When you get a cheque, you want to get paid—fast. You can’t always wait for days for your money to clear. At Money Mart ® we believe cashing a cheque should be hassle-free. When we cash your cheque, you walk away with your money right away. A cash cheque is an open cheque which means you can cash it over the counter. You do not need to have a bank account because you can cash the check straight away. Usually an open cheque has a signature at the top and bottom. If there're two signatories to the account you will find two signatures at the bottom and top of the cheque.

If you have a checking or savings account at a federally insured bank, you should have no trouble cashing a check there.

But for the millions of people without a bank account, check cashing is not as easy. Approximately 8.4 million U.S. households, comprising 14.1 million adults, don’t have a bank account, according to a 2017 survey from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation.

There are ways to cash a check without a bank account, but they cost more money, often require more time and involve more risk than check cashing at a bank where you have an account. Here are five options:

1. Check cashing at the issuing bank

Banks and credit unions are not required to cash checks for non-customers, but many banks will cash a check payable to a non-customer if the check is written by an account holder at that bank.

There are a few requirements though. For one, there must be enough money in the account the check is written against to cover the check. The payee will need to show identification, such as a driver’s license or military ID.

The payee also should expect to pay a fee. Check-cashing fees at traditional banks hover around $8. If you get paid 52 weeks a year, that’s $416 in check-cashing charges.

And there may be restrictions, such as limits on check amounts and refusal of two-party personal checks. Checks that are six months old or more might be declined.

2. Check cashing at a retailer

There are a number of big retail stores like Kmart, Walmart and grocery chains that offer check-cashing services.

The least expensive option is probably Kmart, if you can find one that hasn’t closed. The struggling retailer charges only $1 or less to cash checks, including two-party personal checks up to $500. The caveat is that you need to be a member of the store's 'Shop Your Way' program to use the service. Joining the program is free.

Walmart charges $4 to cash checks up to $1,000 and up to $8 for checks more than that amount. Walmart also cashes two-party personal checks, but it limits them to $200 and charges a $6 max fee.

Grocery chains often provide check-cashing services. Kroger, Publix, Giant Eagle, Albertsons and Ingles, to name a few, cash checks. Fees typically range from about $3 to $6.

3. Loading funds onto a prepaid debit card

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People who don't have bank accounts sometimes use prepaid cards to deposit checks and access their cash. Prepaid cards are similar to checking account debit cards. Your spending is limited by how much money you have loaded onto the card.

Prepaid cards have different options for check cashing. Some prepaid cards let you set up direct deposit so that checks are automatically loaded onto the card. Other cards come with an app that lets you snap a picture of your check to load it onto your card. Or, you might be able to deposit your check at an ATM to load the money onto the card.

Fees are a big drawback of prepaid cards. The Walmart MoneyCard charges $2.50 to withdraw money at an ATM (not including the fee the bank charges) or a bank teller window, and 50 cents to check your card balance at an ATM. There is a monthly fee of $5.94 unless you load $1,000 a month onto the card.

Reload fees can be steep. It can cost you up to $5.95 to add money to a Green Dot Prepaid Visa card. Green Dot also charges a $3 ATM fee. Sometimes, prepaid card fees are scaled according to how quickly you want your money, and you can get dinged for expedited availability.

4. Cashing your check at a check-cashing outlet

Check-cashing outlets are probably the most expensive places to cash checks. Some of them require customers to become “members” or to buy check-cashing ID cards before they will cash your checks. In addition to a membership fee, they might charge a first-time use fee.

Fees to cash a check can range from 1 percent to 12 percent of the face value of the check. That means you could pay from $10 to $120 to cash a $1,000 check. Some businesses charge a flat fee on top of the percentage.

The average face value of a check presented to a check-cashing outlet is $442.30, with the average fee to cash that check being $13.77, or about 3.1 percent, according to the FDIC. If that’s your paycheck and you cash it every week, you’ll pay $55.08 a month, or $661 a year, in check-cashing fees

Not only are check-cashing stores exorbitantly expensive, there is a risk of deceptive practices. The Better Business Bureau, for example, alerts consumers to a scam whereby customers of a check-cashing store are called by someone who claims to represent the business. The caller offers the customer a loan and requests payment to secure the loan. Of course, the loan is never received and the customer of the check-cashing store gets scammed out of some cash.

Check-cashing stores should be your last resort.

5. Sign your check over to someone you trust

Another way to cash a check if you don’t have a bank account is to sign the check over to someone you trust who does have a bank account and have that person cash the check at their bank.

Make sure the person you want to sign it over to is willing to cash the check, and that his or her bank will cash it. You should accompany your trusted friend to the bank in case the teller requires your ID or has questions about the check.

The person must have the proper identification and be prepared to have his or her check dinged by a check-cashing fee. There is also a personal and financial safety risk. Paper checks and cash can be lost or stolen.

Cash Cheque Withdrawal

Bottom line

Turning that paper check into cash in your hands is trickier if you don’t have a bank account. Unlike the consumer who has a bank account and direct deposit of their income, unbanked consumers almost have to plan ahead to cash their checks and access their money.

It’s fairly easy to find a bank or other business that will cash your check if you don’t have a bank account. But there will be fees and restrictions. And there are risks associated with carrying checks and cash.

The best way to cash checks is by opening a checking or savings account at a federally insured bank or credit union, then setting up direct deposit of your payroll check, tax refund, pension benefit and other income. Not only is it safer and easier, it will cost you less.

Related Articles

From: Financial Consumer Agency of Canada

Access to the first $100

Financial institutions must make the first $100 of all funds you deposit by a cheque available to you right away. If the cheque is for $100 or less, the financial institution must make the entire amount of the cheque available to you.

