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Home >> Checks/Money Orders >> Checks You Wrote
About Getting Checks Returned
Do I get all the checks back at the end of the month, that I wrote for people during the month?
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 The odds are decidedly against your receiving back all the actual paid checks, for several reasons. First, many of the merchants to whom you write checks now convert them upon receipt into electronic transactions that are presented against your account in the form of Automated Clearing House (ACH) entries. These entries include the name of the merchant and the amount and number of your check, and provide what's called "first instance" proof of payment. You can opt out of these conversions, although a merchant could then refuse to accept your check.
Secondly, the heavy use of check imaging (over which you and your bank have no real control) means that many checks that you write will be converted into images and presented against your account either in that form or in paper substitute check form. Substitute checks are images of your checks that are reconverted to paper form if your bank won't or can't accept and pay images of your checks. If you receive original checks back in your statement, some of the paper items will be substitute checks or paper copies of checks, rather than the originals.
In some cases you may be able to obtain your original check, if it has not already been destroyed, but most of the time you won't ever need an original check. The substitute checks are the legal equivalent of the originals.
Finally, many banks have stopped returning original checks or substitute checks. Instead, they either provide reduced-size check copies at the end of your statement, or simply provide the statement with no images or checks at all. Often, banks that provide no visible copy of checks in their statements do provide access to images on their Internet banking services.
Published on BankingQuestions.com 8/27/09
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