I paid my bank a stop checkfee for five years because I didn't know that the check became void after one year. Am I entitled to all of the fees that I paid over the last four years? The bank didn't tell me that the check became void after one year and I kept paying the $60 a year fee.
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We're not sure where your "void after one year" opinion came from. At one time the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) said a check was "stale" after six months. What most UCCs (which are adopted at the state level) say now is that a check is stale at six months, but a bank may still pay that item in good faith. This is necessary because dates are not generally reviewed when processing checks. Your stop payment orders were placed and in all likelihood would have stopped that check if it was presented.
When deciding whether to place a stop payment, depositors should weigh the cost of the stop payment against the size of the check to be stopped and the likelihood it will ever be presented (knowing that the date is unlikely to matter if the check makes it to the bank). In many cases, that also means knowing the payee and his/her honesty. At some point, one reaches the point of diminishing returns, and the stop no longer makes economic sense.
Published on BankingQuestions.com 7/24/07
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We're not sure where your "void after one year" opinion came from. At one time the 