Check cashing etiquette?

sarawifenow

I'm sure someone already asked this, but I am failing at searching for it.

 

We just got our first check in the mail for the wedding and I am a little confused about how to approach this. The check was made out to "FI and Sara NewLastName". I checked with my bank and they said they will cash it as long as we are both present and I sign the check with both maiden and married name. Yada yada that's great.

 

So this got me thinking, if we get checks like this at the wedding we are not going to be able to cash them until after the honeymoon almost a week later. Is this ok? When you write checks for a wedding, how long do you usually give the couple to cash it before you get annoyed? We never write checks (usually give cash) at weddings, so I have no idea what the general concensus is on this. Thanks all!

[Deleted User]

You cash it as soon as you can.  If that means four days after your return from your honeymoon, that's fine.  It was the earliest you could.  I don't even think a couple weeks would bother anybody.  It's when you get to a couple months that my panties are in a bunch.

southernbelle0915

It's fine to cash it when you get back from your honeymoon. Unless you're going on some month long trek, I think people kind of expect that. Plus, if they wrote you a check they should account for that money.

If you have Chase and download their app, you can do it right from your phone by taking a picture of the check. We spent some time doing this right before we went on our honeymoon. It took 20 minutes. Tops. 

syoun1nj

Back from the honeymoon is fine, but ones you receive before the wedding, go ahead and cash.

We both went to the bank in person, with our marriage license, and took care of it that way. Just so we were sure we did things correctly. I was also able to change my name on my account at that time (even though I hadn't done so legally yet).

theartistformerlyknownas

I wouldn't be put off by someone waiting 2-3 weeks to cash my check, especially if I knew you were going right on your honeymoon.

We deposited all ours the morning after the wedding, in the ATM on our way home before heading to the airport. H deposited the ones with his last name, and I took the ones with my maiden name. (We had separate cars at the hotel.) We didn't have any problems that way.

JellyBean52513

southernbelle0915 said:

It's fine to cash it when you get back from your honeymoon. Unless you're going on some month long trek, I think people kind of expect that. Plus, if they wrote you a check they should account for that money.

If you have Chase and download their app, you can do it right from your phone by taking a picture of the check. We spent some time doing this right before we went on our honeymoon. It took 20 minutes. Tops. 

Citibank, Bank of America & Citizen Bank all have apps that do this I believe. I know for sure citibank does, as I had to switch to them once I moved to Boston because there's no Chase banks here like back home in NY I love this feature, because it usually processes right away and it takes 3 seconds

sarawifenow

Now I wish I had Chase. I belong to the local law enforcement credit union and FI belongs to Wells Fargo. I am glad to hear that if I wait a week or so to cash a check, I am good!

plainjane0415

Just a technical note, from a bank standpoint, a check is good for 6 months from the date it is written.  After that it's null and void.  I know you won't take that long to cash it, but I just thought others might want to know that as well. 

When it comes to me getting annoyed as to when the couple will cash my check, eh, I don't really, because I account for it in my checkbook, and I don't really mind when they cash it.. But I know some people are very particular about that kind of thing, so I would think that a couple should be able to cash it within 2 weeks of receiving it.

JaxInBlue

Absolutely good to wait until you're back.  DH and I belong to a bank that doesn't have branches in the town where we were married. We cashed them when we got home.  Also, I love your bank.  We had we wait to cash some checks (a few made out to me with only a married name) until I had a photo id with my married name.  I felt awful!

syoun1nj

Wells Fargo has an app too, but, I didn't think they would accept a check deposited into my account that was made out to a person that wasn't me (husband's name and my married name) so I didn't use it. I otherwise do though, it's awesome.

theartistformerlyknownas

syoun1nj said:

Wells Fargo has an app too, but, I didn't think they would accept a check deposited into my account that was made out to a person that wasn't me (husband's name and my married name) so I didn't use it. I otherwise do though, it's awesome.

My Bank of America one did. I don't know how much verification they even do to the name, TBH. It can read the numbers written on it and will fill that in, but doesn't say anything about the name.

allispain

Regarding the name thing - I legally kept my maiden name after we got married. We had checks made out to DH and me that used only his last name, and ones that used his name and my name, etc. We brought them to the bank along with a copy of our marriage certificate. They had us sign them like this:

- If both our full names appear, we signed like we normally do.

- If I was on the check as allispain hislastname, they had me sign using my maiden name and his last name (as if my maiden name were my middle name).

They then processed everything together. NBD.

sarahufl

The checks made out to Mr. and Mrs. FIsLastName got cashed by him right away.

At the wedding, we got a mix of addressed just to him, addressed just to me, addressed to both of us (but with my maiden name) and addressed to Mr. and Mrs. HisLastName.

A lot of my friends have gotten married recently and I think they realized how annoying it can be and just went for one of us instead of both, or used my maiden name. We basically just split them up and deposited them according to whose name was on them. We share all our $$ but don't have a joint account yet, but it didn't REALLY matter to us who "got" the money.

I do cash right away because I don't want to hold checks.

luckysnorkel

lolo883 said:

syoun1nj said:

Wells Fargo has an app too, but, I didn't think they would accept a check deposited into my account that was made out to a person that wasn't me (husband's name and my married name) so I didn't use it. I otherwise do though, it's awesome.

My Bank of America one did. I don't know how much verification they even do to the name, TBH. It can read the numbers written on it and will fill that in, but doesn't say anything about the name.

