Cashing a cheque

[Wildwaterfalls]

A tricky one...

An lovely older lady who we have known for some time but don't see very often had sent us a card to congratulate us on the birth of our baby, with a cheque for £10.

My first thought was to thank her but not to cash it as I feel bad accepting money from someone who is certainly not wealthy, but then I decided that that would actually be very rude, and what I should do is cash it, get something nice that will last for a while (i.e. not newborn clothing) and send a card telling her what we have bought and how much our baby will enjoy using this.

However...

It now turns out the cheque is not filled in correctly, and therefore cannot be cashed. My options, I think, are:

• Contact our friend and ask for another cheque - I really do not want to do this and would be very embarrassed.
• Buy the gift and send the card telling her what we have bought, hoping she does not notice the cheque is never cashed.
• Send a thank you card without buying a gift.

I am most tempted by the second option... is that the right thing to do?

I don't know if it's the right thing to do or not, but it's what I'd do, and have done in exactly the same situation.

I would send the thank you card without saying what you had bought.

What us the mistake on the cheque?

Thanks. The mistake is that the amount is written on the cheque, but not filled in numerically in the box on the right hand side. I didn't notice and took it to the bank, who pointed it out and say it cannot be cashed....

For £10 the bank probably wouldn't even notice if it was written correctly. I used to be a cashier at a high st bank and they get so many cheques they only check ones over a certain amount for errors

Oh right. There are some people that check their bank accounts religiously and would know the cheque wasn't cashed.

Can you not write £10 in yourself?

My grandad frequently sends me cheques a d forgets to fill in bits so I just do it. Ob not like writing in £10000 or anything

But if she is very short of cash, she will notice and it will be a right pain for her to keep remembering that there is £10 due to come out any minute.

My husband wronte a cheque for me for £60ish and it took them 4 months to cash it, every month it threw out his calculations because he had to take the 60ish out before he knew where he was.

BTW £60 ish in this house is two weeks food money, so it really made a difference when he was budgeting the household bills, and seeing if we had enough for a treat.. IYSWIM.

you can just write in 10 and cash it?

Thanks all. The budgeting point is a good one and makes the whole thing even more difficult .

Thanks for all the advice. Might try again to pay in the cheque, perhaps explaining the position to the cashier if they notice the error.