Americans still wrote 9.2 billion checks in 2024, worth $24.45 trillion, according to the Federal Reserve Payments Study. Checks are only 4 percent of noncash payments by number now, down from 59 percent in 2000, but the average one is worth $2,653. They survive precisely where the amounts are large and the alternatives are awkward: rent, contractors, a deposit on something.

So the field-by-field part takes two minutes. The part worth reading is the second half of this page, where three US banks say in their own deposit agreements when the money actually leaves and arrives.

Six fields, in the order that keeps you out of trouble

Fill them in this sequence and you will not leave a gap that someone else can complete.

Date, top right. Today’s date. Postdating does less than people think. Bank of America states that if a postdated check is presented for payment, it may pay it and charge the account even if it arrives before the date written on it.

Pay to the order of. The payee’s full legal name, written to the very end of the line. If the name is short, draw a line through the remaining space so nothing can be added.

Amount in numerals, in the box. Start hard against the left edge of the box. Write 1,250.00, not 1250. The cents always get two digits.

Amount in words, on the long line. One thousand two hundred fifty and 00/100. Start at the far left, then strike a line through the leftover space to the printed word “Dollars.”

Memo, bottom left. Optional, and weaker than it looks. More on that below.

Signature, bottom right. Sign the way your bank has you on file. Chase’s deposit agreement is blunt about how much attention this gets: it says it has no duty to visually inspect signatures.

One thing worth checking before any of that: the amount you can actually cover is the net figure that lands, not the gross. If you are writing rent against a salary, that is the number at the bottom of your pay stub, after tax and deductions.

The two amounts, and the myth about which one wins

Almost every guide tells you the written amount always beats the numerals. Chase’s own agreement does not say that. It says the bank may disregard any information on a check other than the paying bank, the payee, the amount, and the MICR encoded information along the bottom edge, and that where the numeric amount and the amount in words contradict each other, it may rely on either one.

Bank of America explains why in operational terms: most checks are processed on the basis of the MICR line, and it does not individually examine most checks for dates, signatures, legends or endorsements. Automated processing at that volume is not reading your handwriting.

The takeaway is not that one amount beats the other. It is that a mismatch drops your check out of the automated lane and into a manual queue, which is exactly the delay you were trying to avoid. Write it twice, write it the same, and move on.

What you write on a check is mostly not binding

This is the part that surprises people who have been adding conditions to checks for years.

Bank of America says it is not bound by legends or restrictions placed on any check, and gives its own examples: “not valid after 90 days,” “not valid if over $500.” Wells Fargo says it is not obligated to follow notations such as “void after six months,” “void over $50,” or “payment in full.” Chase goes one further and asks you not to write conditional checks at all, naming “Void after 180 days” and “Valid only for $1,000 or less” as the kind of thing it does not want.

Age does not automatically kill a check either. A stale-dated check is one dated more than six months in the past, and both Chase and Bank of America say they may still choose to pay it.

If you genuinely need a check not to be paid, the instrument for that is a stop payment order, not a note in the memo line. Chase charges $30 per request through a banker and $25 online or by automated phone. Wells Fargo charges $30 per item on most accounts and nothing on Prime and Premier Checking. A Wells Fargo stop payment order on a check is valid for six months.

Signing it over, and killing it properly

To deposit a check made out to you, sign the back in the endorsement area. Adding “For deposit only” plus your account number underneath your signature restricts it to your own account, which is worth doing if the check is going in the post or into a night depository.

To void a check, write VOID in large letters across the front in ink, ideally through the payee line, the amount box and the signature line, and record the check number. Do not write over the MICR line at the bottom, because that strip is the whole reason a voided check is useful: it carries the routing and account numbers. In Canada the same piece of paper has its own job and its own name, and a void cheque is the standard way to hand your account details to a payroll department.

When the money actually moves

Here is where paper is slower than anything else in everyday banking, and where the three big US agreements line up almost word for word.

