recently learned this the hard way when her bank processed a postdated check several weeks before she’d intended. Unfortunately, the fact is that there’s generally no actual obligation to honor the date on a check.Īlthough it might not seem right for a bank or credit union to disregard the date written on a check, they aren’t legally required to honor the request to postpone processing a transaction unless certain conditions are met by the check issuer.Ĭonsumerist reader M. Because they might not always have enough money in their accounts on the day they write those checks, some folks will postdate their checks so that they aren’t deposited or cashed until after that date.
Thanks to automated payments and online banking, many of us rarely (if ever) write checks, but millions of Americans still pull out their checkbooks every day to pay their bills.