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  Home >> Checks/Money Orders >> Checks You Wrote  
Checks Mixed Up, But Deposited Anyway

If I made out a check to American Express and accidently got it into the Bank of America envelope, and got the check made out to Bank of America into the American Express Envelope, would you expect these institutions to cash the checks anyways? They did.


"Back in the day", as seasoned citizens might be prone to say, one would expect the payees to send those checks back with a polite note suggesting that their customer may have made a mistake. However, in today's highly-automated check processing environment, checks are often processed by machines that review the enclosed bill turnaround document for an account number and read the dollar amount of the check (in figures), to figure out who gets credit for the payment and for how much. The payee on the check may not get even a glance.

Of course, if you catch your bank paying these checks for the wrong payees, you can push your bank to send those checks back under warranties that the checks were paid to the correct payees. Unfortunately, that can take time, and your accounts at the bank and at the travel and entertainment card company can get all fouled up. There can be late fees and other penalties, and they can take time to get resolved. What started as an innocent mistake could result in a major mess for you, so just check those envelopes carefully before dropping them in the mail slot in the future.

Published on BankingQuestions.com 7/17/08