This may result in a disproportionate percentage of the article being about the US, but given that the US is one of the few developed countries still using cheques (instead of more modern payment methods such as bank-to-bank transfers), I don't think this would make the article unjustly US-centric. There are plenty of useful things to say about cheques in the US, for example the fact that an online banking payment typically results in a cheque being sent in the mail, the fact that account holders may choose a third party to print their cheques, and why account holders like to get back their cancelled cheques. Facts such as these and others may seem obvious to Americans, but are very surprising to outsiders, and are therefore worth explaining in this article. Nfh 19:00, 20 December 2005 (UTC)

My understanding is that banks in the US recently (2004?) stopped sending back cancelled cheques. I've been told that (for legal reasons) they still photograph those checks and keep microfiche copies for several years, but then original checks are shredded. See [1], [2], Check 21 Act.

Writing a Cheque/Check

Why is there no area that explains the full use of a check and how to write one? I heard a check can be used as a deposit slip, though I forget how this process is done. Davethewave83

It's a good idea to endorse your checks "Pay to the order of BANK, for deposit only, account #NUMBER, NAME, where BANK, NUMBER and NAME are your Bank's name, your account number, and your name (duh). With that endorsement, nobody but BANK can do anything with the check, and BANK can only deposit it in your account.

A little off topic, Something I liked to do when my landlord pretended she didn't get paid on time was to write the checks payable to the order of "The Extortionist Witch" or something a little more obscene.

An interesting case (Ok, almost completely off topic) I heard about was when a guy deposited one of the "This Money Could Be Yours" supposedly fake checks that come with advertisements. Apparantly, these clowns copied one of their actual checks and simply wrote "Void" on the face of the check. The guy checked his account balance a couple days later, and had quite a large sum available, and a company threatening to sue him. Rival 07:06, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

I agree, a little more information on "writing a check" and "endorsing a check". I've been getting conflicting advice on whether I should always use a black ink pen, or always use a colored pen. Also conflicting advice on whether I should always use a (oil-based ink) ballpoint pen, or a (water-based ink) rollerball/gel pen, or a (?) fountain pen. Since my checks make carbon copyes as I write them, I'm not too worried. (But of course I'm not going to use pencil or eraseable ink). --70.189.75.148 07:09, 9 February 2006 (UTC)

I agree that some 'how to fill out a cheque' info would be good, eg. how to avoid fraud by making sure you write the cheque so no one can add extra numbers. Also some more info about crossing cheques would be good. As mentioned above, cheques in England come precrossed, I assume this is/are the two vertical lines printed across the 'pay' and 'the sum of' lines. However, as this is taken for granted English people may not know about this at all and get caught out if they go to America. (Cynthia Voigt wrote a story where a characther started her own business and failed to cross a cheque for a huge order. The resulting theft meant that she lost her busines).

Hmmm, I'm not so sure that this type of information should be included in a Wikipedia article. See point 4 ("Instruction manuals") in WP:NOT#IINFO. Adw2000 15:07, 14 November 2006 (UTC)

Also, as I understand it, the cheque books printed by banks are simply for your convenience and if you write out a 'pay the bearer' note on a napkin, that is legally binding and a bank would have to process it. Hmm but I can't imagine the bank WOULD process it. Any more info on this? ChristineD 18:31, 24 September 2006 (UTC)

"Deposit only" carries no weight, only certain endorsements have to be honoured under the UCC (relevant only to US but then so is that endorsement). You can write a cheque on pretty much anything permanent enough that it will survive handling necessary to honour and be tamper-proof or at least tamper-evident but the bank does not necessarily have to honour it. Usually they will, though, unless very outlandish and they can assess additional handling charges as appropriate. A cheque requires that the payee be present (who gets the money), the bank on which the funds can be drawn be present (where your account is), the payor (AKA maker) who wrote the cheque, who must also sign it and the amount to be drawn. Everything else is basically just fluff and convention, though under the UCC 'to the order of' should also be present for a cheque to be negotiable (however, if the cheque simply reads 'pay Joe Bloggs' the intent is clear and the bank is obliged to honour so long as all other aspects of the instrument identify the item as negotiable as a 'check'). — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.173.108.126 (talk) 07:15, 21 October 2013 (UTC)

What happens if a check bounces?

Also, what happens if a check made out to "bearer" or "cash" bounces? Who's fault is it and who gets the blame? ;) Davethewave83

The last person to endorse the check is the first person responsible, but ultimately the original maker is responsible for payment of the check. If: Able cuts Baker a check in exchange for a lawn sprinkler. Baker signs the check over to Charles, in exchange for a hamburger. Charles signs the check over to Diane for a large order of fries, and diane finally deposits it in the bank. When the check bounces, Diane has to go back to Charles to get payment for the large fries, Charles has to go back to Baker to get payment for the hamburger, and Baker has to go back to Able to get payment for the lawn sprinkler.

