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I wrote a check for $450.00. In the number box I put the amount $450.00 exactly. In the spelled number line I put Four Hundred and Fifty. I did not include the cents fraction in the spelling. Is the check valid?

rigs
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    FYI: The "and" in the middle of the number is unnecessary and potentially ambiguous. The number is "Four Hundred Fifty." "And" on the check amount goes before the number of cents. – Ben Miller Jul 31 '20 at 15:13
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    @BenMiller-RememberMonica that's nonsense. I have NEVER written and before the cents and often include it after hundred. I don't know what particular institute taught you that rule, but it's not a rule. – Kate Gregory Jul 31 '20 at 16:06
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    @KateGregory Here is just one source (see rule 8A): https://www.grammarbook.com/numbers/numbers.asp – Ben Miller Jul 31 '20 at 16:15
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    @KateGregory This is probably a British vs. American thing: https://englishlessonsbrighton.co.uk/saying-large-numbers-english/ :) – Ben Miller Jul 31 '20 at 16:18
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    For exact dollar amounts I arbitrarily choose between "and no/00" and "exactly". E.g., "Four Hundred Fifty exactly". (And FWIW having grown up in Los Angeles CA and lived in the USA my entire life I never use "Four Hundred and Fifty' and always write the "and" before the (non-zero) cents, e.g., "Four Hundred Fifty and 10/100".) – davidbak Jul 31 '20 at 18:06
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    For 5555555, would you say five million and five hundred and fifty and five thousand and five hundred and fifty and five? Or five million, five hundred and fifty five thousand, five hundred and fifty five? Or five million, five hundred fifty five thousand, five hundred fifty five? Seems like the use of 'and' after 'hundred' is more commonly accepted in the King's English. Maybe this should be a separate question in https://english.stackexchange.com/ – DSway Jul 31 '20 at 20:21
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    None of the suggestions here seem ambiguous to me, so does it really matter? Does anyone have an example that fits the OP situation that would be potentially ambiguous? – Darren H Jul 31 '20 at 20:46
  • It may or may not be valid, but it's certainly not wise; https://i.stack.imgur.com/VW4d4.jpg – Valorum Aug 02 '20 at 17:15
  • @DSway I would say "five nineth of one less than ten million" :) It's perhaps good that I never write checks – Hagen von Eitzen Aug 02 '20 at 21:48
  • @DSway It's not related to 'hundred', it's added before saying a number less than 100. For example, two million and twenty seven. Five thousand and ninety nine. Five thousand, three hundred. – Rob Aug 03 '20 at 01:12
  • Why would it not be valid, assuming that you wrote it on valid check paper tied to a valid account under your control? – Vikki Aug 03 '20 at 02:01
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    Please add a country tag, I'm assuming US but please specify – mattumotu Aug 03 '20 at 07:56

7 Answers7

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The basic criterion is that a forger can not change the amount by adding to what is already written.

So if someone (including an unscrupulous bank employee!) could change "four hundred and fifty" to "four hundred and fifty thousand" the check should be declared invalid.

FWIW in the UK, the convention was to write "only" after an amount in pounds, e.g. "four hundred and fifty only". (I say "was", since hardly anyone writes checks in the UK these days).

