CHECK 



1289 



CHECK 



Endorsing a Check. If you receive a check 

 you may get cash for it, transfer it to another 

 person, or deposit it to the credit of your 

 account in the bank. If you are cashing it you ' 

 merely sign your name on the back, across the 

 left end. This form is called endorsement in 

 blank, and you should not execute it until you 

 reach the bank, for if you lose the endorsed 

 check anyone can present it for payment. If 

 you are making the check over to another per- 

 son the correct form of endorsement is Pay to 

 the order of (name), followed immediately by 

 your signature. This is called endorsement in 

 full; it obliges the man to whom you trans- 

 fer it to add his endorsement, thus admitting 

 that he has received the value named, whereas 

 a check endorsed in blank may go through a 



which they are made out, it is always wise to 

 dispose of a check the same day it is received. 



If a check is returned to you for insufficient 

 or no funds and there are endorsements on it 

 above yours, you must protest the check at 

 once if you wish to hold the endorsers respon- 

 sible. Protesting consists in giving a formal, 

 legal, sworn notice of non-payment. A post- 

 , dated check, one issued before the date it 

 bears, is not due until that date and cannot be 

 protested till the next day. 



Certified Checks. If someone has given you 

 a check and you doubt its worth, it is a good 

 plan to take it to his bank and have it marked 

 certified by the bookkeeper before depositing 

 it in your own bank. The certification makes 

 the bank responsible for payment. Sometimes 



Fort Dearborn National Bank 2 12 



Pay to the 

 order of 



THERE IS SLIGHT CHANCE TO ALTER A CHECK THUS MADE 



dozen hands and receive no signatures except 

 that of the last possessor. 



Your signature to an endorsement should 

 read exactly like your name 'as written on the 

 face of the check by the drawer, even if he 

 has misspelled it, but in the latter event you 

 must write your correct bank signature imme- 

 diately beneath the other. When you endorse 

 a check you become responsible for its pay- 

 ment if it proves to be worthless, so too much 

 care cannot be exercised. 



Worthless Checks. Many people are care- 

 less about keeping account of the checks they 

 give out, and occasionally issue one for more 

 money than they have in the bank. If you 

 receive and dispose of a check for ten dollars 

 and the drawer has only nine dollars and ninety 

 cents in the bank, the check will be returned 

 to you marked Insufficient Funds, or in Canada, 

 N. S. F., which stands for Not Sufficient Funds. 

 Since a bank honors checks in the order in 

 which they are presented, not the order in 



you may wish to have a check of your own 

 certified, especially if you are sending it some 

 distance. A certified check should not be con- 

 fused with a cashier's check, which is a bank's 

 own order to pay. 



Exchange. In Canada it is customary for 

 a bank to charge a fee for accepting a check 

 payable in another town, even if it is drawn on 

 a branch of the same bank. This fee varies 

 according to the amount of the check and the 

 influence of the person presenting it. When 

 sending a check to a person in another place 

 you should add the presumable amount of ihr 

 exchange to the amount you are paying. Never 

 write Forty Dollars and exchange, for a check 

 must bear a definite amount. In the l*nit-<l 

 States since 1916 no exchange is charged by 

 banks which are members of the Federal re- 

 serve system. 



Stopping Payment. If after you have given 

 out a check you wish for any reason to pre- 

 vent its payment you may do so by giving 



