"I'm never shopping THERE again!" Share your story!

[Wittyone]

Patrygoddess: Uhm no, the only way for her to deposit the check would have been for HER HUSBAND to sign it before she deposited the check to the joint account.  You are not allowed to endorse a check not made to you even if it's going into an account owned by both you and the payee.   The only problem I see is the bank didn't verified that the check was endorsed by the appropiate party before accepting the deposit.

Yup, she totally has the option to deposit the check, but the person the check is made out to still has to endorse it. No exceptions.

For years, I have been writing 'for deposit only' followed by our joint account number and have never had a problem. No signature needed.

Yeah, I even did this for a friend of mine.  She was sick but really needed a check deposited.  She wrote "for deposit only" on the back and I took it in for her and didn't have any issue.

I do this all the time for my husband, except I don't write the account number.  I usually deposit through the ATM.  I've also done it for a friend who drives long-haul trucks.  He'd have his checks sent to my house and I'd go deposit them into his account so he could have access to that money while on the road.

[Hillia]

Final update on DS's car purchase: he finally got his tradein back tonight, with the gas tank drained dry.  I've figured out how the dealership runs this legal scam:
1.  Potential buyer with no (or bad) credit comes in hoping to purchase.  Bonus points if the buyer is young and/or inexperienced
2. Salesman puts together fantasy deal for the Coolest Car In the World at an incredible interest rate
3. Salesman sends Buyer on his way to show off the Coolest Car
4. Buyer spends a few days falling in love with the car, showing it off to friends, etc.  Salesman calls a few times, hinting the fantasy deal is not going through but assuring Buyer he will 'make it happen'
5. Salesman finally contacts buyer and tells him the deal won't go through; come back in so they can talk
6. New deal is realistic but miles away from the original as far as interest rate and monthly payment
6. Dealership has 'lost' the tradein; it's already been sent to auction; there's no option for Buyer except to take the new deal

DS did not fall for this, fortunately, because I realized what the game was and was coaching him.  He worked through the salesman, the customer service manager, the shift manager, and the general manager, all of whom lied their butts off and refused to anything until he said hte word 'attorney', at which point his tradein vehicle magically appeared and he got away.

It's scumbags like this who give car salesmen a bad name.  I'm sure a great many of them are honest and ethical, but the ones who do this crap just destroy it for everyone.

[Shoo]

Patrygoddess: Uhm no, the only way for her to deposit the check would have been for HER HUSBAND to sign it before she deposited the check to the joint account.  You are not allowed to endorse a check not made to you even if it's going into an account owned by both you and the payee.   The only problem I see is the bank didn't verified that the check was endorsed by the appropiate party before accepting the deposit.

Yup, she totally has the option to deposit the check, but the person the check is made out to still has to endorse it. No exceptions.

For years, I have been writing 'for deposit only' followed by our joint account number and have never had a problem. No signature needed.

Yeah, I even did this for a friend of mine.  She was sick but really needed a check deposited.  She wrote "for deposit only" on the back and I took it in for her and didn't have any issue. 

But that's not the same as signing your own name on the back of the check.

[NyaChan]

Patrygoddess: Uhm no, the only way for her to deposit the check would have been for HER HUSBAND to sign it before she deposited the check to the joint account.  You are not allowed to endorse a check not made to you even if it's going into an account owned by both you and the payee.   The only problem I see is the bank didn't verified that the check was endorsed by the appropiate party before accepting the deposit.

Yup, she totally has the option to deposit the check, but the person the check is made out to still has to endorse it. No exceptions.

Not in my experience. I endorse checks made out to my sons and deposit them in their account (I'm a trustee) all the time.

My mom does it for me as well. 