Of course, Baker and Charles could have endorsed the check "No Recourse, Baker" and "No Recourse, Charles" when they signed it over, in which case Diane would have to go all the way back to Able directly for her payment.

Rival 07:06, 5 January 2006 (UTC)

Reference for Finland

Didn't know where to put a reference in Finnish to back up Finnish info, so i'll put it here: http://www.turunsanomat.fi/kotimaa/?ts=1,3:1002:0:0,4:2:0:1:2004-01-07,104:2:196120,1:0:0:0:0:0: --Espoo 13:48, 25 March 2006 (UTC)

Checks the size of beach towels

What about those really big checks? Can you actually get/deposit those? Presumably it's a US thing.

There's a well known historic case of somebody in the UK writing a cheque on the side of a live cow. NFH 21:29, 4 May 2006 (UTC)

I hope the cow didn't bounce. Potosino 18:54, 1 July 2007 (UTC)

I imagine it'd splat. :( --Tyrfing (talk) 00:48, 4 March 2008 (UTC)

Cheque v. Check

If most of the information in this article is related to the United States, then why is the title of this article British English. I think someone should change the title to the American version, or at least add more British stuff. → JARED ^(t)  13:29, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

The original title was Check (finance). The page was moved to Cheque to eliminate the need for parenthetical disambiguation. ("Check" can refer to numerous things, but "cheque" refers strictly to the article's subject.)

Indeed, additional information pertaining to other countries would be welcome. —David Levy 13:35, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

I'm American and I've seen cheque used before in the United States (I'm pretty sure it was Visa that I've seen use that spelling). Check may be more common, but it would be inaccurate to say that cheque is never used here. --Evice (talk) 21:14, 29 June 2009 (UTC)

Thanks for using the spelling 'Cheque'. Go look at the disambig page for Check. Check marks, check mate, check the mail, none of those use 'cheque', so you see that spelling and you know what it means. OsamaBinLogin (talk) 05:26, 18 March 2010 (UTC)

Wikipedia should unify its British and American spelling. There are entries for harbor or flavor, preferring American spelling, for example. Personally, I would always consider British spelling the "base" spelling and American the "variant", simply because British has been in use for a longer time, which would make the spelling cheque ok by default. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 95.18.255.55 (talk) 16:01, 16 November 2010 (UTC)

This has all been hashed out, and the consensus does not agree with you. See WP:ENGVAR for the way we handle it. --Trovatore (talk) 20:25, 16 November 2010 (UTC)

The quoted article provides no guidelines whatsoever that would indicate harbor is to be preferred over harbour.95.18.255.164 (talk) 11:03, 21 November 2010 (UTC)

Didn't say it did. The rule in those cases, oversimplifying slightly, is "first major contributor". Neither is preferred to the other, so the spelling should be left alone. In any case this is not the place to discuss it. --Trovatore (talk) 11:11, 21 November 2010 (UTC)

British English actually in some cases has been used less than American English, which has the original spellings. Examples include rumor, color, labor. None of which had 'u' in them before the 17-19th centuries. In other cases, such as metre and litre, British spelling is more original, but Americans actually made the words more "English"-looking. On top of that, the American accents may be closer to what King George III spoke than current British accents. A shift occurred in the 19th century, altho this is not fully proven and probably impossible to prove since there are no sound recordings of then and no way to divine out the pronunciations from writing. But it does make sense when you realize Americans and Canadians have similar sounding accents, whereas later immigrant colonies (South Africa, Australia) are closer to British accents. Metallurgist (talk) 01:59, 27 January 2011 (UTC)

Sorry for commenting against on old entry, but such false information cries out for it: Australian & S.African accents are dissimilar to any British accents, and are no closer than US accents. Such a claim appears to be based on the above writer's US-centric views.

Australians and New Zealanders speak with a non-rhotic accent, as do South Africans (though the South African accent in English has been influenced significantly by Afrikaans). The vast majority of British regional accents as well as "standard" British (i.e. received pronunciation) are also non-rhotic, meaning that the "r" sound following a vowel tends to get dropped off. American-English and Canadian-English tend to be largely rhotic with a few notable exceptions (The Boston/New England accent, New Orleans Yat dialect, etc.). Rhotic accents were more prevalent in the UK prior to the 18th century and were more common in the rural south west of England as well as the western port cities, which also tended to be the origins of the earliest English settlers in North American, hence laying a substrate of rhotic dialect for American and Canadian accents to branch off from. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 68.11.77.90 (talk) 02:02, 21 June 2013 (UTC)

Sources?

"When sending a payment by online banking in the United States, the sending bank usually mails a cheque to the payee's bank rather than sending the funds electronically." If that's true, I'd like to see some supporting reference. I've used online banking in the US at various institutions since the 1980s, and this runs contrary to my experience. It also makes little sense, since it is cheaper for both parties to make the exchange electronically.

