How to Write a Cheque in Canada: Post-Dated, Stale-Dated and Stopped Cheques

A cheque asks your financial institution to take money from your account and pay it to the person or business named on it, the payee. You fill in the five fields Payments Canada’s cheque standard sets out, the date, the payee, the amount in figures, the amount in words and your signature. This page takes them in that order. The numbers along the bottom come printed; the routing numbers guide explains them.

How do you write a cheque?

1. Date. Payments Canada’s cheque standard has the date written as numbers, year-month-day, month-day-year or day-month-year, with letters printed under the boxes to show which order that cheque uses. Spaces, dashes or dots may separate the parts, slashes may not. A later date makes the cheque post-dated.
2. Payee. The name of the person or business you’re paying goes on the payee line. Payments Canada’s rules don’t address how the payee’s name is written.
3. Amount in figures. The amount as numbers, in the box next to the dollar sign.
4. Amount in words. The amount again, written out in words. Under the Bills of Exchange Act, where words and figures differ, the words are the amount payable. Payments Canada calls the words not legally required but recommends them as a backup, and FCAC lists a words-and-figures mismatch among the reasons a cheque is dishonoured.
5. Memo. A note for your records and the payee’s, such as an invoice number.
6. Signature. FCAC names a signature that differs from the sample your institution holds as another reason a cheque is dishonoured.

Payments Canada’s guide calls for a ball-point or roller pen in black or blue ink and suggests keeping a record of the cheques you write, to see which are still outstanding.

What’s printed on a cheque?

Your name (the address is optional), the cheque number (needed if you stop the cheque) and your account information in magnetic ink along the bottom. The routing numbers guide shows which part of that line is which; a payer who asks for a void cheque wants those numbers.

What if you make a mistake on a cheque?

The void cheque page explains how to void a cheque you have spoiled. Payments Canada’s guidance is never to pre-fill or pre-sign cheques. Under the Bills of Exchange Act, a signature on a blank paper handed over to be made into a cheque is, unless there is evidence otherwise, authority to fill it in for any amount, and once completed and passed to a holder in due course it is valid in that holder’s hands.

What are post-dated and stale-dated cheques?

Post-dated cheques

A post-dated cheque carries a date in the future, and the Bills of Exchange Act says a bill isn’t invalid only because it is post-dated. It can’t be cashed before that date. Payments Canada notes that, with the volume of cheques and automated processing, some slip through.

If one is cashed early, you can ask your institution to return it, up to and including the day before the date on the cheque, and you then arrange another way to pay the recipient. If that isn’t resolved, FCAC says you can file a complaint with your institution.

Stale-dated cheques

Financial institutions usually treat a cheque as stale-dated after 6 months, unless it is a certified cheque or a Government of Canada cheque. A stale-dated cheque is old, not necessarily invalid: an institution may still pay it but doesn’t have to. If a payee can’t cash your stale-dated cheque, FCAC’s suggestion is to ask for the original back before writing a new one. On the federal hold maximums, the Bank Act adds: They do not apply if the cheque or other instrument is deposited at least six months after the date of the cheque or other instrument.

How do you stop a cheque?

A stop payment asks your institution to prevent a cheque you wrote from being cashed, for one that is lost, stolen or has an error on it. Under the Bills of Exchange Act, a bank’s authority to pay a customer’s cheque ends when payment is countermanded or on notice of the customer’s death.

To request one, your institution needs details such as:

• the cheque number
• the amount in dollars and cents
• the name of the payee
• the date on the cheque

Not every institution offers stop payments, and there is usually a fee; see stop payment fees by bank. The institution needs time to process the stop before the cheque is cashed, and a stop can fail if the amount, date or payee it was given is incomplete or wrong. When a stop fails, the cheque’s amount is still yours to cover. If the payee signed the cheque over to a third party, such as a cheque cashing service, and your stop payment means it doesn’t go through, FCAC says that third party may take steps against you to recover the money, including legal action.

Getting the paper cheque back doesn’t cancel it, since the payee may already have deposited it by phone; Payments Canada points to a stop payment instead. Nor does it cancel what you owe the payee. Cancelling an e-Transfer, wire or pre-authorized debit is covered in cancelling a bank transfer.

How do you cash or endorse a cheque made out to you?

Endorsing. A cheque made out to two people needs the other person’s signature on the back for one of them to deposit it, and a payee can sign a cheque over to someone else by endorsing it; each institution decides whether it accepts such a cheque. Someone other than the payee can cash a cheque signed on the back, and FCAC says “for deposit only to account of payee” written there limits it to the payee named on the front.

Government of Canada cheques. Under the Bank Act, a bank must cash a government cheque (one drawn on the Receiver General, or another instrument paying money out of the Consolidated Revenue Fund) when you ask in person at a branch where it opens retail deposit accounts and pays out cash, for an amount up to $1,750. You present one of these:

• two documents from a reliable source, one with your name and address and one with your name and date of birth, including federal or provincial government identification, recent tax assessment notices, recent government benefit statements, recent Canadian public utility bills, recent bank or credit card statements and foreign passports
• one piece of federal or provincial government identification with your signature and photograph
• a reliable document with your name and date of birth, if a customer in good standing with the bank or a person of good standing in the branch’s community confirms who you are

The duty doesn’t apply if there is evidence the cheque was altered or is counterfeit, or if the bank has reasonable grounds to believe there was illegal or fraudulent activity involving it. A bank that refuses a government cheque that meets the Act’s cheque-type and amount conditions must give you a written statement saying it won’t cash it. The Act also bars a bank from charging for cashing a cheque drawn on the Receiver General. For an uncashed federal cheque, see unclaimed CRA money.

Holds. A federally regulated bank may hold a deposited Canadian-dollar cheque of $1,500 or less for no more than four business days if it is deposited in person with an employee and five if deposited any other way, and a cheque over $1,500 for no more than seven (in person) or eight (any other way); the first $100 must be available immediately in person or on the next business day otherwise; and the maximums do not apply in the cases the Bank Act lists. The deposit page covers cheque holds and depositing a cheque by phone or at an ATM.

Fake cheques. Overpayment and fake-cheque scams are covered on the banking fraud page.

What happens when a cheque bounces?

A dishonoured cheque is one the institution refuses to pay, and FCAC’s reasons include non-sufficient funds, an irregular signature and words that differ from the figures. The fees and what follows are on what happens if you write a bad cheque.

How do you order cheques?

One bank’s help page gives steps in its online banking for ordering cheques for an account (Accounts page, Manage My Accounts, Additional Services, Order cheques), and says cheques for business, credit card or line of credit accounts are ordered by phone or at a branch. You can also print your own, to Payments Canada’s cheque specifications, with your account information in magnetic ink at the bottom.

What can you use instead of a personal cheque?

A certified cheque, bank draft or money order is compared on bank drafts and certified cheques. Money between people can go by Interac e-Transfer, and a regular bill or rent payment by pre-authorized debit.

Related pages

• Reading the numbers on a cheque
• Void cheques
• Depositing cheques and cash
• Bank drafts, certified cheques and money orders
• What happens if you write a bad cheque
• Moving money