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I've heard from several people/websites that this year you should write out the whole year when writing a check, because if you only write the last two digits (20) like you normally would someone could alter it so that it looks like it was written in a different year by adding digits after (Changing 11/17/20 to 11/17/2018, for example).
I'm failing to see how this could leave you open to fraud. At worst, someone could make a check no good by making it look like it was older than is acceptable, which cold make you miss a payment or something. Are there other possible negative effects that I am not seeing?
(I guess it's kind of late in the year to be asking this, but I'm still curious)
About the worst I see is an unscrupulous person you agreed to pay over time could change the date on the check making it look like like you owe payments.
Changing the date on a credit contact
If you signed a credit contract with an unscrupulous vendor, and dated the contract using a two-digit year, for example, “1/10/20”.
If you missed a few payments, and the company wanted to collect the payment, someone at the company could change the date on your contract to 2019 and unscrupulously claim it’s owed an additional year of payments from you.
I'm failing to see how this could leave you open to fraud. At worst, someone could make a check no good by making it look like it was older than is acceptable, which cold make you miss a payment or something.
A few years ago, my Dad had a check stolen out of his mailbox. It was to a charitable organization for about $25. The person that stole the mail simply crossed out the organization's name and wrote in her name (which was nothing close to the charity's name). She also changed the amount to $2500.
I was amazing that a Big-4 bank cashed the check without questioning anything, then gave him a hard time on crediting his account for the fraud. We had to file a complain with the CFPB to get the bank to behave.
About the worst I see is an unscrupulous person you agreed to pay over time could change the date on the check making it look like like you owe payments.
Changing the date on a credit contact
If you signed a credit contract with an unscrupulous vendor, and dated the contract using a two-digit year, for example, “1/10/20”.
If you missed a few payments, and the company wanted to collect the payment, someone at the company could change the date on your contract to 2019 and unscrupulously claim it’s owed an additional year of payments from you.
But to what benefit on a check? The balance would be the balance, they don't benefit by sitting on a check.
Well, I understand that 11/18/20 could theoretically be altered to 11/18/2019, but that's not going to happen for 11/18/21. Checks dated 100 years in the future won't be honored.
Furthermore, if check #1145 is dated 11/16/20 and check #1147 is dated 11/21/20, no authority is going to believe that somehow magically you had check #1146 a year earlier and dated it 11/18/2019.
Basically banks will pay any check presented unless there's a challenge to its validity - or it's for a large amount.
The only time I saw this mentioned was on a friend's FB feed...and she believes that there's danger lurking around EVERY corner so I chalked it up to one of "those" so-called dangers.
Well, I understand that 11/18/20 could theoretically be altered to 11/18/2019, but that's not going to happen for 11/18/21. Checks dated 100 years in the future won't be honored.
Furthermore, if check #1145 is dated 11/16/20 and check #1147 is dated 11/21/20, no authority is going to believe that somehow magically you had check #1146 a year earlier and dated it 11/18/2019.
Basically banks will pay any check presented unless there's a challenge to its validity - or it's for a large amount.
Check numbers can mean nothing since many of us use more than one checking account ...I use a bank as my main checking account but then I use my brokerage for certain checks .
Today we may write 6 checks a year since everything is paid on line. A year can go by before we use my brokerage check book
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