alephzero
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    I've always (probably following my parents' example) just drawn a line to fill the field: "four hundred and fifty ----------------------------------" – chepner Jul 31 '20 at 13:35
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    @chepner: Yeah the line is common. – Joshua Jul 31 '20 at 15:21
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    Here, it's particularly bad because "$450.00" is probably pretty easy to change to "$450,000.00" and adding "thousand" at the end of the text is pretty easy too. – David Schwartz Jul 31 '20 at 15:41
  • But a cheque for that amount is going to draw attentions and won't clear that quickly. Even 45,000 is going to be delayed unless a call ahead was made or you regularly write that kind of cheques. It's not guaranteed but fraud detections can trigger of that amount. – Nelson Jul 31 '20 at 17:36
  • Regarding the "was" - a guy from Latvia got a 300 pound fine in UK. He paid it initially, but it was later overturned and the money was refunded by check. It turned out that none of the banks in Latvia acept checks anymore. https://www.la.lv/nevar-atgut-naudu-bankas-latvija-nepienem-anglija-izdotu-ceku – Džuris Jul 31 '20 at 20:43
  • Adding "thousand" on the end of the line isn't going to do the scammer any good if you don't actually have $450,000 in your checking account. – The Photon Jul 31 '20 at 22:47
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    0 people in the U.K. write checks - and nobody ever has. Cheques on the other hand... ;) – Tim Aug 01 '20 at 00:03
  • @ThePhoton The holder of a check for some amount can enforce it at a lower amount if they wish. If you write me a check for $1,000 mistakenly thinking you owe me that much when you only owe me $900, I can lower the check. I don't have to "take it or leave it" and then figure out how to get $100 back to you. (Of course, a check for $450,000 being enforced for $1,000 against an account that only holds $2,500 is probably going to set off some alarm bells too.) – David Schwartz Aug 01 '20 at 18:02
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    In UK didn't we write four hundred and fifty ponds only or with a dash after instead if the only. The bit extra to other comments is that we wrote the units eg pounds example https://www.nationwide.co.uk/support/payments-and-transfers/cash-cards-and-cheques/cheques – mmmmmm Aug 03 '20 at 11:31
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Valid, as in "legal"?

Yes. Section 3-114 of the Uniform Commercial Code (UCC) doesn't specify the format, but does specify how the check is to be interpreted in the case of contradictory content.

If an instrument contains contradictory terms, typewritten terms prevail over printed terms, handwritten terms prevail over both, and words prevail over numbers.

Your example doesn't include contradictory content, but as we'll see later, this comes into play if someone takes the opportunity to alter the check to take advantage of the way you have filled it out.

I haven't found any part of the UCC that requires the presence of the cents portion of an amount in any context. Lacking specific regulations, the law often asks "How would an ordinary, reasonable person see this?" And in this case, Four Hundred and Fifty in your handwriting, plus Dollars at the end, seems pretty clear as to the intent.

Valid, as in "accepted by the bank"?

Highly probable. As yoozer8 points out, it depends on the bank. Most banks will accept a check like you describe, as long as the meaning is obvious. In your case, you have a combination of Four Hundred and Fifty written by hand, plus the word Dollars presumably pre-printed at the end of the line. That combines to make it unambiguous.

Valid, as in "a good idea"?

No. As alephzero points out, leaving it incomplete opens you to the possibility of someone altering the check to make it for more than your intended amount. It depends on the wording of the amount of the original, but adding thousand would make most any amount into an alternate, larger, and still grammatical, amount. As others have mentioned, your best approach to prevent/minimize this risk is to fully specify the amount, including the cents, even if zero, or to otherwise fill out the remainder of the line to make it clear that the amount is what you have entered, and nothing more. Each of these should provide reasonable protection against such an alteration:

  • Four Hundred Fifty Dollars

  • Four Hundred Fifty and 00/100 Dollars

    • or Four Hundred Fifty and xx/100 Dollars -- to prevent someone changing it to 88/100 or 99/100
    • or Four Hundred Fifty and no/100 Dollars -- also to prevent someone changing it to 88/100 or 99/100