The first $100 must be available to you:

• immediately if you deposit the cheque in person with a teller, or bank employee, at one of the financial institution's branches or other locations where you can open an account
• on the business day after the day of the deposit if you deposit the cheque in any other way, such as at an automated teller machine (ATM), using a mobile device

Exceptions for access to the first $100 for small and medium-sized businesses

Access to the first $100 deposited by cheque does not apply to cheques deposited by eligible enterprises, such as small and medium-sized businesses.

An “eligible enterprise” means a business with:

Cashcentral Returning Customers

• authorized credit of less than $1 million
• annual revenues of less than $50 million
• fewer than 500 employees

Holds on cheques

When you deposit a cheque at a financial institution you may have to wait a certain amount of time to access the money. This is called a hold on a cheque.

A financial institution may hold money you deposit by cheque to:

• make sure that the person or company who wrote the cheque has enough money to cover it
• make sure that the person or company who wrote the cheque has not put a stop payment on it
• check the details with the cheque writer to make sure that it has not been altered
• make sure that the account on which the cheque was written is still open and has not been closed

Instead of using cheques, consider having deposits made to your account electronically. This may let you access the funds you deposit right away.

Maximum cheque hold period

There is a limit to the amount of time a federally regulated financial institution, such as a bank, can place a hold on money you deposit by cheque.

Federally regulated financial institutions can hold the money you deposit by cheque for 4 to 8 days. The amount of time depends on the amount of the cheque and how it was deposited.

These limits apply as long as the cheque is:

• in Canadian dollars
• drawn on an account from a financial institution’s branch within Canada
• paper-based, which includes cheques deposited using a mobile device
• encoded with magnetic ink used for the line of special numeric characters across the bottom of the cheque
• not damaged and a processing machine is able to read it

If you have an account at a provincially or territorially regulated financial institution, such as a credit union or caisse populaire, ask about its policy on holding funds deposited by cheque.

In some cases your financial institution may release the money to you before the cheque clears. If the financial institution does this, it's actually extending credit to you.

This means that if the cheque does not go through, you may need to pay back the amount of the cheque that was deposited to your account. If you don’t have enough money to cover the amount of the cheque then you might go into overdraft. This could cost you more money.

Maximum hold period for cheques drawn on banks outside of Canada

If the cheque writer or cheque writer's financial institution is located outside Canada, the cheque can take much longer to clear.

Financial institutions often hold foreign cheques for 30 days. If the cheque does not clear, your financial institution will withdraw the money from your account.

Your financial institution may choose to return the cheque to the bank that issued it and have it replaced by a secured method of payment, such as a bank draft or a cashier's cheque. It would then need to wait for that institution to send the bank draft or cashier's cheque.

Exceptions to the maximum cheque hold periods

The maximum cheque hold periods may not apply to:

• an account that has been open for less than 90 days
• a cheque that has been endorsed more than once
• a cheque that is deposited six months or more after it was dated
• a cheque that isn't issued in Canadian dollars
• a cheque issued from an account at a bank branch outside of Canada
• a deposit that a financial institution has reasonable grounds to suspect is being made for illegal or fraudulent reasons
• a cheque that isn't encoded with magnetic ink to allow character recognition
• a cheque that is damaged

Exceptions to the maximum cheque hold periods for small and medium-sized businesses

Small and medium-sized businesses and other eligible enterprises have the same exceptions to maximum cheque hold periods as those outlined above.

In addition, maximum cheque hold periods may not apply to these businesses if they have:

• a negative change in their credit score
• an increase in their overdraft balance that isn't being reduced by deposits received
• an unexplained change in the history of cheques being deposited to the account
• high numbers of cheques returned due to dishonoured cheques
• a notice of bankruptcy or creditor action against the business

Counter-signed cheques

A cheque can be cashed by someone other than the person named on the front of the cheque if they counter-sign it.

Check with your financial institution to find out if they accept counter-signed cheques. Not all financial institutions accept them.

Dishonoured cheques

A dishonoured cheque is when the cheque doesn't go through and can’t be paid.

Reasons for a dishonoured cheque may include:

• non-sufficient funds (NSF) in the cheque writer’s account
• irregular signature, that is, if the signature the cheque writer signs on the cheque differs from the sample signature in the financial institution
• a difference between the amount written in words and the one in numbers

Information you must receive about cheque hold periods

A federally regulated financial institution, such as a bank, must give you a written copy of its policy on cheque holds when you open an account. You can find the policy as part of your account agreement or as a separate document.

The cheque hold policy tells you how long the financial institution can hold the cheques that you deposit.

It must include information about:

• the maximum length of time it may hold funds for a cheque that is drawn on an account at a financial institution in Canada
• the maximum amount of time it may hold the funds you deposit from a cheque that isn't subject to the legislated maximum cheque hold periods

If the policy does not specify if a hold applies to your account(s), your financial institution decides when you deposit your cheque.

Changes to your financial institution's cheque hold policy

Your financial institution may change its policy on holding funds deposited by cheque. It must let you know what these changes are before applying them to your account.

If you get a regular statement in the mail, your financial institution must send you (or the person you choose to receive this information) a written notice explaining any change in its policy on holding funds deposited by cheque. It must do so at least 30 days before applying the change to your account.

If you carry a passbook that you present to the financial institution when you make a transaction, your financial institution must display, in your branch, a notice explaining the change in its policy. It must do so for at least 60 days before applying this change to your account.

Making a complaint about your financial institution

If the financial institution refuses to honour the maximum cheque hold periods, or doesn’t allow you to withdraw the first $100, it must give you a refusal letter. If you don’t receive the letter, ask for it. The letter must tell you how to contact the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada (FCAC) if you wish to file a complaint.

If you have a concern about a hold, discuss it with your financial institution.

Related links

• Depositing a cheque with your mobile device
  

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