Personal Finance

Question about bounced cheques.

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Jr. Member
Dec 24, 2008
160 posts
1 upvote

Question about bounced cheques.

I have a quick question about bounced cheques. So I sent my old housemate a cheque of $12.50 because I forgot to pay her for part of the internet bill. Apparently I wrote the cheque wrong so it bounced when she tried to deposit it... and she said she got dinged another $12.50 so she wants me to pay $25. She's with BMO.

But shouldn't I get dinged a fee since it was my cheque that was bounced?

A little confused here as I'm not sure if I should pay her $25....

Please help anyone!!
18 replies
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Sep 26, 2007
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u get dinged, she gets dinged...in short the bank wins!

errr how did you even write a check wrong?
Member
May 27, 2006
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j890 wrote: I have a quick question about bounced cheques. So I sent my old housemate a cheque of $12.50 because I forgot to pay her for part of the internet bill. Apparently I wrote the cheque wrong so it bounced when she tried to deposit it... and she said she got dinged another $12.50 so she wants me to pay $25. She's with BMO.

But shouldn't I get dinged a fee since it was my cheque that was bounced?

A little confused here as I'm not sure if I should pay her $25....

Please help anyone!!

It bounced while she tried to deposit it.. Do you mean it bounced after she deposited it? if it bounced she won't be charged a fee for it from any bank, unless that money was gonna cover something else coming out of her account. and I second, how on earth do you write a chq wrong?
Newbie
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Jan 8, 2010
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Marwayne
kingkhan wrote: It bounced while she tried to deposit it.. Do you mean it bounced after she deposited it? if it bounced she won't be charged a fee for it from any bank, unless that money was gonna cover something else coming out of her account. and I second, how on earth do you write a chq wrong?
If you deposit a cheque and it bounces, YOU get charged a fee by your bank for depositing the cheque and the writer will be charged a NSF fee by their bank for writing it. These charges will probably mean that that $12.50 cheque will now cost in excess of $40.00. That is the way that the banking system works. If you have a balance deficit due to the cheque bouncing the fees charged for that are on top of the NSF fees. Bounced cheques are extremely expensive for all parties.
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Jan 5, 2003
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Toronto
hd1963lc wrote: If you deposit a cheque and it bounces, YOU get charged a fee by your bank for depositing the cheque and the writer will be charged a NSF fee by their bank for writing it. These charges will probably mean that that $12.50 cheque will now cost in excess of $40.00. That is the way that the banking system works. If you have a balance deficit due to the cheque bouncing the fees charged for that are on top of the NSF fees. Bounced cheques are extremely expensive for all parties.
+1

Treat it as a lession learnt, and reimburse her for her service charge. I use Interac Money Transfer for sending money to people I know and it works great. You might get a small service charge (50c to $1), but compared to a stamp and the increased reliability (can't be lost and funds are set aside so receiver knows it's good) and speed, it's worth it.

You're lucky she doesn't ask to be reimbursed in cash.
Member
May 27, 2006
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hd1963lc wrote: If you deposit a cheque and it bounces, YOU get charged a fee by your bank for depositing the cheque and the writer will be charged a NSF fee by their bank for writing it. These charges will probably mean that that $12.50 cheque will now cost in excess of $40.00. That is the way that the banking system works. If you have a balance deficit due to the cheque bouncing the fees charged for that are on top of the NSF fees. Bounced cheques are extremely expensive for all parties.

that doesn't make any sense. I bank/ have friends at BMO, depositing a bad chq (lack of funds) does not result in the person depoisting paying a fee (the amount just gets debited and the original chq is sent back to the chq writer) Now if its a recurring event then the bank may put holds etc on the account. The only way the person depositing pays is fee is in the following scanerio:

I have a 20 bucks in my account.
I put a chq for 100 bucks
Chq bounces and goes back
I am back to $20.
A payment/or chq I wrote comes out for $30.

OR

I deposit a chq, and cash it right away.
Chq bounces, then I owe my bank the money.

Then I will be charged the NSF fee.

But otherwise there is no charge to me. Apart from like I said, if I deposit bad chqs a few times, then they may put notes and holds etc in my account.

