Any American equivalent for a 'crossed cheque', please?

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Originally Posted by SoothingDave

Cross-checking - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The only cross checking I know about happens on the ice.

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Here's an example: http://2.bp.blogspot.com/_uwp-SjzlFF...-st-cheque.jpg

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Originally Posted by 5jj

You had farthings? When I were a lad the only farthing I saw were the one me pa gave me mam when he handed over his week's pay for her to get the family's food.

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Those who don't get this might watch the following: Monty Python - Four Yorkshiremen - YouTube

So after all this, the answer is "There is no American term for this. It's a totally foreign concept for our banking system."

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Originally Posted by Barb_D

So after all this, the answer is "There is no American term for this. It's a totally foreign concept for our banking system."

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Not quite, I think. A crossed cheque in the British system had two parallel diagonal lines drawn across it from top to bottom (or maybe they could also be vertical as Tdol says they were.) In my youth our Bills of Exchange Act defined and recognized crossed cheques, although I believe they were not used in Canada, at least not after the 1950s.

The effect of those two lines was that the cheque could not be cashed, but only deposited into a bank account. So an American equivalent would be to endorse a cheque that you issued on the back with the words "For deposit only to credit of (the payee)" as Soothing Dave said above.

Except that if you did that it would no longer be a cheque, but a check.;-)

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Originally Posted by 5jj

You had farthings? When I were a lad the only farthing I saw were the one me pa gave me mam when he handed over his week's pay for her to get the family's food.

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You never bought a small loaf for nine pence three farthings and the shop never had any farthings (complete with the wren on the back) for change?
:roll::roll:

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Originally Posted by Route21

You never bought a small loaf for nine pence three farthings and the shop never had any farthings (complete with the wren on the back) for change?

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Buy a loaf of bread? We had to steal crumbs from bird tables if we wanted bread.

When I was a child, I remember my dad drawing two short diagonal lines across his cheques and writing "Payee only" between them. I assumed that was to ensure that no-one apart from the payee could pay them into their bank account. I never really understood that, as I assumed that writing a name on the "Payee" line ensured that.

I don't think we have to cross cheques any more, but I could be wrong - it has been about six years since I last wrote a cheque.

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Originally Posted by emsr2d2

When I was a child, I remember my dad drawing two short diagonal lines across his cheques and writing "Payee only" between them. I assumed that was to ensure that no-one apart from the payee could pay them into their bank account. I never really understood that, as I assumed that writing a name on the "Payee" line ensured that.

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My memory tells me that the payee could endorse the back of a crossed cheque so that it could be paid into somebody else's account. However, if the words 'account' (or 'a/c') payee only' had been written between the lines of the crossing, it could be paid in only to the payee's account.

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Originally Posted by probus

The effect of those two lines was that the cheque could not be cashed, but only deposited into a bank account. So an American equivalent would be to endorse a cheque that you issued on the back with the words "For deposit only to credit of (the payee)" as Soothing Dave said above.

Except that if you did that it would no longer be a cheque, but a check.;-)

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I think I more or lesss suggested that in post #3

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Originally Posted by Barb_D

Do you mean the person had to deposit it in a bank account? ...

I suppose if you wrote the words "For Deposit Only" next to the person's name, they could only deposit it.

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So, to summarize, it seems that there's no direct American equivalent of a crossed cheque, but there is a recognized process for achieving the same end: mark it 'for deposit only' - I think that's the wording both Barb and SD used.

b