This is a stupid question about writing a cheque..

Question

after you write the amount in numbrs do you HAVE to put only afterwards. i.e Three Hundred Pounds only... or can you just put a line.. because thats what I did.

Answer 1

the line is what  we do in the US -

anything so that  a thief can't add to the amount you wrote .

Answer 2

just puting a line is ok

Answer 3

It's still a legal cheque. A line can stop whoever you've given it to changing the cheque to make it of a higher value, but "only" would be better. I use "only" and make sure that the hand-written "only" crosses over one of the printed lines of the cheque, making it even harder to amend. For this (paranoid) reason I also make sure my signature goes over the dotted line.

Answer 4

You should put only to stop anyone writing it for a higher value. I always put only and then a line, you cant be too sure.

Answer 5

it is so no-one can add extra to it...

i do both normally

Answer 6

You can just leave the line if you put ONLY as no one else can write anything after that... if you dont put ONLY you put a line but both is fine :)

Answer 7

yes if there are pence you put the figure i.e 89pence  

Answer 8

you should also write the amount on the cheque also

Answer 9

If I get the gist of what youre saying.

You wrote it 300--

Instead of 300.00

I worked in a bank and its advisable to write it all out.

When the bank encoding machine..encodes your check.. The clerk might think its 3.00

Works out good in this case, but if you wrote a check for 300 and they mistook it for 300.00 you could temporarily overdrawn your acct.

EDIT .. I think I see better.  No you dont have to write ONLY

And it is not acceptable to put a line.  You do that on the written amount line

Answer 10

You can do it either way.

Answer 11

I'm not sure that you are sensible enough to have custody of a cheque book.

Answer 12

you can do either it's only to stop people adding extra amounts, anything that end the writing is ok

Answer 13

Its perfectly acceptable to only put a line. In fact, I think it would be better than actually writing out "only".  

Answer 14

The idea is to make it so the cheque is harder to tamper. A man had a scam in London of telling restaurants the waiter spilled wine in his tie, and asked them to pay a £9 dry cleaning bill.

He took their cheques and inserted a zero after the nine, making it read £90. He also added "ty" after the word "nine"