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How To Make Out A Check


Checks are the most satisfactory and most convenient method of paying a

debt or making any ordinary remittance. The stub of your check book will

furnish a permanent memorandum, and when the check is canceled and

returned to you by the bank, it is an indisputable evidence that the

debt has been paid, or that the remittance has been made. The making of

a check is a simple matter, but even the best business men make mistakes

/> sometimes which are as difficult to remedy as they are easy to avoid.

The hints here given and the facsimiles of checks printed in

illustration will repay careful study.







The first facsimile shows a check properly made. It will be seen, in the

first place, that this check is written very plainly, and that there is

no room for the insertion of extra figures or words. The writing of the

amount commences as nearly as possible to the extreme left of the check.

The figures are written close together and there is no space between the

first figure and the dollar mark.



All erasures in checks should be avoided. If you have made a mistake,

tear a blank check from the back of your check book and use that in

place of the one spoiled.



Some business men allow their clerks to fill out checks on the

typewriter. This is ill-advised for two reasons: First, it is much

easier to alter a typewritten check than one filled in with a pen; in

the second place, a teller, in passing on the genuineness of a check,

takes into consideration the character of the handwriting in the body of

the check as well as in the signature. The typewritten characters offer

no clue to individuality.



Never mail a check drawn to Bearer. Remember that if your check is

made payable to Bearer or to John Smith or Bearer it may be cashed

by anybody who happens to have it. Unless it is for a large amount the

paying teller of your bank will look only to see whether your signature

is correct, and, that being right, the bank cannot be held responsible

if the check should have come into the wrong hands.



A check drawn to order can be cashed only when the person to whose order

it has been drawn has indorsed it by writing his or her name on the back

and the bank will be responsible for the correctness of the indorsement.



If you make your check payable say, to William Armstrong or order,

nobody but William Armstrong, or some one to whom he indorses the check,

can collect the amount, and if through fraud or otherwise some one not

entitled to it gets the money which the check calls for, the

responsibility is not yours, but the bank's. It is for that reason that

bankers and business men use such great care in accepting checks.





For the same reason you should never accept a check from anybody whom

you do not know as responsible, and you should not be surprised or

angered if some one else should hesitate to take a check from you.



Checks or drafts received by you should be deposited as soon as

possible. Should you receive a check for a considerable amount and have

no convenient bank account, you should go to the bank on which the check

is drawn and have the cashier certify it by stamping Accepted or

Certified across the face over his signature. That formality makes the

paper as good as money so long as the bank accepting it is solvent.



It sometimes happens that a check drawn in good faith by a responsible

party is withheld so long by the person receiving it that there is no

money to the account when the check is finally presented.



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