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

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Mehrgan

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Hi,

I'd appreciate any reply. Thanks.
 

BobK

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Perhaps speakers of Am English may have difficulty answering this, because the lack of a word reflects the fact that the thing doesn't exist. But maybe it does exist....:-?

They've stopped being used in the UK, but maybe the concept of 'crossing a cheque' still has weight. My first cheque book, in about 1970, had blank cheques that one could cross in ink - you drew two parallel lines from top to bottom and wrote "& co.' in the space between them. This had the effect of imposing a restriction on the recipient - it could only be credited to a bank account, and not simply exchanged for cash.

Shortly after that (mid-seventies...?) the banks started printing pre-crossed cheques. A while ago they stopped. Because of bank-laundering rules, you can't now exchange a cheque for cash anyway (unless you do it in the normal course of events at a bank because you hate ATMs :)). So I don't think crossing has any force anyway.

b
 

Barb_D

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I need to understand what a "crossed check" is before I answer. I don't quite follow Bob's description. Do you mean the person had to deposit it in a bank account? But if you have an account at that bank with funds sufficient to cover the check, they would essentially give you cash for it anyway, right? You deposit your check and simultaneously withdraw cash in the same amount, essentially cashing the check.

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

Tdol

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You could get cash from an uncrossed cheque . A crossed cheque would transfer the funds to another bank account. The account holder can withdraw cash with a crossed cheque from their account if they have ID and make the cheque payable to Cash.

At least that was the state of play the last time I did it, though Bob suggests that things have changed.

A crossed cheque has two vertical lines on it.
 

SoothingDave

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The entire thing sounds foreign to me. When one receives a check, he can sign it on the back with "for deposit only" on it to prohibit anyone who steals the check from cashing it.

When one is giving a check I have never heard of putting any kind of prohibition on its use.
 

Tdol

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Must be a cultural difference- the standard cheque in the UK was a crossed one that transferred funds to another account. Uncrossed cheques were much rarer.
 

5jj

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Must be a cultural difference- the standard cheque in the UK was a crossed one that transferred funds to another account. Uncrossed cheques were much rarer.
You are revealing your youth! Like Bob, I remember my first cheque book (in 1964) having uncrossed cheques. I usually crossed them as a precaution, but as a lazy student, I would occasionally give an uncrossed cheque to a friend who was going into town. He could then get cash for me.
 

Tdol

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I would have had to ask for uncrossed cheques- the standard issue ones were crossed.

But then a tram home cost more than a farthing and a thick ear when I were a nipper.
 

5jj

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But then a tram home cost more than a farthing and a thick ear when I were a nipper.
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.
 

Barb_D

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

probus

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

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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Route21

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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.

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:
 

5jj

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

emsr2d2

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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.
 

5jj

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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.
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.
 

Barb_D

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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.;-)

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

BobK

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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
 
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