Re: Certified Cashiers Check?

The definition of a certified check is that it guarantees funds at the time the check is cashed, not at the time the check was drawn. Thus the "usually." If it's a particularly good customer of the bank, and they keep lots of money on hand, the bank may not feel the necessity of segregate funds when they certify a check. But I've never actually seen that happen. In fact, these days I've seldom seen banks certify checks at all. The times I've asked at my bank, they have said they don't do it anymore. Stu

If the bank were to opt to not set aside the funds and then something bad happened such that the customer's account no longer had enough to pay on the certified check would the bank be on the hook (thus violating the bank always wins rule :)?

Any banks I've asked have been saying this for years (perhaps decades at this point). It actually came up in a real estate closing about ten years ago where the closing attorney really wanted a certified check and I had no way to get one, at least not that day. The banks told a little story (why do they feel compelled to make up these authority references rather than just saying they don't want to provide a service?) that each bank is required to decide whether to offer a certified check service or cashier's checks and they (all) had chosen the latter. (This isn't true, it it?) Dan Lanciani ddl@danlan.*com

Yes. In fact the bank doesn't always win.

You mean to choose between them? I seriously doubt it. That would be like saying they have to choose between offering checking accounts and savings accounts. Stu