It wasn’t that long ago that all of us used checks to pay our bills and even to make payments at places like grocery stores. These days it’s just not that common to use a check. Most people use debit cards, credit cards or cash to make payments at stores. And many people have made the switch to automatic bill pay so that they don’t have to write and send checks to pay for rent, utilities and other bills. Still, sometimes you do have to write a check. Since we don’t use checks as commonly as we used to, many of us have forgotten how to properly use them. This means that we’re more prone to making errors when we write checks and we often aren’t quite sure how to remedy those errors. One of the things that you may need to do if you make a mistake with a check is to void the check. The information in this article will teach you or remind you about how to do that.

What Does It Mean To Void a Check

First things first; what does it even mean to void a check? A voided check is a check that is not going to be used and shouldn’t be cashed. It is also not going to be replaced by another check from the same account with the same check number. It’s basically just a check that is going to waste. For example, let’s say that you’re going through your checks and you void check #1300. This means that check #1300 will never be cashed and that it will not be replaced with another #1300 check. (You’d just move on to #1301 when writing your next check.) When you void a check, you basically make it as though it never existed in so far as transactions occur.

Why Would You Want To Void A Check

Okay, so now that you remember what a voided check is, you might want to think about the reasons that you would need to void a check. There are a few common reasons that people void checks. These reasons include:

• There is an error on the check that would make it difficult for the person to cash it. For example, you might write the wrong date or the wrong amount on a check by accident. You would want to void that check so that it can’t be cashed and then start over with a fresh check so that the person cashing it doesn’t have any problems. This is the most common reason that people will void checks.

• There is some other reason that you don’t want the person to cash this check. You may have written out a check and then decided to make the payment in cash so you don’t need the person to cash the check after all. You would void it so that they can’t cash it and that way you don’t run the risk of paying the person twice.

• You need to send a voided check to someone to set up an account. Sometimes this happens when you are interested in setting up your automatic bill pay. The company that is going to be taking funds from your account needs a copy of one of your checks to make sure that they have legitimate account and bank routing numbers for those withdrawals. You want to void the check before sending it to them so that no one can take the check, write an amount on it and cash it.

How to Void a Check

Now that you’ve remembered what a voided check is and why you might void one, you can go about voiding the check. You may have forgotten how to do this since it’s not a common practice anymore or you may find after reading this that you were never voiding checks right in the first place. That’s because many people learned to void a check simply by writing VOID across it in big letters but that’s not actually the proper way to make sure that you’ve voided a check.

To void a check properly, you want to write VOID on it in four different places on the check. Write void in all four of these places:

1. In the box where you would typically write the amount of the check. If you’ve made an error here already, simply write VOID across the amount you’ve written in. If it’s blank, include VOID in the blank space.

2. Across the signature line that you would normally use to sign the check. Likewise, void this either across your signature or in the blank space.

3. In big letters across the front of the check. This is what most people do to void a check. You should do this; it just shouldn’t be the only thing that you do.

4. In big letters across the back of the check. To make extra sure that the check gets voided, you should void the back of it as well as the front.

Most people will tell you that it’s okay to do just one or two of these things when you’re voiding a check. That’s technically true but it’s better to take the extra precautions and void the entire thing by marking all four spots as voided. It doesn’t take much time and it’s not as if you void checks often.

Keep Track of the Voided Check

Finally, you shouldn’t just void a check and forget about it. You should make a notation to yourself somewhere that a check has been voided by noting the number of the check and the date that it was voided. Make a note as to why the check was voided. This way, if your account ends up showing that a check was used with that number, you’ll have the information that you need to show to your bank to deal with this problem. It’s highly unlikely that this would happen but it’s a smart habit to get into whenever you do have to void a check.