Cheques

[Buster Bakdorzin]

Couple of questions as Im not very knowledgeable about banking security - but what exactly is a cheque, beyond the instruction to transfer X pounds into a specific account from another account, with regards to security? Are self printed cheques cleared in a fashion different from bank issued cheques - If not, then couldnt anyone just print their own cheques, as some businesses do?

And how does one go about getting my hands on one of those chequebook which measures 6 feet by 2 feet

[H2DaE]

Well the banks keep a record of what cheque numbers have been issued for the account and if a cheque is issued which has an invalid cheque number then it will bounce.

So in short, no you can't print your own cheques

[Wigeon Incognito]

They're nonsense is what they are.

A friend mixed his cheque book up with somebody elses. The friend sent a large cheque from said friend's book but with an entirely different name and signature but it still cleared!!

[marsred]

I remember some chap trying to prove cheques cold be printed on anything by putting one on the side of a cow.

Does that help?

[H2DaE]

Wigeon Incognito said:

They're nonsense is what they are.

A friend mixed his cheque book up with somebody elses. The friend sent a large cheque from said friend's book but with an entirely different name and signature but it still cleared!!

How large?

Anything under say £5000 doesn't usually get checked because the sheer number of cheques being processed every day makes this unfeasible

[Buster Bakdorzin]

Wigeon Incognito said:

They're nonsense is what they are.

A friend mixed his cheque book up with somebody elses. The friend sent a large cheque from said friend's book but with an entirely different name and signature but it still cleared!!

Sign your next cheque mickey Mouse in clearly readable writing... Ive done that a few times, they always go through. But then they would, wouldnt they.

marsred said:

I remember some chap trying to prove cheques cold be printed on anything by putting one on the side of a cow.

Does that help?

No, but H2DaE's answer did...

If in sequence then, one can print ones own cheques?

Edited by Buster Bakdorzin on Friday 22 August 16:22

[Davi]

I was told years ago that as long as you include all the details that are on your "normal" cheques, you can hand write your own if you wish. Asked an accountant and he agreed after a bit of digging.

Don't know if that's still the case, and can't imagine it going through without issue even if you could!

[H2DaE]

Buster Bakdorzin said:

Wigeon Incognito said:

They're nonsense is what they are.

A friend mixed his cheque book up with somebody elses. The friend sent a large cheque from said friend's book but with an entirely different name and signature but it still cleared!!

Sign your next cheque mickey Mouse in clearly readable writing... Ive done that a few times, they always go through. But then they would, wouldnt they.

marsred said:

I remember some chap trying to prove cheques cold be printed on anything by putting one on the side of a cow.

Does that help?

No, but H2DaE's answer did...

If in sequence then, one can print ones own cheques?

Edited by Buster Bakdorzin on Friday 22 August 16:22

Only if a cheque book bearing the cheque number you're issuing has already been issued by the bank.

The bank system has a list of every cheque book issued to you, so say the last cheque book you had were numbers 000001-000030 then you can't use all these cheques and print off a cheque with 000031 on it as the bank will have no record of this cheque being issued so will bounce it.

Anyway you would need a cheque printer and the magnetic MICR ink to do it

Are you thinking of some 'Catch Me If You Can' style antics?

[speedy_thrills]

H2DaE said:

Are you thinking of some 'Catch Me If You Can' style antics?

Who cares if it bounces, you've got the goods and they have a bit of paper made to look like a check.

Now
I'm off to figure out how I can print some cash thats passable .

[H2DaE]

Apologies for the grammer in that last post, I was trying to type while processing cheques

Edited by H2DaE on Friday 22 August 16:40

[Matt Harper]

H2DaE said:

Wigeon Incognito said:

They're nonsense is what they are.

A friend mixed his cheque book up with somebody elses. The friend sent a large cheque from said friend's book but with an entirely different name and signature but it still cleared!!

How large?

Anything under say £5000 doesn't usually get checked because the sheer number of cheques being processed every day makes this unfeasible

So your first response to this question was pure, unadulterated bullsh*t then?

[lawrence567]

Whats the point of printing your own cheques, just grow a money tree!

[H2DaE]

Matt Harper said:

H2DaE said:

Wigeon Incognito said:

They're nonsense is what they are.

