writing cheques

[epfm]

what is the deal with writing big cheques can they be cashed? Is it true you can write a cheque on anything eg a cow?

[funnywebsite]

You normally get given a cheque book when you open a bank account, there is no need to involve a cow.

What do you mean by "can they be cashed?", you put them in your account or somebody puts it in their account and it clears. Or you take it to a shop that cashes it for you and charges a fee. Not too sure that you mean by big cheque either???

[dzug]

Big cheques are AFAIK a mock-up for publicity purposes. A normal cheque will be passed quietly behind the scenes to put through the real transaction.

You can (or could - things may have changed) write a cheque on a cow or anything else you like, legally. Equally legally, your bank can refuse to process it or at best charge you a mega fee for doing so. Their T&C's prevent you from using cheques not supplied by them or at least printed to their specifications.

The late A P Herbert wrote a lot of short stories poking fun at the law and litigants. The 'hero' was one Albert Haddock who, in one of the stories, did write a cheque on a cow and I think got away with it - in the story.

Interesting idea though - you write a cheque on a cow, the bank charges you for the upkeep of the cow for the 7 years it has to be kept. If it dies does the cheque bounce? Maybe banks should start keeping herds of cows which they can sell to customers to write cheques for their tax bills on....

[pagey]

Someone

[pagey]

Try again...

Someone once wrote a cheque on a shark apparently.

[gen2]

I can confirm that the big cheques that you see in publicity photographs being given to charity are just for publicity. You request them from your bank and they are generally supplied free as they are publicity for the bank as well. A 'real' normal cheque is handed over away from the public eye. Also the fund raiser often keeps the large cheque and may display it as evidence of previous fundraising efforts.