"Despite being one of the world's most developed countries, the United States still relies heavily on cheques, caused by the absence of a high volume system for low value electronic payments." Since every credit card company, utility, mortgage grantor, and even local homeowner association I've dealt with in the past decade has something in place to allow automated electronic transfer of regular payments, whether the amount be small or large, I'd like to know the basis of this claim. Even American Express, which was among the last to offer such services, now allows its cardholders to pay bills online electronically, or by signing up for an automatic direct debit. Even over a decade ago, almost all of these institutions that I deal with have had such capability, so I can't see the basis for the claim that there is an absence of such a system. It's possible that this practice is used less than common sense would dictate, but that certainly does not mean that there is nothing in place to allow it. --Hagrinas 16:16, 29 June 2006 (UTC)

Cheque expirations

When is the last day a British cheque can be cashed after being written?

The article says "a cheque is generally valid for six months after the date of issue". I think this covers the UK. Adw2000 15:11, 14 November 2006 (UTC)

Date on example British Cheque

The date on the example Canadian Cheque is 1 August 2006. I presume the British Cheque was meant to have the same date as an example? However, the date on the cheque is written "08/01/06", which in British format is 8 January 2006. Can the example be updated so that it reads "01/08/06" or "1 August 2006" (my preferred date format when writing cheques)? Adw2000 14:59, 14 November 2006 (UTC)

It's not real you know, it's an "example". 83.70.28.138 13:22, 28 April 2007 (UTC)

Etymology

The opening sentence says:

thought to have developed from Persian چك chek

whereas the history section says:

The cheque was originally titled such (variously spelled check, checque and cheque) in reference to the counterfoil used to check against forgery and alterations.

These statements can't both be true. (Also, the opening sentence is a disaster area of obfuscation, and needs rewriting in plainer English.) -dmmaus 22:47, 20 December 2006 (UTC)

I could find no evidence to support the statement thought to have developed from Persian چك chek, so I removed it. I also separated out the History section (about precursors of checks/cheques, as used in the Roman and other early empires) from the Etymology and Spelling section (about the well-documented etymology of the English word from the game of chess -- which, by the way, does derive etymologically from the Persian word shah) and the non-controversy about the "proper" spelling of the word in the U.S. vs other English-speaking countries. --Potosino 19:41, 1 July 2007 (UTC)

The English word cheque or check is one of many meanings that derive ultimately from the action of putting a king in check in the game of chess; derived from the Persian Shah (king). When the king is in check, his choices are limited. The term was originally used in its financial sense in the late 1600s in reference to the counterfoil of a draft that was used to "check" (prevent, forestall) forgery and alterations. The word has been used in its modern sense since the late 1700s. The Arabic term ṣakk has been used to refer to promissory notes in the Middle East since the 4th century.

I just checked the OED and could find no sign of this explanation there, so I've removed it pending further confirmation. Could someone give a full citation, or extract before re-inserting. - Francis Tyers · 09:28, 26 March 2008 (UTC)

References

Merger from Bounced check

The following discussion is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made in a new section.

The result was merge into DESTINATION PAGE. -- Nazgul533 ^{talk contribs} 07:05, 1 July 2007 (UTC)

• Merge. The article on bounced checks is a one-liner, I recommend a merge&redirect. -- Emana 07:04, 7 March 2007 (UTC)
• Merge seconded for same reasons SGGH 19:34, 9 March 2007 (UTC)
• Merge. AirOdyssey (Talk) 06:06, 10 March 2007 (UTC)
• Merge. Dreaded Walrus ^t _c 09:36, 9 May 2007 (UTC)

The discussion above is closed. Please do not modify it. Subsequent comments should be made on the appropriate discussion page. No further edits should be made to this discussion.

Question on terminology

Any explanation of where the very unusually term "to cut a check" comes from? 68.39.174.238 21:14, 18 April 2007 (UTC)

Contested move request

The following request to move a page has been added to Wikipedia:Requested moves as an uncontroversial move, but this has been contested by one or more people. Any discussion on the issue should continue here. If a full request is not lodged within five days of this request being contested, the request will be removed from WP:RM. —Stemonitis 10:19, 23 August 2007 (UTC)

