My friend texted me today to let me know a $50 check I gave her son as a graduation gift did not clear and to pay her the $20 return check fee when I can.
I immediately venmo’d her $70 and asked if the bank gave her a reason and for a picture of the check so I could call my bank to see what the issue was.
After talking with the customer service agent, his best guess was that my signature partially goes over one of the account numbers which prevented my friend’s bank from reading the check properly. My name is such that it has a letter that dips below the signature line when writing in cursive and it’s really easy to “hit” the numbers below. I looked through my check history and they are literally all the same signature and I’ve never had an issue before with them processing. It seems obvious now to be careful to never have your signature cover a number on a check but I can honestly say I have never ever thought about it before. I felt like a real dummy. So PSA don’t do that.
I immediately venmo’d her $70 and asked if the bank gave her a reason and for a picture of the check so I could call my bank to see what the issue was.
After talking with the customer service agent, his best guess was that my signature partially goes over one of the account numbers which prevented my friend’s bank from reading the check properly. My name is such that it has a letter that dips below the signature line when writing in cursive and it’s really easy to “hit” the numbers below. I looked through my check history and they are literally all the same signature and I’ve never had an issue before with them processing. It seems obvious now to be careful to never have your signature cover a number on a check but I can honestly say I have never ever thought about it before. I felt like a real dummy. So PSA don’t do that.

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