Also the only way she could have been charged $12.50 was because of a stop payment (which doesn't apply in her case), nothing else costs $12.50 at BMO. Next time don't write a bad chq. Just EMT the money.
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Nov 18, 2009
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kingkhan wrote: Also the only way she could have been charged $12.50 was because of a stop payment (which doesn't apply in her case), nothing else costs $12.50 at BMO. Next time don't write a bad chq. Just EMT the money.
Bank usually charge fee to the person who wrote the NSF cheque and the person who deposited the cheque. Some banks may not charge the person who deposited the cheque depending whether they had their account in good standing. I deposited one cheque, from sale of household item, that came back NSF and I was not charged any fee by my bank since it has not happened to me before. Some companies and retailers have standard fee for NSF cheques. So if you wrote a NSF cheque for $40 it may end cost you over $100 including $60 NSF fees to both parties.
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Sep 26, 2007
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assuming he wrote the number wrong which resulted in nsf, if it appeared he wrote 12.50 as 1250 which makes no sense because you have to hand write it as well. assuming he wrote it as 1250 or some other number that's not 12.50 the girl still deposited it knowing it was the wrong amount. i would not give her a cent more over what i owed her.

it doesn't make any sense. unless the op has no money.

i would wait to see if the transfer appears on his statement. if it doesn't and a fee does show up, then we know he screwed up. if it doesn't go through and nothing happens... then there's a problem on the girl's side.
Sr. Member
Feb 1, 2010
872 posts
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Where is personal responsibility in this society? I would apologize profusely, rewrite the cheque with a 20 dollar extra value, and tell her to buy a drink on me for her trouble.

IMO, you are in no position to quibble over fees when you put her in this awkward position.

If she has a history of scamming you, then maybe I can understand your angst.
Otherwise, buck up.
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Apr 4, 2010
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Seriously, why do you write a ****ing check for 12.50$. :lol:
Jr. Member
Apr 6, 2010
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Montreal
I don't understand why they should be a NSF fee, as the OP said the cheque bounced because he wrote it wrong.
Sr. Member
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Jun 6, 2009
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The OP clearly says that he wrote the check wrong. So it wasn't refused because of insufficient funds.
There's no point in passing judgment until we know the reason why. For example, if he wrote the date wrong and ended up writing a post-dated cheque, his roommate should take part of the responsibility by not picking that up and depositing the cheque anyway. In a case like this the OP wouldn't be charged but his roommate would.
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Dec 22, 2005
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epiphano wrote: The OP clearly says that he wrote the check wrong. So it wasn't refused because of insufficient funds.
There's no point in passing judgment until we know the reason why. For example, if he wrote the date wrong and ended up writing a post-dated cheque, his roommate should take part of the responsibility by not picking that up and depositing the cheque anyway. In a case like this the OP wouldn't be charged but his roommate would.
not to derail this thread any further but there's no such thing as a true post dated cheque, iirc
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Jun 6, 2009
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monty613 wrote: not to derail this thread any further but there's no such thing as a true post dated cheque, iirc
I'm not exactly sure what you mean by that.
It is true that postdated cheques can be cashed in and go through the system unnoticed, but having worked in cheque processing for some time, whenever a postdated cheque would catch my eye, I'd return it to the branch. I've also seen many cheques being return by the issuing bank for the same reason.
Member
Jan 31, 2008
492 posts
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Québec
Hi Guys,
I am reviving an old thread BUT my question is relevant.
I deposited a check late 6:45 PM at my Royal Bank of Canada (the check I received was from PC Financial)
Monday being a holiday, they cleared the check today.
That has left only 3 business days, yet one full week since the check's been dated.
Do you think it's clear, free game to ship the item?
Can the cheque still bounce?
Any insite would be very appreciated.
Thank you!
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Jan 8, 2010
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Marwayne
Unfortunately the cheque can still bounce. It does not matter when the cheque is dated, the important date is when the bank actually starts it through the banking system by processing it. In this case that would be Tuesday. You need a minimum of 5 banking days (10 preferable) from then.
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Jun 25, 2008
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As a paperboy back in the early 90s I deposited a cheque that bounced and got charged a fee because of it. Was hell getting that fee back from the customer, and my Father had to get involved; needless to say my policy for that house was cash only from then on.
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Aug 18, 2005
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Premium wrote: Quick question, if I gave a cheque to someone and I closed my account afterward. If the cheque bounces back, would the person gets landed with a fee or do I? I believe the person may have a business account. I don't want him to get charged with a fee but he's out of town and I can't reach him.
1. Person gets charged with NSF.
2. Because you closed the account knowing about the situation, you could get investigated for bank fraud.
- casual gastronomist -
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Apr 5, 2007
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Premium wrote: Quick question, if I gave a cheque to someone and I closed my account afterward. If the cheque bounces back, would the person gets landed with a fee or do I? I believe the person may have a business account. I don't want him to get charged with a fee but he's out of town and I can't reach him.
If you "Premium" wrote the check and close your account afterwards (i.e. before the cheque cleared), the cheque will bounce and the depositors account will be debited the amount of the cheque.

Now if the depositors balance goes in the negative because of this, that is something you wouldnt know.

The depositor will NOT be the one getting charged NSF. You "premium" will be the one but since your account is closed, an alert will be placed on the profile for potential fraud etc. (monitor status on your profile)

Stop fraudin breh :razz:

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