• Cheque → Check — User:Smack moved the article without discussion, which was highly unnecessary, as Wikipedia clearly mandates keeping the Original article name spelling (in the case of United Kingdom English versus United States English.) In this instance, Smack moved the article out of his own POV as evident by the history page ([3]), which clearly is unacceptable, and, as stated before, it is mandatory to keep the article names Original spellings. 16:42, 21 August 2007 (UTC)-- Hrödberäht (gespräch)
  • Your entire proposal is based on incorrect assumptions. Smack didn't move the article to Cheque, he moved it to Check (finance). Later, in 2005, there was a discussion where the consensus was to name this article Cheque, for sensible reasons. As this move proposal goes against that consensus, it certainly isn't uncontroversial. Masaruemoto 19:54, 21 August 2007 (UTC)
• Oppose based on previous explanation, article history. --Ckatz^chat_spy 18:53, 23 August 2007 (UTC)
• Oppose per above, despite my BE bias. - PeeJay 11:22, 24 August 2007 (UTC)
• Oppose. As noted above, this request is based on a misunderstanding of what occurred. The article was moved to Check (finance) to differentiate it from the other meanings of the word "check," and it was moved to Cheque to eliminate the need for parenthetical disambiguation. —David Levy 17:27, 24 August 2007 (UTC)
• Oppose. As above -- request is based on a misinterpretation of what happened. older ≠ wiser 14:04, 25 August 2007 (UTC)
• Oppose - due to chech's ambiguity. Reginmund 05:05, 26 August 2007 (UTC)

Special Presentation (UK)

Before the introduction of this standard, the only way to know the 'fate' of a cheque has been 'Special Presentation', which would probably involve a fee, where the drawee bank contacts the payee bank to see if the payee has that money at that time. Maybe I'm being slow here, but aren't drawee and payee the wrong way round in this sentence? (Most of this sentence was here before I made the changes regarding the new standards. I merely added Before the introduction of this standard) --PeterR 08:19, 10 September 2007 (UTC)

Spelling

Per policy, this article sould surely be written with one spelling of "Cheque/Check". In its current format, the article is very messy, and policy doesn't allow for american related sections of an article to have a different spelling; the consistancy must be there throughout the article. As the article is actually named "Cheque", then this should be the only variation used (excepting of course explaining the differences etc.). Look at the article Zucchini. While the British usage is Courgette, only Zucchini is used. -Toon⁰⁵ 00:05, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

The difference is that the zucchini article presumably has no text about specifically British zucchini. References to "cheques in the United States" look very odd. I think this should be an exception to the usual rule about keeping a consistent spelling in an article. (By the way, that rule is a "guideline" and not "policy", IIRC.) --Trovatore 00:24, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

I've cleaned up a few uses of "check" that had crept in. There are several I've left, however, as they refer to specific legal wording as used in the U.S. (In those cases, it seems best to use "check", and I have italicized them so as to make the point that it is a specific term.) I've also made a minor tweak to some text about security checks so as to avoid confusion. --Ckatz^chat_spy 00:23, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

Ckatz, I think that your edits have probably sorted it, the remaining "checks" are legal terms and should stay. Trovatore, thankyou for pointing out to me that it is "guideline" not "policy", I'm sure it changed the meaning of what I said completely. -Toon⁰⁵ 00:48, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

The point is that guidelines allow for exceptions when circumstances justify. They do justify it here. Some of the "cheque" instances should go back to "check". --Trovatore 02:03, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

I appreciate your point that the guidelines allow for exceptions. However, in this case, the only appropriate exceptions would be the legal spellings. Having mixed spellings for the general references to "cheque" wouldn't be encyclopedic. --Ckatz^chat_spy 04:38, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

I don't agree. The clearest example is the external link to the FTC site, where you actually substituted "cheque" within a direct quote. The link seems to be broken anyway, though, and should probably just be removed.

But in my opinion it would also be justifiable to use "check" consistently in the US section, given that that section is specifically about US checks. The image caption about the "US dollar cheque" is correct because it's drawn on a Canadian bank. If it were drawn on a US bank it should be "check". When I lived in Canada I distinguished between my cheques (drawn on TD) and my checks (drawn on a US bank). --Trovatore 05:58, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

Oops - thanks for catching the quotation marks. I've reverted myself for that one example. However, I still disagree with you about mixing the two - it would look unprofessional, and is contrary to Wikipedia custom. --Ckatz^chat_spy 06:46, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

I think that it should remain "Cheques in America", as they are the same item as in other parts of the world, and it would be like using US:En in the "LA Galaxy Era" section of David Beckham, calling it "soccer" in that section only, while the rest of the article is written in British English. Whether a Cheque is drawn on a British, American or Canadian bank, it is the same thing and should be written in the same style, there's no exceptional circumstance there. -Toon⁰⁵ 17:17, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

Well, no, I don't think it would be like that; the section is specifically about United States checks, not checks that just happen to be in the United States. If the football (soccer) article has a section about United States soccer specifically (say, differences in rules, or the fortunes of Major League Soccer), then I think it would be justifiable to use "soccer" in that section. --Trovatore 17:23, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

I don't see how it is any different; if a "check" is something different in the U.S. to the rest of the world, it should have its own article and that can be written in US:En, but if it's the same thing, then there is no reason for the language to be different. Either way, there is only one spelling used in general description. I don't argue with the spelling in "order check" and "bearer check", as that's quoting specific examples which aren't used in the UK. However, the title refers to types of "cheque" (as used in the UK), so should be spelled "Cheque". -Toon⁰⁵ 17:36, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