[Diane AKA Traska]

Final update on DS's car purchase: he finally got his tradein back tonight, with the gas tank drained dry.  I've figured out how the dealership runs this legal scam:
1.  Potential buyer with no (or bad) credit comes in hoping to purchase.  Bonus points if the buyer is young and/or inexperienced
2. Salesman puts together fantasy deal for the Coolest Car In the World at an incredible interest rate
3. Salesman sends Buyer on his way to show off the Coolest Car
4. Buyer spends a few days falling in love with the car, showing it off to friends, etc.  Salesman calls a few times, hinting the fantasy deal is not going through but assuring Buyer he will 'make it happen'
5. Salesman finally contacts buyer and tells him the deal won't go through; come back in so they can talk
6. New deal is realistic but miles away from the original as far as interest rate and monthly payment
6. Dealership has 'lost' the tradein; it's already been sent to auction; there's no option for Buyer except to take the new deal

DS did not fall for this, fortunately, because I realized what the game was and was coaching him.  He worked through the salesman, the customer service manager, the shift manager, and the general manager, all of whom lied their butts off and refused to anything until he said hte word 'attorney', at which point his tradein vehicle magically appeared and he got away.

It's scumbags like this who give car salesmen a bad name.  I'm sure a great many of them are honest and ethical, but the ones who do this crap just destroy it for everyone.

Heck, that's the opening five minutes of National Lampoon's Vacation.  It's been around a LONG time.

[ica171]

Patrygoddess: Uhm no, the only way for her to deposit the check would have been for HER HUSBAND to sign it before she deposited the check to the joint account.  You are not allowed to endorse a check not made to you even if it's going into an account owned by both you and the payee.   The only problem I see is the bank didn't verified that the check was endorsed by the appropiate party before accepting the deposit.

Yup, she totally has the option to deposit the check, but the person the check is made out to still has to endorse it. No exceptions.

For years, I have been writing 'for deposit only' followed by our joint account number and have never had a problem. No signature needed. I've done this in the credit union, the savings and loan, and state and national banks. I don't get cash back when I do this, but after the waiting period, which used to be 5 business days but now is almost immediate because of computers, Never more than 2 days, it is available for use.

I do almost all of the banking and checkwriting, large and small.

Our bank used to allow this, but they got bought out or rescued or whatever by a larger chain, and now they don't. That's how it was done when I worked at a small bank, but that was also before 9/11. Our main account only has DH's name on it and I can't even deposit small amounts of cash, let alone checks made out to him, whether they're endorsed or signed "for deposit only." It makes it much more of a pain to do our banking.

[RingTailedLemur]

I'm glad we don't have to "endorse" cheques here, it sounds like a palaver.

[Redsoil]

I was about to say the same, RingTailedLemur!

I find it a bit brain-hurty that the US requires cheques to be endorsed.  Here, we just deposit them and it's done!

[Jape]

That reminds me of a friend of mine who wanted to deposit a cheque made payable to 'cash' into his credit card.  Just to be clear - a cash cheque can be paid into any person's account.  The teller wouldn't accept the cheque on the basis that my friend's name wasn't "Cash".  It took him a good 5 minutes of trying to explain it to her before she checked with a supervisor and finally accepted it.

[LadyClaire]

On endorsing checks..

One day I got a notice from the bank that one of my accounts was overdrawn by more than $100.

I keep only a tiny bit of pocket change in that particular account. It doesn't have a debit card or checks tied to it, so the only way to get money in and out is to transfer it online or go directly to the bank. I went online and checked the account, and found that the overdraft was due to a check. My bank posts images of the checks online, so I clicked on the image and it was for an entirely different account, with someone else's name and account number. I was rather angry about it, so I called the bank and demanded to know what in the holy heck happened, that they cashed someone else's check from my account?

Apparently the person who endorsed the check wrote below the "do not write below this line" line on the back when they endorsed it, and doing that can cause the little check reader machine to flip out and post the check to the wrong account.

[Hillia]

On endorsing checks..

One day I got a notice from the bank that one of my accounts was overdrawn by more than $100.

I keep only a tiny bit of pocket change in that particular account. It doesn't have a debit card or checks tied to it, so the only way to get money in and out is to transfer it online or go directly to the bank. I went online and checked the account, and found that the overdraft was due to a check. My bank posts images of the checks online, so I clicked on the image and it was for an entirely different account, with someone else's name and account number. I was rather angry about it, so I called the bank and demanded to know what in the holy heck happened, that they cashed someone else's check from my account?

Apparently the person who endorsed the check wrote below the "do not write below this line" line on the back when they endorsed it, and doing that can cause the little check reader machine to flip out and post the check to the wrong account.

