It’s wedding season, and our big day is less than 2 weeks away! The gifts are starting to roll in, and some of our fantastic friends have sent us checks! Remember, we don’t care whether we get cash or gifts off the registry, we’re grateful either way. And despite warnings from friends about people who go off-registry and blaze their own trail, we’re really liked everything we’ve gotten so far!
Back to those checks: I know that most people have plenty of their money in their bank accounts to cover their checks, and many also balance their checkbooks so they know to keep a buffer for any undeposited checks. Still, I don’t like to keep people waiting if I don’t need to, so I try to deposit them in a timely manner.
What’s Appropriate?
I tend to forget about checks I’ve written after about a week, anything after that and I have to try and remember what they were for. Depositing checks earlier is great, but not expected.
At two weeks, that’s enough time to take a check to the bank. You don’t want it sitting around forever, so that seems like a pretty good guideline. The earlier the better, but that seems to be the most appropriate.
After 2 weeks you’re just being neglectful. With a few exceptions, we all pass by a bank at least once every two weeks, and who doesn’t like seeing the money in their account rather than scribbled on a piece of paper?
Is This Rude?
Well, as our wedding is just weeks away, we’ve gotten a few checks already. The ones addressed to me, I’ve deposited to my ING Direct account (from my phone!), and Lauren has done the same with the ones addressed to her.
Our issue comes when someone gives a check to “Lauren and Daniel Packer” or “Lauren or Daniel Packer.” We plan on combining our accounts, but we’re not there just yet. I figure Lauren should go through her name change first and then combine accounts, so we’ve got to wait until the middle of June to start that process.
I wasn’t sure if we had to wait, but if a check is made out to two people, don’t they both need to endorse it? And since ‘Lauren Packer’ doesn’t really exist yet, she can’t really endorse it yet.
I contacted ING Direct, and as usual, they gave me the answer I was looking for in record time. As long as my name is on it, I shouldn’t have a problem depositing it. So tomorrow I’ll be snapping pictures and depositing it remotely via their new mobile app.
So these checks have been sitting here needlessly for about two weeks now. These people, but what if they had to wait a month to be cashed?
Readers, Should you alert check givers if you’re going to be late with depositing a check? In our situation, should it be assumed that we aren’t going to cash it yet?
I think you should wait until you are married to deposit checks, just like you should wait to open and use any other gift you receive. This was our policy – after all, if the wedding is called off (which you can’t know until it actually happens) you will need to return all the gifts and it’s much easier to tear up a check than write and send a return one. After the wedding, though, I think you should deposit the checks ASAP – before your honeymoon if possible.
You’re fine until after the wedding. We left for our honeymoon 36 hours after we were married so depositing our checks had to wait until after we got back.
I usually get a bank check to avoid this problem.
I did this with my parents’ birthday gift to me last month. They gave me the card a week before, since I was just off of tax season, but I didn’t open it until my birthday since that is when I felt it should be done. Then again, I have a bunch of quirks that I justify to myself as the “right way” that others look at me funny for doing.
Back to your checks, just make sure that when they say “AND” you both sign it. If they say “or” it doesn’t matter who does. Can’t remember if I told you that on twitter or not when you asked.
I’m really lazy when it comes to depositing checks because I have to break out my scanner. However, I do always try to scan them within a week or two. The only person that I’ll let slide longer is my mom because I know that she keeps track of whether or not I’ve cashed her checks… thanks mom :)
Nah – not rude at all. I would say people are understanding that you are quite busy. I like the mobile option of depositing checks. My bank still charges for this service. Is it really free with ING?
I think it is ok to go ahead and cash them now. Why not? The people have written them and there should be no problem with depositing them.
I think most people would understand if you even wanted to wait until after the wedding. When I write a check, I am cool with it being cashed immediately or within a year. After that, I consider it void for my checkbook purposes.
“I figure Lauren should go through her name change first and then combine accounts, so we’ve got to wait until the middle of June to start that process.”
I’m in the process of changing my name and trust me, you don’t want to wait that long. Bring along the customer copy of your marriage license everywhere (until you get your official fancy copy from the courthouse). Ask them to use the customer copy as evidence (because it will be notarized after all), and they will put in an AKA for her last name. That will allow her to deposit checks with her new name. When she gets her ID, she can go and change over to the new name officially.
Oh and good luck changing names at the Social Security office during lunch breaks. Im.poss.ible. I swear, the govt doesn’t want to make gov’t things easy!
I guess depositing checks late isn’t rude. What’s rude is when you don’t receive any gift checks two or three weeks after your wedding. A week before the event will do, anyway Congratulations to you!