Cashing gift checks?

julieanne912

So, we received a decent amount of checks at our wedding, yay!  The boo is, they're pretty much all written to "Mr and Mrs Hfirstname lastname".  I have not changed my name yet, and we don't even have the stamped marriage certificate back from the county (have a copy of the unstamped).  

So, how do we go about cashing these checks?  Do you all think it would work for me to just sign them as my married name, and then have H sign and deposit at his bank?  

I want to buy my new bar cabinet, dammit! 

novella1186

Our checks were made out the same way, but we had no problem depositing them. H signed and deposited most of them into his account but I put a few in my account even though I still had my maiden name. We didn't have any issues. 

ShesSoCold

julieanne912 said:

So, we received a decent amount of checks at our wedding, yay!  The boo is, they're pretty much all written to "Mr and Mrs Hfirstname lastname".  I have not changed my name yet, and we don't even have the stamped marriage certificate back from the county (have a copy of the unstamped).  

So, how do we go about cashing these checks?  Do you all think it would work for me to just sign them as my married name, and then have H sign and deposit at his bank?  

I want to buy my new bar cabinet, dammit! 

I signed with my maiden name and H signed his name on all the checks. We went to the bank together to deposit everything and there was no problem.

luckya23

I went to the city and got a copy of my certificate because they took so long to mail it and I was sick of waiting, and they didn't even ask for it at the bank!  I am not even changing my name, so they were flat out written to a non-existent person, some of them!

We opened a new joint account at chase to get that free $150.

princessleia22

Check with your bank.  Some are more strict on this, some are more lenient.  Ours let me go ahead and sign my maiden name and didn't give us any trouble depositing.  But, I've seen some people on here say that their banks were more strict and wouldn't allow them to deposit without marriage certificate.  I think most are pretty accommodating though.

lovesclimbing

We took a copy of the marriage certificate and then I signed both ways on the back. I did change my name but it wasn't until six months after the wedding.

julieanne912

Thanks everyone.  He banks at Wells Fargo so we'll go in on Saturday and see what they say!    

charlotte989875

We have Wells Fargo too and had a joint account prior to the wedding (clearly with my maiden name). I deposited the ones with my maiden name on them (through the app, which was really helpful) and he did the ones with his fist name + my first name + his last name. They didn't require two signatures on any of the checks.

redheadbride15

My H signed and deposited 3 checks that were written like this and didn't have a problem at all. We didn't even ask about it. He uses Citizen's Bank. I think most banks are lenient with this, or will help you make it work. I did not (and do not plan on) changing my last name, so the trickier thing was trying to figure out how to tactfully tell these people about that, so they'll know for the future. On a related note, we've told my MIL at least 5 times that I'm keeping my maiden name and she still sends EVERYTHING to "Mrs. Redhead H'slastname."

fyrchk

I have Wells Fargo and FI doesn't have a local account. When he gets checks, I just deposit them into my account even though he isn't on it and we aren't married. They've never had an issue with it. Granted, I usually deposit them through the ATM but I've not had any issues.

princessleia22

I have Wells Fargo also and didn't have any trouble depositing checks.

TheCheeseWench

We got a check from Fi's (maternal) grandmother. She's 91. She wrote the wrong last name (her grandson's) on the check. It was sort of close, but not close enough to just be a misspelling of his name. Not sure how that one's going to go.

sarahufl

We got a Mr. & Mrs. H's last name check SIX MONTHS BEFORE THE WEDDING. I was like- um, really? Thankfully, H just deposited it and nobody asked.

Interestingly, we only got that one. Everything else was either to him or to me (with my maiden name). I think our friends have all had the same experience and wanted to make it eaiser 

princessleia22

sarahufl said:

We got a Mr. & Mrs. H's last name check SIX MONTHS BEFORE THE WEDDING. I was like- um, really? Thankfully, H just deposited it and nobody asked.

Interestingly, we only got that one. Everything else was either to him or to me (with my maiden name). I think our friends have all had the same experience and wanted to make it eaiser 

Yeah, after going through it myself and seeing stories of difficulties on here, I only write checks to one person now.  And I usually will address it to the groom, since it's usually pretty safe bet that his name isn't changing, so it avoids any name complications.

charcoalandblush

They asked for our marriage certificate at the bank. I signed the check however it was written out (if it was my maiden name I signed with that, or if it was my married name that). We got our marriage certificate like 8 days after the wedding and deposited our checks the next day.

huskypuppy14

TheCheeseWench said:

We got a check from Fi's (maternal) grandmother. She's 91. She wrote the wrong last name (her grandson's) on the check. It was sort of close, but not close enough to just be a misspelling of his name. Not sure how that one's going to go.

My husband's mother's cousin did a similar thing. She wrote her maiden name (MIL's maiden name) instead of my husband's last name on the check. So it was to a couple that didn't exist. I didn't change my name, but we deposited anything with my name in my account and anything with his last name in his account. For Mr. and Mrs. Last name, his bank just had me sign it with his last name, so Husky Husband instead of Husky Maiden. We just went to each bank together, put each other on our accounts and deposited the checks. We had no problem.

I always write checks to one person. And if it's the woman, it's always her maiden name. She will be able to deposit checks in her maiden name, since she won't be able to change her name immediately anyway.

charlottesmom0626

at PNC bank they made H sign, then me sign my madien name and then my married name. 3 names for each check. 

julieanne912

We went to Wells Fargo yesterday and were able to cash them.... the teller just asked for my ID and had me put my fingerprint (???) on every check.  Whatever works, we got the money into H's account!