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Unless specific provisions of law require cancellation in a different period of time, trust fund checks also have a one-year period of negotiability. Someone who wrote a personal check is probably not prepared for the hit their checking account balance will take if you cash it months later. Generally, a “stale check” (also called a “stale-dated check”) is an uncashed check that is more than six months old. When an employee turns in a stale-dated check which needs to be reissued, it will be verified, logged, and turned over to bank reconciliation, who will reissue the check. This process will take approximately ten to fifteen working days.
Be considerate — call or text the payer to let them know your intent. Make sure to also double-check that they haven’t switched financial institutions or opened a new account. Santander Bank, for example, charges $15 a check, while at Wells Fargo and Bank of America, the fee is $12. Plus, the person who wrote the bounced check might be charged a non-sufficient funds fee of up to $35. Banks don’t have to accept checks that are more than 6 months (180 days) old.
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Contact the issuer of your money order to find out if they have an expiration date or charge fees against old money orders. After 1-3 years, Western Union will charge a fee against the value of the money order. U.S.P.S. money orders do not expire and retain their value indefinitely. As long as there are post offices, you can cash a U.S.P.S. money order. ORF and general cash checks have a one-year period of negotiability.
If you forgot to deposit a check and it’s been more than six months since you received it, it might be considered stale. You can try and deposit or cash it, but you risk the check being rejected by your bank or possibly returned from the issuing bank. Before trying to cash or deposit an outdated check, consider reaching out to the check writer and ask for a replacement check. If you’ve issued a check that has yet to be cashed, you can contact the recipient to see if they still have the check and intend to cash it.
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The first step to implementing a practical company policy for stale-dated checks is to understand state laws. Read up on requirements both for your home state and for any other states your company does business in. Every state in the United States has what are called escheatment laws that require a business to hand over unclaimed property after a specific law firm bookkeeping period. If there are no further instructions on the check, then the bank can choose not to honor it if it’s older than six months. However, many businesses tend to put a length of time on the check for accounting purposes. One of the most significant problems with checks is that it’s easy to lose them, giving rise to what’s known as stale-dated checks.