That reminds me of my college days back in the 80s, when we were all desperate for just a little bit more float (time between when a check was deposited by a business and when the funds were actually removed from our account - so that rent check you wrote on Monday might not actually come out of your account until, say, Wednesday or Thursday),  Back then the rumors were that writing in green ink or using a black pen to alter the account and routing numbers at the bottom would confuse the scanners and throw your check out for manual processing, thus buying you a few days.

[PastryGoddess]

Patrygoddess: Uhm no, the only way for her to deposit the check would have been for HER HUSBAND to sign it before she deposited the check to the joint account.  You are not allowed to endorse a check not made to you even if it's going into an account owned by both you and the payee.   The only problem I see is the bank didn't verified that the check was endorsed by the appropiate party before accepting the deposit.

Yup, she totally has the option to deposit the check, but the person the check is made out to still has to endorse it. No exceptions.

For years, I have been writing 'for deposit only' followed by our joint account number and have never had a problem. No signature needed. I've done this in the credit union, the savings and loan, and state and national banks. I don't get cash back when I do this, but after the waiting period, which used to be 5 business days but now is almost immediate because of computers, Never more than 2 days, it is available for use.

I do almost all of the banking and checkwriting, large and small.

This is how I have always deposited checks into a joint bank account.  I've shared a joint bank account with various family members and have never had a problem with depositing the money.  The only checks I don't sign are official US Treasury Checks.

[Virg]

bluhairfreak wrote:

"Patrygoddess: Uhm no, the only way for her to deposit the check would have been for HER HUSBAND to sign it before she deposited the check to the joint account.  You are not allowed to endorse a check not made to you even if it's going into an account owned by both you and the payee."

That's not accurate.  The deposited check must be endorsed, but endorsement by proxy is perfectly acceptable and therefore if her DH said that she could endorse the check for him, then her endorsement is enough to pass regulation.  A bank can (and often will) refuse to accept an endorsement by proxy without backing documentation, but there's no law prohibiting it.  So, once the bank rep told her that she could endorse his check and deposit it, and then refused it because she signed it "without his permission" (I'm left to wonder how they know that she didn't have permission, unless they consider any endorsement by proxy without a prior agreement in that light), they stepped over the line.

The restriction is usually that a proxy endorser must endorse it with their own name unless the proxy endorsement is a mark or stamp.  As always, if you want to do this sort of thing, check with your financial institution to find out what practices they observe.

Virg

[Shoo]

bluhairfreak wrote:

"Patrygoddess: Uhm no, the only way for her to deposit the check would have been for HER HUSBAND to sign it before she deposited the check to the joint account.  You are not allowed to endorse a check not made to you even if it's going into an account owned by both you and the payee."

That's not accurate.  The deposited check must be endorsed, but endorsement by proxy is perfectly acceptable and therefore if her DH said that she could endorse the check for him, then her endorsement is enough to pass regulation.  A bank can (and often will) refuse to accept an endorsement by proxy without backing documentation, but there's no law prohibiting it.  So, once the bank rep told her that she could endorse his check and deposit it, and then refused it because she signed it "without his permission" (I'm left to wonder how they know that she didn't have permission, unless they consider any endorsement by proxy without a prior agreement in that light), they stepped over the line.

The restriction is usually that a proxy endorser must endorse it with their own name unless the proxy endorsement is a mark or stamp.  As always, if you want to do this sort of thing, check with your financial institution to find out what practices they observe.

Virg

This is really good to know.  I have always assumed that a check made out to my husband had to be signed by him before I could deposit it into our joint account.  Many a check has been left waiting on my desk to be deposited because I kept forgetting to ask him to sign it!

[Redneck Gravy]

Asking a teller anything is frequently a shot in the dark at a right answer - they tell you what they know and two days later you get a call from someone else saying policy has changed...come back in. 

I love my credit union but this happens there as well.  I have my accounts and both daughters there, then my company has a corporate account and a savings account there also.   What was acceptable last month may be completely changed tomorrow and the tellers may or may not know what is going on.   All checks have to have a signature endorsement - account numbers only are no longer acceptable. 

Every bank in town now requires you to come inside to cash a check if you do not have an account there.  They also require a photo id and a thumbprint and if anything looks hinky they won't cash it.   My credit union now charges $5 check cashing fee for non-members as well, I don't like it and I don't think it is fair but it is their policy.