The section is specifically about the ways in which checks are something different in the US than in the rest of the world. That's the precise burden of the text of that section. If they weren't something different, then there would be no need for the section at all. --Trovatore 17:38, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

Talking about types of "something we have all over the world" is different to saying the name of a specific something in just the US. -Toon⁰⁵ 17:46, 12 September 2007 (UTC)

a few things to consider are- 1) wikipedia is an american website. if the limeys want to make their own encyclopedia, then go ahead. 2)limeys do not write checks, they use bank transfers. if you want to bring the french into this, then they also do not write checks, and use bank transfers. so if americans are really the only ones writing checks, then it should be spelled according to the american way.

Cheques in United States

This article has a section specifically for cheques in United States but not for other countries. I am wondering the reason for this bias? 213.114.118.44 19:24, 15 September 2007 (UTC)

The bias is systemic. Feel free to help correct it. —David Levy 19:59, 15 September 2007 (UTC)

I'm not sure about bias; it's simply because nobody who actually knows anything about british, or elsewhere's cheques has contributed. Please help if you can! -Toon⁰⁵ 14:16, 17 September 2007 (UTC)

Cashier's cheque/Banker's Draft

A small point but one that I think ought to be discussed, not all banks in the UK print their drafts. Agreed that the majority of Banks/Building Societies in the UK print theirs but the big High Street Bank that I work for all of ours are hand written on a blank template. I'm not keen on just changing it as I don't want to start an 'editwar', besides in other counties it may be true. I just think that this sweeping statement ought to be revised slightly. 193.108.78.10 (talk) 12:26, 27 November 2007 (UTC)

Pictures

Any reason for not having a check issued by a US Bank (a fake one actually) instead of the second Canadian one? Merry Christmas _{from Sasha} 06:15, 20 December 2007 (UTC)

Negotiable?

What's the deal with banks charging a fee for cashing checks drawn on their accounts? Is that legal? And if so, doesn't that contradict the claim that checks are negotiable?Heqwm (talk) —Preceding comment was added at 22:12, 25 December 2007 (UTC)

Time to clear

How long does it take, on average, for a bank to post the payment and determine whether the check clears or bounces? And what would be a reasonable worst-case amount of time? Ham Pastrami (talk) 08:55, 25 January 2008 (UTC)

Amount of currency

Can you include two "and"s in the description of the amount of currency, on the cheque?

I don't, I always limit to one "and", whatever the amount. So, for the amount of £173.34, I would write it on the cheque as One Hundred Seventy Three Pounds and 34p________ rather than One Hundred and Seventy Three Pounds and 34p_____. Does it matter, am I worrying about nothing?

I never omitted any "and"s, I wrote it as I would say it. For example, a sum of £143.15 would be written as "One Hundred and Fourty Three Pounds and Fifteen Pence Only." Never had any backlash yet! 94.193.223.140 (talk) 20:19, 14 June 2009 (UTC)

It merely needs to be unambiguous; so long as the amount is readable as a real amount of currency and you have that currency present, the cheque will be honoured. Also note that the written part takes precedence over the numerical box if there is a conflict, though often the bank will refuse to honour the check and return it as improperly made out. In the USA this is called the 'Legal line' or 'Legal amount' in banking jargon and if a 'check' is deposited and the amount entered as in the numerical box but that differs from the legal amount a later adjustment will be made, often leading to customers calling their bank about an 'error' with a deposit. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 173.173.108.126 (talk) 07:28, 21 October 2013 (UTC)

Diagram and Description

The page needs a diagram denoting where on a sample hand-written check the various parts are listed and what they are called. For example, there is a lot of confusion as to the "check number." Many people list it as the sequential identifier of the order of checks in a checkbook (usually in the upper right corner), but as far as I know it is the bank check number just below that is in smaller type and often contains a forward-slash in it. Other things useful in the diagram would be date, name, issuing bank, place where you should handwrite the spelled out amount of the check, etc. -kslays (talk • contribs) 18:34, 2 May 2008 (UTC)

Crossed cheque?

Is it true that these cannot be cashed? One part of the description implies that it simply means that it can't be endorsed to a third party - not that the person named on the payee line can't get cash for him/herself, yet another place it says you can't get cash - which is it? --Random832 (contribs) 17:56, 13 May 2008 (UTC)

Under Irish law there are different types of crossing. The basic crossing means that the cheque cannot be cashed but may still be endorsed and lodged to a third party's account. A cheque crossed "Account Payee" must be lodged to an account in the name of the payee. I assume the same applies to the UK but I don't know about elsewhere. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Stanstaple (talk • contribs) 21:27, 21 September 2008 (UTC)

Cheques in srilanka

in Srilanka the businesmen and the rich people are opening current accounts.Middle class people and the poor people dont use cheques.some of them dont know what a cheque is .

