Really. You can't.
There are alternatives, and the term "stop pay" may even be thrown around involving them, but the way you can place a stop pay on a personal check simply CANNOT happen.
No, not even if some @#$%^&* employee in the call center tells you that you can.
(Which ALMOST makes this a Cursing Out Coworkers, except the customer had absolutely NO information about the person they talked with and was back and forth enough to make me really have to wonder what that person actually told her as opposed to what she thought she heard.)
The Tale:
So, customer comes in wanting to make a stop payment on a cashier's check so she can instead wire the funds out to the recipient of the check. This is a groaner for me before I even sit down with her because I KNOW she's not going to be happy with the alternatives I can offer, and this is a circumstance where I have absolutely ZERO wiggle room. But, I plaster a smile on my face and take her back to my office to get the details so I can find out what I can do.
SC got a cashier's check in the amount of $1000 payable to her brother in order to pay back some money she owed him. Says she sent it out certified mail. Got a tracking number and everything. Once the tracking said it had arrived, her brother went to his post office to pick it up... and it wasn't there. They can't find it. It's lost.
Now, I feel for her and her desire to NOT have to mail another check to him, considering the first was lost, but unfortunately what she wants to do--have the funds put back into her account and wire them out--is not possible. As in, NOT POSSIBLE. No, really. NOT. POSSIBLE. Because we can't just "put a stop payment" on a cashier's check. See, from the day we issue that cashier's check payable to your brother to the day it expires (90 day from issue), those funds are a BANK CHECK payable to your brother. The bank is liable for the payment of those funds, via check. Legally liable.
And the bank does NOT write bad checks.
Now, this does not leave you without options. You CAN sign an affidavit that a cashier's check has been lost/stolen/destroyed and receive a replacement check. Payable to your brother.
Yes, another cashier's check. An exact duplicate of the old, except with a different check number.
Yes, I understand that you do not trust the mail service after they've lost the check the first time, but it has been NINE days since we issued the check. For the 90 days following issue, the ONLY thing we can do is replace the check. And yes, technically we will be placing a stop payment on the old check in that circumstance, but only because we have a legal paper trail showing that we REPLACED the check.
I understand that you have returned cashier's checks in the past. And you could do that now, IF you had the check. We get back the item of negotiation that we are liable for honoring, and we're happy to return you the funds from it. (And no, you cannot return a replacement cashier's check, because there is a check somewhere "out there" that we are responsible for paying, and only by having a replacement check for it can we get away with refusing to pay it.)
No, it was not YOUR check. It was a BANK check. A cashier's check is drawn off of the bank. Yes, your funds paid for it, but once paid for, it is separate from your account. That is rather the point: a check that CANNOT bounce.
So, your choices are as follows:
1) wait to see if the check turns up in the mail
2) let us reissue you a replacement check payable to the same person
3) wait for the original check to expire in 90 days, at which point we can return the funds to your account.
Those are your ONLY options.
No, the CEO himself will not make an exception. Even he listens to legal.
And the more you verbally abuse me for not being able to change the facts, the less sympathy I have for your plight.
There are alternatives, and the term "stop pay" may even be thrown around involving them, but the way you can place a stop pay on a personal check simply CANNOT happen.
No, not even if some @#$%^&* employee in the call center tells you that you can.
(Which ALMOST makes this a Cursing Out Coworkers, except the customer had absolutely NO information about the person they talked with and was back and forth enough to make me really have to wonder what that person actually told her as opposed to what she thought she heard.)
The Tale:
So, customer comes in wanting to make a stop payment on a cashier's check so she can instead wire the funds out to the recipient of the check. This is a groaner for me before I even sit down with her because I KNOW she's not going to be happy with the alternatives I can offer, and this is a circumstance where I have absolutely ZERO wiggle room. But, I plaster a smile on my face and take her back to my office to get the details so I can find out what I can do.
SC got a cashier's check in the amount of $1000 payable to her brother in order to pay back some money she owed him. Says she sent it out certified mail. Got a tracking number and everything. Once the tracking said it had arrived, her brother went to his post office to pick it up... and it wasn't there. They can't find it. It's lost.
Now, I feel for her and her desire to NOT have to mail another check to him, considering the first was lost, but unfortunately what she wants to do--have the funds put back into her account and wire them out--is not possible. As in, NOT POSSIBLE. No, really. NOT. POSSIBLE. Because we can't just "put a stop payment" on a cashier's check. See, from the day we issue that cashier's check payable to your brother to the day it expires (90 day from issue), those funds are a BANK CHECK payable to your brother. The bank is liable for the payment of those funds, via check. Legally liable.
And the bank does NOT write bad checks.
Now, this does not leave you without options. You CAN sign an affidavit that a cashier's check has been lost/stolen/destroyed and receive a replacement check. Payable to your brother.
Yes, another cashier's check. An exact duplicate of the old, except with a different check number.
Yes, I understand that you do not trust the mail service after they've lost the check the first time, but it has been NINE days since we issued the check. For the 90 days following issue, the ONLY thing we can do is replace the check. And yes, technically we will be placing a stop payment on the old check in that circumstance, but only because we have a legal paper trail showing that we REPLACED the check.
I understand that you have returned cashier's checks in the past. And you could do that now, IF you had the check. We get back the item of negotiation that we are liable for honoring, and we're happy to return you the funds from it. (And no, you cannot return a replacement cashier's check, because there is a check somewhere "out there" that we are responsible for paying, and only by having a replacement check for it can we get away with refusing to pay it.)
No, it was not YOUR check. It was a BANK check. A cashier's check is drawn off of the bank. Yes, your funds paid for it, but once paid for, it is separate from your account. That is rather the point: a check that CANNOT bounce.
So, your choices are as follows:
1) wait to see if the check turns up in the mail
2) let us reissue you a replacement check payable to the same person
3) wait for the original check to expire in 90 days, at which point we can return the funds to your account.
Those are your ONLY options.
No, the CEO himself will not make an exception. Even he listens to legal.
And the more you verbally abuse me for not being able to change the facts, the less sympathy I have for your plight.
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