It probably depends on the company.  Our credit union wouldn't let us do mobile deposit on checks made out to "Mr & Mrs [H's lastname]" because there was no record of a "Mrs. [Hislast]" on our joint account.  Checks with my first and his last worked fine, for whatever reason.

photokitty

Ahhh, the check cashing when people decide to put you both on the check...that was fun...not!

I kept my name. We do not have a joint account. So it wasn't as easy as "as soon as we could get to the bank."

Let's call me Photo Kitty and him Guy Dog. 

We received checks written to:

Ms. Photo Kitty - I deposited normally in my personal account

Mr Guy Dog - he deposited normally in his personal account

Mr. Guy and Mrs. Photo Dog - He endorsed the check. I endorsed the check. I took them to the teller with my marriage certificate and they cashed them. I deposited the cash in my account.

Mr Guy Dog & Ms. Photo Kitty - He endorsed the check. I endorsed the check. I took them to the teller with my marriage certificate and they deposited the checks in my account.

So if they put both of us not he check then I had to wait until we could get an official marriage license - which took about 3 weeks. I would give a couple a month before I'd call and check if it had been lost or stolen.

Alikat9614

DH and I already had a joint checking account prior to getting married, so we just signed the checks however they were written and didn't have a problem. We also belong to a smaller, local bank, so I'm sure that helped. We deposited the ones prior to our wedding immediately and sent our TY's, and then opened our gifts and cards and deposited all our cash/checks a day or two after got back from the honeymoon (we were gone a week).

huskypuppy14

photokitty said:

Ahhh, the check cashing when people decide to put you both on the check...that was fun...not!

I kept my name. We do not have a joint account. So it wasn't as easy as "as soon as we could get to the bank."

Let's call me Photo Kitty and him Guy Dog. 

We received checks written to:

Ms. Photo Kitty - I deposited normally in my personal account

Mr Guy Dog - he deposited normally in his personal account

Mr. Guy and Mrs. Photo Dog - He endorsed the check. I endorsed the check. I took them to the teller with my marriage certificate and they cashed them. I deposited the cash in my account.

Mr Guy Dog & Ms. Photo Kitty - He endorsed the check. I endorsed the check. I took them to the teller with my marriage certificate and they deposited the checks in my account.

So if they put both of us not he check then I had to wait until we could get an official marriage license - which took about 3 weeks. I would give a couple a month before I'd call and check if it had been lost or stolen.

Similar to photokitty, but we didn't need our marriage license to deposit the checks with both of our names. I also didn't change my name.

We went to our banks the Monday or Tuesday after our wedding and put each other on our accounts. I think this helped any issues.

I took all the ones that had my last name on them (with or without his name on it too) and the cash.

DH took all the ones that his name or Mr. and Mrs. Lastname.  His bank was really cool because one cousin of his mom wrote her maiden name (also MIL's maiden name) on the check so Mr. and Mrs. MIL maiden name.  We told the bank what happened, and since we were depositing a bunch of wedding checks they didn't seem to care, we just had to sign with all the names. 

Couggal12

About 75% of the checks we got were written out to "Mr. and Mrs. CouggalsHusbandLastname" which made it difficult for us to cash right away because I am not changing my name right now. Luckily we have a good friend who works at H's credit union who said I just needed to be added to his account and show our marriage certificate for proof when we deposited them. 

As a guest I would assume it would take at least 2 weeks for the check to cash if not longer. 

May14TXbride

syoun1nj said:

Wells Fargo has an app too, but, I didn't think they would accept a check deposited into my account that was made out to a person that wasn't me (husband's name and my married name) so I didn't use it. I otherwise do though, it's awesome.

I also have Wells Fargo - I still haven't changed my name with the bank, but I was able to deposit checks to Mr and Mrs's DH's Last Name with the mobile deposit with out any issues!

[Deleted User]

I would say 2 weeks on average is normal depending on the length of the couples honeymoon. We have Huntington & they are open on Sundays. Since we didn't plan to leave for our Honeymoon until Monday morning we were able to hit up the bank the the very next morning before going to the football game. Yes, we went to an NFL game the morning after our wedding, the tickets were one of our gifts. We received that gift about 3 weeks before the wedding so we knew about it & hubby was so excited.

mrsjhodge

We waited till the name change was official with our bank (Tangerine, formerly ING), and then did the picture of the cheque to deposit thing.

They were kind of difficult about it, in that I'd tried to deposit before the name change, but they refused to take the cheques.  My marriage certificate took approximately 4 weeks to arrive, which I felt bad about for the people who'd written cheques, but there wasn't anything we could do.

huskypuppy14

mrsjhodge said:

We waited till the name change was official with our bank (Tangerine, formerly ING), and then did the picture of the cheque to deposit thing.

They were kind of difficult about it, in that I'd tried to deposit before the name change, but they refused to take the cheques.  My marriage certificate took approximately 4 weeks to arrive, which I felt bad about for the people who'd written cheques, but there wasn't anything we could do.

It was their choice to write your married name. So it's not your fault. I always put one name on the check, and it's always the name they went by before the wedding.

I think people are presumptuous. You don't know if the woman is changing her name; you don't know if they have a joint bank account. Yes, it might be "cuter" to write Mr. and Mrs. Last Name, but it can cause more headaches than anything else. I'm just glad our banks were cool with it.

gingerbride26

We also just got our first check this week - we both signed it - I used his last name to match the check - and he deposited it at the BOA ATM into his account - he never mentioned that they didn't take it.

Like PP, I also only write checks at weddings to one or the other.  Read somewhere that if you put both names on you should use OR not AND to avoid all this mess.