  • Four Hundred Fifty Dollars Only

  • Four Hundred Fifty Only

  • Four Hundred Fifty Dollars -----------------------------

  • Four Hundred Fifty -------------------------------------

  • Four Hundred Fifty Dollars and Zero Cents

Doug Deden
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  • Great summary. Banks nowadays probably never look at a check after it left a teller accepting the check unless it jams in the processing equipment. And I haven't seen a teller really look at a check that close, even for large amounts. 40 years ago, I got a phone call from a bank about a check with something unclear on it. And pay with a check at WalMart, and usually only the cashier looks at it; and even then, the check reader probably just uses the sale amount, not whatever is written on it. And they hand you your check back. – Mark Stewart Jul 31 '20 at 19:20
  • Some people write “…and xx/100 dollars,” presumably to avoid the zeroes in “00/100” from being changed into nines or something like that. – bdesham Jul 31 '20 at 19:30
  • @bdesham Nice point. I've added that option. (Gotta stop those criminals ripping us off for 99 cents at a time. :-) ) – Doug Deden Jul 31 '20 at 19:35
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    Another option would be Four hundred fifty and no/100 to avoid changing the 00 to something else. FWIW I've always written Four hundred fifty and no/100 ----- with both the cents and a trailing line – A. R. Aug 01 '20 at 14:47
  • My bank recently sent out a notice that, contrary to previous practice, the numbers would take precedence over the words. I assume the is because the numbers are much easier for computers to scan reliably without human intervention. – Andrew Lazarus Aug 02 '20 at 17:17
  • @AndrewRay Good one. I've added that option. – Doug Deden Aug 03 '20 at 14:36
  • @AndrewLazarus Interesting. I don't see how that doesn't conflict with UCC 3-114. Perhaps their intention is to let you know that they will default to the numerals, for OCR reasons as you suggest. But if push comes to shove, they might still have to rely on the words in a formal conflict. – Doug Deden Aug 03 '20 at 14:39
  • @DougDeden Is there anything stopping the bank from announcing that they aren't going to follow UCC here? I know that a few things like maximum hold time had to be written into law to stop banks from playing games, but everything? – Andrew Lazarus Aug 03 '20 at 14:47
  • @AndrewLazarus I don't know. I see that most states have incorporated most parts of the UCC into law, so I would think the bank would have to follow the UCC language -- not because it is UCC, but because it is the law in their jurisdiction. That might make a good separate question. – Doug Deden Aug 03 '20 at 16:44
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I routinely write “something dollars” without adding the “And 00/100 cents”, and never had a problem.

It’s unambiguous.

JTP - Apologise to Monica
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    You don't need to write dollars - it should be inked on the cheque already. – corsiKa Jul 31 '20 at 18:28
  • And I draw a line from the 450 -------------- to the end of the "text area" of the check, to avoid "five hundred" from being altered to "five hundred ninety-nine" – Mark Stewart Jul 31 '20 at 19:16
  • I write ------ FOUR HUNDRED AND FIFTY ONLY ------ on the text area. Same with --- 450 --- as a number. – obscurans Jul 31 '20 at 19:29
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    I think you need something after "four hundred fifty", or it's too easy to modify. Dollars is fine, dash is fine, 00/100s is fine, whatever. – Joe Jul 31 '20 at 19:29
  • I did include the line. Just not the 00/100. It's been a month and the check hasn't been cashed yet, and I'm wondering if it has anything to do with that. I'm the issuer, not the receiver. – rigs Jul 31 '20 at 21:50
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It's up to the bank. I usually write them that way and almost never have an issue. However, the bank one time refused to accept one as written (because it was not clear how much it was supposed to be, supposedly) and I had to write a new check. As long as the amount specified is clear and unambiguous, and consistent between the numerical and written lines, you should be OK.

yoozer8
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0

Definitely valid and it is fine, but next time you can try to add only to the end of the dollar amount so there is more clarity.

wilkvolk
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0

We have had a check refused for deposit because of an and similar to your example. That generally precedes an amount in cents. I have never had a problem with omitting the cents, but I am always careful to draw a line from the end of the handwriting through to the pre-printed "Dollars".

I have also started using special hard-to-remove ink.

As I noted in a comment, in order to facilitate processing without human intervention, the bank has (1) announced that numbers would take precedence over contradictory words [opposite of customary practice] and (2) requested that we please write the number as 7.89 and not 7⁸⁹/₁₀₀.

Andrew Lazarus
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When I write checks for even dollar amounts, I write "Four Hundred Fifty Dollars and No Sense" (I do write $450. 00/00 in number box.) I have never had an issue, much less anyone comment on it. As other answers mention, you do want to fill out the text box so it can't be altered to change the amount of your check. Whether that's a line or additional text what matters is that the amounts match, and aren't easily alterable by a third party.

aslum
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