A friend mixed his cheque book up with somebody elses. The friend sent a large cheque from said friend's book but with an entirely different name and signature but it still cleared!!

How large?

Anything under say £5000 doesn't usually get checked because the sheer number of cheques being processed every day makes this unfeasible

So your first response to this question was pure, unadulterated bullsh*t then?

OK, the MICR line checks are done automatically by a computer, the signature checks are done by a person checking that the signature is a good likeness of the one on the system.

Does that still look like pure, unadulterated bullst?

Edited by H2DaE on Friday 22 August 16:45

[jesta1865]

H2DaE said:

Buster Bakdorzin said:

Wigeon Incognito said:

They're nonsense is what they are.

A friend mixed his cheque book up with somebody elses. The friend sent a large cheque from said friend's book but with an entirely different name and signature but it still cleared!!

Sign your next cheque mickey Mouse in clearly readable writing... Ive done that a few times, they always go through. But then they would, wouldnt they.

marsred said:

I remember some chap trying to prove cheques cold be printed on anything by putting one on the side of a cow.

Does that help?

No, but H2DaE's answer did...

If in sequence then, one can print ones own cheques?

Edited by Buster Bakdorzin on Friday 22 August 16:22

Only if a cheque book bearing the cheque number you're issuing has already been issued by the bank.

The bank system has a list of every cheque book issued to you, so say the last cheque book you had were numbers 000001-000030 then you can't use all these cheques and print off a cheque with 000031 on it as the bank will have no record of this cheque being issued so will bounce it.

Anyway you would need a cheque printer and the magnetic MICR ink to do it

Are you thinking of some 'Catch Me If You Can' style antics?

hi, having worked in a high st bank in the area that dealt with cheques, as long as the info is right (ie issued number etc) you can write a cheque on anything, what you will have to do afterwards is provide a version that can be stored (so a normal one) the audit trails would mean they should not get processed twice. you don't need magnetic ink, as it can be processed by hand. we had several cheques come through that had been linked to 'stunt' cheques, ie, those big ones you see, side of a stuffed shark (i kid you not) etc.

incidentally when i was working there, the largest amount of cheques we processed in 24 hours was 2.4 million cheques, it was the wednesday after the big storm back in the 80's. tuesday was usually our bigday but the storm delayed loads for 24 hours, and when we came in at 6pm the day shift had not even finished the 1st pass sorts. we finished them all at about 7:30 am the next morning, just as the day shift were coming back in for the 8am start blowing my own trumpet i set that night a record of 137,000 cheques processed in one hour, and averaged just over 120,000 for the time i was on the 1st pass sort. a record that still stood when i left them 9 years later.

i have no idea what levels they would have today.

incidentally the font at the bottom of the cheque is not so that it looks cool and 'space 1999' its specifically so that the magneto optical readers could recognise the characters.

[Matt Harper]

H2DaE said:

Matt Harper said:

H2DaE said:

Wigeon Incognito said:

They're nonsense is what they are.

A friend mixed his cheque book up with somebody elses. The friend sent a large cheque from said friend's book but with an entirely different name and signature but it still cleared!!

How large?

Anything under say £5000 doesn't usually get checked because the sheer number of cheques being processed every day makes this unfeasible

So your first response to this question was pure, unadulterated bullsh*t then?

OK, the MICR line checks are done automatically by a computer, the signature checks are done by a person checking that the signature is a good likeness of the one on the system.

Does that still look like pure, unadulterated bullst?

Edited by H2DaE on Friday 22 August 16:45

Er frankly, yes. First you said, no, not possible. Then you said, yes, it is possible (they're not checked under 5K). Now you're saying, they're checked automatically - and sometimes personally.
So, yes - I call bollix on ya!

[Buster Bakdorzin]

H2DaE said:

Are you thinking of some 'Catch Me If You Can' style antics?

Client mentioned he'd issued a giant cheque before...
I want a giant chequebook

Got be wondering - as the acconting software sometimes asks me if I want to print my own cheques - what exactly a cheque was then, with regards to security.

Is the barcode the MIRC number?

re: your comments about checking the sig on screen, that can only be done when checking a signature on a withdrawl statement surely, other banks dont keep records of your own sig held by your own bank, which is why you can usually sign a cheque mickey mouse, no?

