A Novelty
Though cashing a check is a relatively simple affair from the cashier’s perspective, the work on the back end is remarkably sophisticated and involves an amazing amount of automated technology and travel for the checks.
With this in mind, it’s clear why virtually all checks come in fairly uniform sizes and designs- it’s just easier for everyone involved that way. However, even with this, several million checks are sorted through by hand every single year (usually due to them being rejected by a machine for some reason or another); this costs banks money, so is obviously something they are very keen to cut down on.
This might make you think cashing a giant novelty check would be a no-no. However, legally, there’s nothing stopping you from writing a check on, well, anything, such as a napkin, and then sending it to someone you hate.
For instance, according to Brian Black, onetime managing director of operations and technology at the Bank Administration Institute,
It [a check] has to contain certain features, and it can be written on anything, as long as it has the elements, the surface doesn’t make a difference. A check is an order to pay someone, that’s all it is.
So if a novelty check has all the needed information (the amount to be paid; the payer and payee names; the account number; the name of the bank where the payer has the account and what state the bank is in; the payer’s signature, and the date the check was written), there’s no legal reason it can’t be cashed. But, of course, there are practical reasons you wouldn’t want to try. As such, alternate means of transferring the money is used. For instance, a spokeswoman for iWon online sweepstakes, Samantha Better, said that their winners are also given regular sized checks for their own convenience that they can cash instead. She went on to note that most opt to keep their giant check as a souvenir rather than go through the hassle of actually trying to cash it. In other cases, funds are simply transferred directly from account to account, rather than messing with any physical check cashing.
All that being said, many banks have small print in their terms stating that they can reject any non-standard payments. So while the giant novelty checks are technically legal and valid to cash if they’ve got all the needed information, those banks can, if they choose, reject them. Unfortunately for the novelty of it all, when banks do accept them, they don’t send the giant checks off in comically large envelopes. Rather, they simply take the check, then write all the relevant information down and send it off for further processing that way.
Bonus Fact:
Since you almost certainly clicked this to read about someone cashing a stupid check, we want to tell you about, Patrick Combs. The man who, upon receiving a junk-mail check for a little over $95,000, endorsed it with a smiley face and then cashed it. To his surprise, his bank accidentally honored it. Amazingly, because the bank failed to retract their error within 24 hours of the check bouncing, all $95,000+ was legally his. Since the check wasn’t valid, it came out of the bank’s pocket.
When word of Patrick’s hilarious feat of getting one over on his bank hit the news, some of the finest legal minds in banking joined the argument, on Patrick’s side. Essentially, Patrick was home free and in full, legal possession of $95,000 of the bank’s money. Of course, this didn’t stop the bank from having their head of security threaten him, trying to get him to give the money back. But Patrick knew the law was on his side on this one and had fun with it, telling the security officer,
“Give me a letter on official bank stationery stating that you are who you say you are, that you indeed work for the bank, and also put in that letter the reason why the bank is requesting the money back, as I’m a little confused on that. When I get that letter, we’ll go from there.”
The security officer refused, apparently calling Combs several choice names in the process.
Despite the threats, which actually made him less inclined to give the money back, and that at the time he had about $45,000 in credit-card debt, Patrick eventually decided to return the money. He had meant it as a joke and didn’t actually want to take any money from anyone, not the bank or even the junk mailer who had sent it to him.
He didn’t come off too badly over the thing, though. To this day, he’s still riding the coattails of the story to make a living in his 75 minute Man 1, Bank 0 stage show. He was even once hired to perform the show at a major banker’s conference. Presumably this functions as something of a campfire horror story at banking executive retreats.
Source….www.todayifoundout.com
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