Personal, business, and payroll checks are good for 6 months (180 days). Some businesses have “void after 90 days” pre-printed on their checks. Most banks will honor those checks for up to 180 days and the pre-printed language is meant to encourage people to deposit or cash a check sooner than later.
The bank will not be able to stop the payment if the check has been cashed or is being processed. If you don't see the amount in your transaction history, you need to act fast. That check could be just a few minutes away from being deposited.
Some banks may require you to complete a stop payment request form to start the process. Contacting your bank by phone may require you to provide written notification within 14 days, or the stop payment may expire. Stop payment orders take effect as soon as the bank authorizes your request.
You must give your bank notice orally or in writing to request a stop payment. Banks recommend various ways to contact them, but generally you can make a request online, at a branch or by calling the phone number on the back of your debit card.
If a check deposited clears, it technically cannot be reversed. Once the recipient cashes the check, there is little a payer can do to reverse the funds being transferred. There are infrequent exceptions in extraordinary circumstances.
Assuming that you had enough money in the bank to cover the check, stopping payment is not a crime.
Reversing Stop Payment
If you have changed your mind on a stop payment request, it is possible to cancel. Visit your local branch to fill out a cancel stop payment request. Most institutions require notification in writing to issue the cancel request.
To stop the next scheduled payment, give your bank the stop payment order at least three business days before the payment is scheduled. You can give the order in person, over the phone or in writing. To stop future payments, you might have to send your bank the stop payment order in writing.
There's no way to void a check once you've already sent it. Instead, you'll need to contact your bank and ask them to issue a stop payment on that particular check number, though there may be a fee to do this.
Although it's unlikely, it is possible for a deposit to be mistakenly credited to the wrong person's account. When this happens, whether the bank error is in your favor or someone else's, the bank will eventually reverse the transaction and credit it to the correct account.
Key Takeaways
A pending transaction will affect the amount of credit or funds you have available. Canceling a pending transaction usually requires contacting the merchant who made the charge. Once a pending transaction has posted, contact your bank or card issuer to dispute it.
Even if you write a paper check, there's a good chance that the check will be converted to an electronic check at the checkout register and that funds will be available to the recipient quickly—generally within two business days after the check is deposited.
You can cancel a bank check if you act quickly before the payment has cleared the depositor's account. Canceling a check is usually called a "stop payment order," for which banks charge a fee.
You may be able to cancel a mobile deposit, but it depends on your bank's policies. Since the deposit is typically accepted by the next business day, you may only have a very limited window in which to request a cancellation.
Generally, banks honor a stop payment request for a check drawn on your account. If you stop payment properly and the bank cashes the check, the bank may be liable for the cashed check. you fail to provide sufficient notice to implement the stop payment order.
Give your bank a "stop payment order"
Even if you have not revoked your authorization with the company, you can stop an automatic payment from being charged to your account by giving your bank a "stop payment order" . This instructs your bank to stop allowing the company to take payments from your account.
You can tell the card issuer by phone, email or letter. Your card issuer has no right to insist that you ask the company taking the payment first. They have to stop the payments if you ask them to. If you ask to stop a payment, the card issuer should investigate each case on its own merit.
To stop payment, you need to notify your bank at least three business days before the transaction is scheduled to be made and your bank may charge a fee. The notice to stop the transaction may be made orally or in writing. A bank can require written confirmation of an oral stop payment request.
How to cancel a deposited Chase check? If your check has already been cashed in, you may not be able to stop the payment. Contact Chase Bank at 1-800-935-9935 to request assistance.
If you simply changed your mind about making a payment—but you already sent the check—there's nothing you can do to stop a valid payee from depositing or cashing the check and claiming the funds. If there's been a mistake or dispute, you'll need to recover the check (or the funds) from the payee another way.
To cancel a check online, log in to mobile or online banking. Some banks will let you cancel a check online by clicking on a specific bank account. Other financial institutions may have a tab for "customer service" or "account services," which allows you to change or modify account transactions.
How Check Holds Work. The Expedited Funds Availability Act of 1987 (EFAA) mandated that local checks may be held for no more than two business days. After 2010, all checks in the United States were considered local. The two-day hold has been extended to five days as a reasonable limit for holding local checks.
A reversal is the process of sending a request to a receiving bank to reverse the original deposit transaction (pulling back funds from an employee that were sent via direct deposit through payroll).