The tellers only check to see that there IS a sig, I dont think they read what it says or compare it to anything else.

[Pigeon]

That font is called "OCR-A" and was invented to allow thick ancient computers to read it

There's another related font called "OCR-B" which looks perfectly normal...

How the bleeding fk do you process over 38 cheques in a second? No wonder you can sign them Mickey Mouse and they still go through.

marsred said:

I remember some chap trying to prove cheques cold be printed on anything by putting one on the side of a cow.

I opened a bank account once and that story was included in the blurb they gave me to indicate that it was actually true that you could write a cheque on anything and it would work and the cheque book is just to make things easier...

[H2DaE]

Matt Harper said:

H2DaE said:

Matt Harper said:

H2DaE said:

Wigeon Incognito said:

They're nonsense is what they are.

A friend mixed his cheque book up with somebody elses. The friend sent a large cheque from said friend's book but with an entirely different name and signature but it still cleared!!

How large?

Anything under say £5000 doesn't usually get checked because the sheer number of cheques being processed every day makes this unfeasible

So your first response to this question was pure, unadulterated bullsh*t then?

OK, the MICR line checks are done automatically by a computer, the signature checks are done by a person checking that the signature is a good likeness of the one on the system.

Does that still look like pure, unadulterated bullst?

Edited by H2DaE on Friday 22 August 16:45

Er frankly, yes. First you said, no, not possible. Then you said, yes, it is possible (they're not checked under 5K). Now you're saying, they're checked automatically - and sometimes personally.
So, yes - I call bollix on ya!

The computers check the cheque numbers as the cheques go through the machines, all cheques are checked in this way.

Cheques over certain amounts (Only ones I've seen returned are for over £5k so I assume this must be the limit, could even be picked at random from cheques that are over the limit, there might not even be a limit. I wouldn't risk it just in case ) are picked out and the signatures are checked against the customer's signature record to make sure it is them that has signed it and not Mr M Mouse.

So it would not be possible to issue a cheque with a cheque number that has not been issued by the bank as they will all get checked, however on lower amounts you may get away with signing the check as whatever you like.

So 'bollix' to you good sir

ETA I don't condone signing cheques with dodgy names, banks are st hot on cheque fraud nowadays and you will get raped if you get caught

Edited by H2DaE on Friday 22 August 17:08

[plasticpig]

A few points. A cheque is a type of bill of exchange where the drawer is a bank. It technicaly has nothing to do with moving money from one persons account to another. It is a written instruction from one party (the drawee) to another party (the drawer) to pay a sum of money to the drawer or a third party. I believe it is still legally possible to write a cheque to "Bearer" in which case the money is payable to the person who has possesion of the cheque. It should also be possible to take a cheque made payable to you to the drawees bank branch and cash it.

[SS HSV]

Wigeon Incognito said:

They're nonsense is what they are.

A friend mixed his cheque book up with somebody elses. The friend sent a large cheque from said friend's book but with an entirely different name and signature but it still cleared!!

Absoluetly correct. I would not trust a cheque ever - they are not worth the paper they are written on.

I knew a lady that got Nigerian scammed because she was given a cheque for £3000 to buy an item for £200 (her dishwasher) and then sent the ballance via Western Union to Nigeria.. The cheque cleared, she asked the bank teller if the cheque was a "good checque" and the teller told her it was and had cleared. That to me says that a lay person is asking a banking professional that the cheque is ok..and being told it is

One week later said friend got a letter from the bank saying that her account was some £3000 overdrawn and would she like a loan to repay it!

Yes I know she was a complete and utter tool for being taken in by the nice man that had family health problems that was visiting in the UK and was only asking her to bank his money and to send it back in good faith BUT at the end of the day she asked for professional advice from staff in a bank at the time when drawing the monies and was told that the cheque was 'good'.

Later on, a member of the bank told her (in my presence) that, and I quote," A bank my reclaim funds paid out on a cheque for upto two years if they need to"

I went home, and returned ALL my chequebooks to the banks that I held them with and I will never write another cheque - ever.

Bank transfer, cash or debit card for me now.