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Is a bank required to cash a check drawn on it's own account?

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sbpilot

Junior Member
Is a bank required to cash a check drawn on itself?

What is the name of your state? California

Gentlemen,

I'm curious to know if a bank is required to cash a check drawn on one of it's own accounts. I've recently acquired a new tenant, who has an account at Bank of America. Conveniently enough, I have a Bank of America branch nearby. I just returned from this BofA branch, where I tried to cash the tenant's deposit and rent check. I do not have a BofA account, and I was informed the branch could not / would not cash these checks. The teller stated that they have certain 'amount limits' on checks they can cash for non-account holders. Of course, she wouldn't tell me what these amounts are. She suggested that I:

1) Deposit the checks into my account at my bank

or

2) Drive to the 'home' branch of the account holder (~100 miles away) and attempt to cash the checks at that branch.

I'm curious about this policy. Specifically, I'm curious if the bank can refuse to honor / cash these legitimate checks, drawn on the bank.

Please note: I can deposit these checks into my account (at a competing bank). I'm not arguing that point. I'm wondering if BofA can legally refuse to cash these checks, drawn on a BofA account.

Thanks in advance for your input and / or assistance.
 
Last edited:


Veronica1228

Senior Member
sbpilot said:
What is the name of your state? California

Gentlemen,

I'm curious to know if a bank is required to cash a check drawn on one of it's own accounts. I've recently acquired a new tenant, who has an account at Bank of America. Conveniently enough, I have a Bank of America branch nearby. I just returned from this BofA branch, where I tried to cash the tenant's deposit and rent check. I do not have a BofA account, and I was informed the branch could not / would not cash these checks. The teller stated that they have certain 'amount limits' on checks they can cash for non-account holders. Of course, she wouldn't tell me what these amounts are. She suggested that I:

1) Deposit the checks into my account at my bank

or

2) Drive to the 'home' branch of the account holder (~100 miles away) and attempt to cash the checks at that branch.

I'm curious about this policy. Specifically, I'm curious if the bank can refuse to honor / cash these legitimate checks, drawn on the bank.

Please note: I can deposit these checks into my account (at a competing bank). I'm not arguing that point. I'm wondering if BofA can legally refuse to cash these checks, drawn on a BofA account.

Thanks in advance for your input and / or assistance.
There are no Fed Regs or Acts that mandate a bank to honor a check for a non-customer in person. Therefore, this falls under bank policy. If this is their policy then they are well within their right to refuse to cash the check for you. Furthermore, if this check was made out to a business name, my bank would not have cashed it either.

There is an increasing amount of losses that banks are taking due to check fraud. This is the reason that policies are becoming much more conservative.
 

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