Types of cheques in the United States

Perhaps it's because I'm sleepy, but wouldn't it make more sense to make this section more American in spelling? Nyttend (talk) 04:14, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

It looks strange to me too, but the rule is that spelling choices should be consistent throughout an individual article. Of course the particular types of checks mentioned there keep their American spellings, because it's the only one they have -- "bearer check" is defined by the US Commercial Code; "bearer cheque" is not. But for the purposes of the article a bearer check is a type of cheque. I don't really like it either, but it's hard to think of a rule that works better -- we don't really want spellings switching back and forth haphazardly within a single article. --Trovatore (talk) 04:48, 12 September 2008 (UTC)

I suppose the majority of the population of the Anglosphere resides in the US, but it still seems strange that in a global site such as Wikipedia, that spelling English words using British spelling would be deemed incorrect. CalgaryWikifan (talk) 15:59, 27 September 2008 (UTC)

Not Really Professional

The photo caption "A cheque is a cheque no matter how small the amount" does not really seem all that professional or adhere to the general Wikipedia manner of presenting information. Rather, it seems like a phrase out of a children's "consumer science" textbook. —Preceding unsigned comment added by Siddharth9200 (talk • contribs) 02:02, 10 May 2009 (UTC)

I concur. Feel free to go ahead and change it to something more informative. – Toon^(talk) 02:04, 10 May 2009 (UTC)

Checkbooks

Checkbook currently redirects here, as a result, I believe there should be a section describing the nature, issuance, features and characteristics of checkbooks. Obviously I cannot write it myself since I came here looking for information on the subject. —Preceding unsigned comment added by 98.217.181.54 (talk) 18:17, 11 May 2009 (UTC)

Draft and Cheque

Guys may i know what is the different between the Draft and Cheque? does can you able to get the some (cash) if your money that was sign on the draft are too much to pay your bills such us in telephone nor electricity bills?.shin368 (shin368) 17:53, 3 June 2009 (UTC)

Clarification wanted

Crossed cheque: The notions of "to cross" a cheque and "a crossed cheque" are mentioned several times, and although the meaning is more-or-less presented in the article, this is done in a rather dispersed way – partially in image captions and footnotes. I think this merits a more consolidated treatment, particularly for the benefit of readers not familiar with this non-universal concept.

Endorsement: The notion of "to endorse" a cheque is also not explained clearly; someone who does not know what this means, like who does this when, why and how, and what is the effect of the presence or lack of a proper endorsement, most likely still does not know this after studying the article.  --Lambiam 09:48, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

Closed accounts

If a person wrote me a check and i took it to my bank,the same bank the person who wrote me the check bank with.The bank cashed the check and gave me a large amount of that check i cashed back in the form of cah,i deposited the rest in my checking acount.Three days later the bank called me and said that acount was closed and they over drafted my acount.Is that legal?they checked the acount the check was writen from before cashing it because it was a large amount to verify the person writing me the check had the money in their acount to cover the check.Can a bank cash a check and then say they did it on good faith? Travis —Preceding unsigned comment added by 67.8.178.133 (talk) 21:22, 25 July 2010 (UTC)

Picture checks

This may be a phenomenon unique to the US, but beginning perhaps in the 1960s it became possible to order checks with an image lightly printed in the background. I don't know what kinds of sources would be available that discuss the practice, but I'd imagine that it's significant enough to merit a sentence or two. Thoughts?   Will Beback  talk  00:25, 5 August 2011 (UTC)

Move Proposal

I would like to suggest that the current article Cheque be moved to Check. Wikipedia is after all an American based project and therefore it is only fair to American Wikipedians that the proper American English spelling be used. Mrld (talk) 23:41, 16 January 2012 (UTC)

The general issue has been litigated many times — please read WP:ENGVAR for the compromise that allows us all to work together. --Trovatore (talk) 00:19, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

(As for whether the history of this particular article is in accord with ENGVAR, I think it is fair to say that it is not, exactly. The original article was at, I forget, check (financial instrument) or some such, and it was moved to cheque on the grounds that that name does not require disambiguation and is also at least marginally recognized in the United States. If I had been there at the time I would likely have argued against that move, but the article has been at this title for many years, and it is not worth changing it at this point.) --Trovatore (talk) 00:22, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

Move proposals based only on WP:ENGVAR objections are likely to fail. The unofficial rule is that the article sticks with the spelling in the first non-stub version. "Cheque" seems to have broken this at some point, but it is not worth going through the spelling arguments again. Wikipedia is not an American English encyclopedia, as any spelling can be used as long as it is within ENGVAR guidelines. See also Wikipedia:Perennial_proposals#Enforce_American_or_British_spelling.--♦IanMacM♦ ^{(talk to me)} 06:24, 17 January 2012 (UTC)

We stick with the English variety used in the first non-stub revision unless there's a good reason not to (i.e. something other than an arbitrary preference). As noted at WP:RETAIN (the relevant subsection of WP:ENGVAR), switching from one English variety to another can be justified when "a term/spelling carries less ambiguity" (precisely the rationale in this case).