Regulation CC sets the floor. The Federal Reserve’s compliance guide says cash deposits, wire transfers, and low-risk check deposits such as Treasury checks and cashier’s checks generally have to be available by the business day after the banking day of deposit, while ordinary check proceeds must generally be available by the second business day. A paying bank returns a check expeditiously if it gets it back to the depositary bank within two business days of presentment, and it must send a notice of nonpayment on any returned check of $2,500 or more, to arrive no later than 4:00 p.m. local time on the second business day after presentment.

What the banks then do inside that frame:

  • Chase. Wire transfers, electronic direct deposits and cash are generally available the day they are received. Other deposits are generally available the first business day after. Where availability is pushed to the second business day, the first $275 is still released on the first business day. The ATM cutoff at most machines is 11 p.m. Eastern.
  • Bank of America. Cash and check deposits are generally available no later than the first business day after the day the deposit is received. Its financial center ATM cutoff is 8:00 p.m. local time in the state where the account is held.
  • Wells Fargo. Check deposits are generally available the first business day after receipt, but the first $400 of a day’s check deposits at a teller window, at a Wells Fargo ATM, or through the mobile app is available the same day. When a longer hold applies, the first $275 comes through the next business day. Its ATM cutoff is 9 p.m. local time and mobile deposits cut off at 9 p.m. Pacific.

All three define a business day identically: every day except Saturdays, Sundays and federal holidays. And all three list the same triggers for a longer hold, including check deposits totalling more than $6,725 in one day, a redeposited check that already came back unpaid, and an account overdrawn repeatedly in the last six months. Chase can stretch that to the seventh business day; Wells Fargo says the excess over $6,725 and all other check deposits may take until the seventh business day for new accounts.

Money sitting in transit earns nothing at all. Once it lands, where it sits is a decision, and a high-yield savings account is a very different resting place from a checking balance.

Cheques clear faster in the UK, and Canada sets a floor

UK cheque clearing is on a different clock entirely. Nationwide says a cheque paid in at a branch or at a machine inside a branch before 5pm on a weekday is deposited immediately and cleared by 11:59pm the next working day. Paid in at a machine outside a branch, it clears about two working days later; posted in, the money is accessible two working days after the cheque arrives. A cheque paid in on a Saturday, Sunday or bank holiday counts as deposited on the next working day.

Nationwide also gives the clearest statement of a cheque’s shelf life anywhere: cheques are usually paid for up to six months after the date on them, and while a cheque stays legally valid for up to six years, the institution it is drawn on may simply not release funds after six months.

Canada regulates the floor rather than the ceiling. The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada says federally regulated institutions must make the first $100 of a cheque deposit available right away when you deposit in person with a teller, or on the business day after the deposit by any other method. The maximum hold on the rest is four business days for a cheque of $1,500 or less deposited in person, five if deposited another way, and seven or eight business days respectively above $1,500.

What it costs, and where the money should sit afterwards

Paper has its own price list. Wells Fargo charges $30 for a book of single checks and $35 for duplicates, and $3 per sheet of three counter checks. Chase charges $3 per page for counter checks and $5 for a money order. Bank of America charges a non-customer $8 to cash a check drawn on one of its personal accounts when the amount is more than $50. Fees like these vary far more by institution than most people assume, and credit unions frequently charge less for exactly the same paper.

The bigger cost is the idle balance. If you keep a float in checking so cheques never bounce, keep the float and move the rest: an online account such as SoFi’s for cash you might need next month, a money market account if you want a balance that still pays you while staying reachable, and a CD for the portion you know you will not touch for a year.

Before you hand it over

Confirm the numerals and the words say the same thing. Confirm there is no blank space anyone could fill in on the payee line or after the written amount. Confirm the balance covers it on the day the payee is likely to deposit, not the day you wrote it. Record the check number, and remember that if you change your mind afterwards, the only thing that reliably works is a stop payment order.