Post-dating checks: isn't it illegal?

[Laugh O. Grams]

This past Friday, our daughter's school asked for all parents to post-date their January tuition checks for Jan. 1st, as school is closed until January 5th. My wife did so but I always thought that but law, you weren't allowed to. Am I wrong?

 

[Cruisin]

I don't think it is illegal

 

[Michelle67]

I don't think it's actually illegal, but it isn't legally binding, if that makes sense. The bank will not honor the date. If the check comes in, and it is signed, they cash it.

 

[CajunDixie]

I don't think it's actually illegal, but it isn't legally binding, if that makes sense. The bank will not honor the date. If the check comes in, and it is signed, they cash it.

Not always true. A bank is not supposed to cash the check if the date is in the future. Our payroll is done on Mondays but they are dated for Wednesdays. We mail some on Tuesday and the people that live in town have theirs placed in their work boxes when we leave Tuesday afternoon. Some banks will accept them regardless of the date but some refuse to cash them if the date is in the future.

I wouldn't have written the check early. I'd have mailed it December 30th.

 

[Laugh O. Grams]

I don't think it's actually illegal, but it isn't legally binding, if that makes sense. The bank will not honor the date. If the check comes in, and it is signed, they cash it.

I understand what you're saying and I wouldn't personally have a problem if they cashed it early. It's just for some reason, I thought that it was illegal to post-date and felt it unusual for a school of all places to ask parents to do something unethical. If it's not actually illegal, then it doesn't matter to me one way or the other.

 

[LMC]

I think what you are thinking of is if a person post dates a check for say January 1st on December 27th because they don't have the money in the bank until December 30th. They are knowingly writing a "bad" check as the money is not in the bank at the time the check is written so that is illegal. I think what you are refering to is perfectly ok so long as they are not written as "bad" checks. As we all know, someone can take a post dated check to the bank at anytime prior to the post date and the bank will most likely take it.

 

[Lintasare]

It is not illegal to write a post-dated check. Nor is it illegal to cash a check ahead of the date written on it. That is up to the bank.

Though it is illegal to write a check you know will not clear the bank.

 

[mousetravel]

I work in collections and it is not "illegal" to write a post dated check.
But you can not take legal action against a person if the check was written post dated and the check comes back as insufficient funds.

You can not take legal action on a "bad check" for the following:
*a post dated check
*a check not deposited in the bank within 10 days
*a check older than 180 days

 

[Laugh O. Grams]

I work in collections and it is not "illegal" to write a post dated check.
But you can not take legal action against a person if the check was written post dated and the check comes back as insufficient funds.

You can not take legal action on a "bad check" for the following:
*a post dated check
*a check not deposited in the bank within 10 days
*a check older than 180 days

Gotcha. A post-dated check is only illegal if it is written on an account with insufficient funds, and is typically treated just like any other check. Good to know.

 

[lilybrooke14]

I used to be a teller, and at our bank our procedure was to check the dates on all incoming checks and not cash post dated checks. That said, there are lots of ways checks come into the bank, and lots of room for human error. We did our best.

 

[CPT Tripss]

I only read the thread title, so I hope this is on target. It's better to check out the boys before they go out your daughter than wait until after the date.

 

[The Mystery Machine]

Gotcha. A post-dated check is only illegal if it is written on an account with insufficient funds, and is typically treated just like any other check. Good to know.

Right.

Also depends on the bank about cashing it early. Some of our banks said that they do not even consider the date, period.

If a check comes in they run it through. So if you don't have funds in your account, never write a post dated check thinking it won't be cashed.

 

[LuvOrlando]

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[sdarwkcabemanmy]

I didn't think postdating checks was illegal, but I did believe for a long time that wrinkled checks wouldn't be taken by the bank. I still don't know if the bank will take a wrinkled check.

 

[DarthKTrava]

I didn't think postdating checks was illegal, but I did believe for a long time that wrinkled checks wouldn't be taken by the bank. I still don't know if the bank will take a wrinkled check.

Not sure... I know if you fold a check, it plays havoc with their check-scanning machine.

 

[Mr. & Mrs. Smith]

I didn't think postdating checks was illegal, but I did believe for a long time that wrinkled checks wouldn't be taken by the bank. I still don't know if the bank will take a wrinkled check.

Why wouldn't the bank take a wrinkled cheque? I'm just picturing that conversation as they refuse it. "I'm sorry, Sir, but you need to go home and iron this first."

As far as post-dated cheques, why in the world would that be illegal? The school won't be able to cash the cheques until the 1st but they can still accept post-dated cheques. This is quite a common practice. When I used to be a renter, every landlord I ever had required 12 post-dated cheques the day we signed the lease for the first of every month. I still have a bill that I pay by way of post-dated cheque.