For the record, I'm American. —David Levy 15:32, 30 January 2012 (UTC)

Is a cheque money? Is it legal tender?

Is a cheque money?

Orchids8 (talk) 11:10, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

Is a cheque legal tender?

Orchids8 (talk) 15:37, 30 March 2012 (UTC)

"Check" is constantly misspelled, possible vandalism

Not sure why there are so many instances of "cheque" on this page and others. People write checks, not check-wees. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 75.35.186.60 (talk) 16:24, 20 April 2012 (UTC)

Please see WP:ENGVAR. --07:40, 21 April 2012 (UTC)

Can I also say that in my country - The United Kingdom - the word is almost always spelt "cheque". ACEOREVIVED (talk) 19:35, 17 July 2012 (UTC)

Also in the United Kingdom. the word cheque is pronounced the same way as check making it a homophone. Tk420 (talk) 12:09, 15 March 2015 (UTC)

Not a homophone, "check" and "cheque" are the same word (from the French word "eschequier"), not two different words that sound the same. It's just spelled 2 ways in the UK depending on context. It's splitting like canon split into "canon" and "cannon" but America is holding it together by only using the old spelling. Ikmxx (talk) 06:12, 3 July 2018 (UTC)

Europe section - Cheques are still huge in France (but declining fast)

Source: 2011 report from the Banque de France Link Content : Cheques were used for 20% of non cash paments in 2010. Second biggest coutry after the US. Average 50 cheques / person a year. Twice as much as the next EU country (UK), five time the EU average. Decline is 4% a year. — Preceding unsigned comment added by 85.218.2.35 (talk) 23:56, 22 September 2013 (UTC)

Suggested change to international English

I have noticed the tag saying the article is written in British English on the talk page. There is currently no explanation on why this is. According the the style guide (see Wikipedia:Manual of Style#National varieties of English particularly the section on opportunities for commonality) terms common to all varieties of English are preferred unless the are strong national ties to the topic. I am not aware of any strong national ties to the United Kingdom on the topic of cheques. It is most likely the spelling cheque, which is dominant in British English, which attracted the tag. According to some American Wikipedians the spelling cheque is used in the United States for some brands of traveler's cheques such as American Express so cheque appears to be the international spelling. Tk420 (talk) 12:32, 15 March 2015 (UTC)

There is no such thing as "international English". --Trovatore (talk) 19:04, 15 March 2015 (UTC)

Sorry, that probably came off a bit aggressive. Let me explain what I mean.

In my experience, people who use the term "international English" usually mean specifically to exclude those aspects of American English that are systematically different from the forms that predominate in the British Commonwealth. Their argument is usually "we do it this way in x many countries, whereas there's only one country (occasionally two, counting Canada) that's the odd man out". But in my opinion you can't have an "international English" that systematically excludes the country with two thirds of the language's native speakers.

In the case under discussion, while it is true that the "cheque" spelling is occasionally used in the United States, it is a clearly unusual and somewhat "marked" spelling. In the case of American Express, I am almost sure that it was deliberately chosen to evoke the unstated "British equals upper class" idea that lingers in the American psyche.

As a practical matter, the principal guideline governing the spelling of cheque/check in this article is ENGVAR. If an ENGVAR is not chosen, then it would be harder to explain to editors why they should not repeatedly "correct" the spelling to "check". Moreover, if we do not choose an ENGVAR, then how are we to spell, say, "colo(u)r"? That word does not seem to appear in the current article, but it easily could. "Personalise" does appear. --Trovatore (talk) 20:13, 15 March 2015 (UTC)

The article for Sidewalk faced a similar problem: the standard terms used in many English-speaking countries (pavement, footway, footpath, etc) were all ambiguous to others. It was agreed that sidewalk would be understood by most native English speakers, even if they did not use it themselves natively, and even more importantly it also *describes unambiguously the object of the article*. And everyone agreed with this conclusion! Here we have another term cheque that *describes unambiguously the object* of the article, is understood by *all English speakers, even in the USA*, and yet it still seems to come up with complaints of bias and some vague implication that it is an attempt to make americans feel insecure about themselves: sorry, but an encyclopedia is not a therapist to talk one through ones feelings of inadequacy against the british, however repressed they might be.

The name of this article has been discussed multiple times on this talk-page, and it is clear that check is ambiguous, and that check (finance) is more complicated than cheque, so what is the point of trolling the topic now? Although Tk420 states "There is currently no explanation on why this is", yet this exact topic has been discussed multiple times on this very page: cheque is the only completely unambiguous term, and it is *also* understood by *all* native English speakers.

(Declaration: native speaker who is happy with both of sidewalk and cheque, for the reasons given) 80.254.148.123 (talk) 15:22, 26 March 2015 (UTC)

My suggestion is not on how to spell cheque. It is on which dialect to use when discussing the topic in general. Currently there is a tag on this talk saying the article is written in British English. According to the Wikipedia style guide terms common to all varieties of English should be used where possible unless there are strong national ties to the topic. I cannot see any strong ties to the UK on this topic. Tk420 (talk) 15:22, 1 April 2015 (UTC)

I think you've misunderstood the point of WP:COMMONALITY. The idea is that, if a term common to all varieties works equally well in context as a variety-specific one, then use the one that works for all varieties. That's a separate problem from what variety to use for the article, for those words where you have to make a choice.

For example, the article talks about "personalised" cheques. That's the best word; there is no substitute that works equally as well in context. So we have to choose how to spell it, with the s or the z; there's no in-between. And ENGVAR stipulates that the same choice should be made for a whole article at once. Given that the spelling that we're going with for the article title is very strongly associated with British English (well, at least non-American English), we might as well choose British English for the article as a whole. --Trovatore (talk) 16:41, 1 April 2015 (UTC)

It should be -ize in both the US and UK spelling, -ize is from -izare, -izare is the main reason the letter Z was added to the alphabet. Ikmxx (talk) 06:25, 3 July 2018 (UTC)

On further thought I decided to suggest changing to Oxford spelling which originated in Britain but shares at least one element with American spelling (the preference for a z after i in the ize suffix e.g. organize) and is the closest we have to international spelling. Oxford spelling is already used in Wikipedia articles such as The Lord of the Rings but the tag for that says British English with Oxford spelling. I still do not think it is appropriate to label articles without any strong national ties to any English speaking countries as British English. I have considered calling for a dispute resolution on this matter. Tk420 (talk) 21:00, 23 April 2015 (UTC)

If people want to change the article to Oxford spelling, it's OK with me. I don't see much point in it, though. It's certainly not in any sense "international spelling"; it's a subtype of British spelling that conservatively keeps the -ize endings that were also kept in American English when most of British English changed to -ise. --Trovatore (talk) 21:20, 23 April 2015 (UTC)

This article was started in American English, not British English, it was changed without any rationale, so why not change it back to American English? — Preceding unsigned comment added by 90.194.62.161 (talk • contribs) 05:28, 24 April 2015‎

No, that isn't true, there was a rationale. The rationale was that "check" required disambiguation whereas "cheque" was unambiguous. Whether or not you think that's a sufficient reason, it is a rationale, and the claim it makes is certainly true. (A side point also raised was that "cheque" is sometimes used in American English. This one is just barely true — it's hardly ever used except for AmEx's posh affectation, but yes, you can't quite say it's never used.) --Trovatore (talk) 05:40, 24 April 2015 (UTC)

Grammar issue in intro

Second sentence second paragraph ("While paper money evolved from promissory notes, another form of negotiable instrument, similar to cheques in that they were originally a written order to pay the given amount to whomever had it in their possession (the "bearer").") doesn't seem to be grammatically correct - doesn't look like a full sentence. I'm not sure what exactly it's trying to say (should it be "meanwhile"?) or the best way to revise, but hopefully someone can. -KaJunl (talk) 22:29, 28 May 2015 (UTC)

whom vs. that

In this sentence, can someone confirm whether "whom" is correct or whether it should be changed to "that"? I think of companies as inanimate, but I'm not sure the rule:

"Certain companies whom a person pays with a cheque"

-KaJunl (talk) 22:37, 28 May 2015 (UTC)

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Why is this British English?

Why is this British English? It’s not specific to a region, and the article says that “check” is the older spelling. The American spelling (while I’m biased) is definitely more intuitively pronounceable, and more of the natively English-speaking world uses it than the other spelling. DemonDays64 (talk) 23:47, 11 September 2019 (UTC)

I think it used to be at check (financial instrument) or some such — right now that redirect dates from 2011, but in the dim past moves didn't use to be as cleanly discoverable from the file history as they are now. There was a move discussion, and the article was moved based on the rationale that check is ambiguous but cheque is not, which is a legitimate though not mandatory reason to change an article's ENGVAR if agreed by consensus. This is all from my memory, but you can look back in the talk-page archives if you really want to know for sure. --Trovatore (talk) 23:55, 11 September 2019 (UTC)

See the threads above and the talk page archive. Mucho discussion here, but the current spelling is likely to stay.--♦IanMacM♦ ^{(talk to me)} 03:45, 12 September 2019 (UTC)