How to Write a Check Without Cents

Five Ways of Writing a Check Without Cents

In the article how to write a check without cents – a check is a financial document that is legal and issued by registered institutions like banks.

Having a checkbook gives you the authority to transfer money from your bank account to another party, commonly known as a payee, by writing/signing on the check. The signed check can be cashed from registered authorized agents and financial institutions.

Before we get into not only how to write a check without cents but also writing a check in general, let’s take a pause…

Have you ever waited for the delivery of a product you ordered with bated breath and excitement? Your mind flowering with the imagination of how the product will make your life easy.

When the doorbell suddenly rings, you jolt back to reality and make it to the door, half walking, half running as you cannot wait to lay hands on the package.

Soon you get a rude shock when you see not one carton as you had ordered but ten(10) cartons of the same product squarely facing you. You scratch your head and mutter under your lips to borrow from Jamaican-American reggae fusion artist Mr.Shaggy’s song, ‘Why me Lord…situation looking kinda bad!’ Unlike Mr.Shaggy and his relationship drama, you know ten cartons delivered instead of one, spells trouble to your finances!

The delivery man beams with a smile that he has safely delivered a package to another customer! However, instead of smiling back, you find yourself with a frown, saying loudly, ‘It can’t be; it must be a mix-up’. 

You quickly whip out your phone without saying anything to the delivery man just to confirm, as your brain would like to believe, that the delivery man has confused the orders…. Your account confirms your worst fears, that the delivery man is right, that you did in fact order ten(10.0) cartons of the product.

 ‘But I can’t remember typing ten(10) as the quantity number, you tell yourself.’ Then it dawns on you that your finger must have tripped, and instead of having (1.00 ) in the quantity box on order, you ended up having ten(10.00). The delivery man leaves you to sort it out with the company you ordered the product from and politely says, ‘have a good day, mom.’

What does the above analogy have to do with writing checks, you may be wondering?… Everything…

Two Scenarios of How One Can Mess in Writing a Check Without Cents

 

If you mistakenly put a decimal point after one then added three zeros, it would be ($ 1.000) while writing a check in a hurry instead of placing the decimal point after ten, then followed by two zeros for cents ($ 10.00) as scenario one.  

Scenario two, if personnel in a finance department at a company added 00 to a $20 amount on an already written check, it would be ($ 2000 )where the owner forgot to add a decimal point and two zeros for cents on the amount so that it would have read($20.00).Would the changes made both in scenarios one and two on the check matter?

Your guess is as good as mine. It would spell trouble as more money would be cashed out than initially authorized by the ones who wrote the checks. In scenario one, $1000 instead of $10 would be withdrawn from the bank account. The decimal point was accidentally placed after one making the amount read $1000 instead of ten dollars($10.00).

 While in scenario two, $2000 would be withdrawn instead of $20 simply because one forgot to put the decimal point and the two zeros standing for no cents/without cents(.00) after $20!

In both scenarios one and two, the one who wrote the check would be the loser. The bank or financial institution would be right to blame the owner and refuse any liability for the loss. The loss could be attributed to one being in a hurry while writing the check, negligence, or poor check writing skills for the one who wrote the check.

So as it turns out, one needs to learn how to write a check without cents and write it correctly. It may seem like a piece of bread until someone scams you or you accidentally put a full stop/decimal point, comma, zero, or the word ‘and’ where it is not supposed to be, and your check bounces or is considered invalid.

Remember, in some cases issuing a bouncing check is treated as a criminal, and you could incur a high fee as a penalty. This would have been avoided in the first place had you focused on learning how to write a check without cents.

Statistics on Checks as a Non-Cash Form of Payment in the USA

According to the Federal Reserve, for the first time, the number of checks paid was surpassed by debit or credit card forms of payment between 2003 and  2006. By April 2007 number of debit card payments surpassed that of check payments.

As statistics would have it, 30.5 billion checks were paid in 2006 compared to 37.3billion checks in 2003. However, the nominal value of checks paid increased from $41.1 trillion to $41.6 trillion even as the total number of checks paid plummeted.

Source: Federal Reserve (USA)

The number of paid checks declined by 6.5 percent from 2003 to 2006 compared to only 3.8 percent from 2000 to 2003 as per figures from the Federal Reserve. By 2012, check payments had declined by 50% as more people joined the electronic form of payment bandwagon, including online banks and financial Apps!

As one would expect, from the statistics above, the number of checks paid has gone down significantly; however, check as a non-cash form of payment is still alive and well in the modern USA.

Today we will give a general overview of how to write a check but precisely zero in on: how to write a check without cents?

A Dummy Check

How to Fill in a Blank Check for Beginners in Six Easy Steps

Different banks or financial institutions where one can cash in the check may have additional requirements on how checks should be filled. One should do their research first before filling in the check.

However, in general, there are six easy steps to follow when filling in the blanks in a check, whatever the purpose. From Georgina Eastwood getting a $10 check from her grandmom as an incentive for great performance at school. To Miss Alina Firica writing a check as a gift for her brother’s wedding): Or  Nicklas writing a check as payment for car service. The list is endless.

We are going to address writing the check from top to bottom of the check as in the dummy check diagram above. However, you can start from anywhere in filling in the blanks):

Step 1

Feature number one is ‘the date’. All checks must have a date filled for them to be valid for bank records and security reasons. There are various ways of writing the date. For instance, you can use all numbers, for example, 05/15/2021 or use both words and numbers: May 15, 2021.

Remember, date formats vary in different parts of the world, something you should be aware of depending on where you are traveling or where the check is being cashed. For instance, in the USA, as indicated in the date example above, one writes the date starting with the month and then the day and year last.

While most parts of the world, including the UK, start writing the date beginning with the day, followed by the month and last year.For instance – 15/05/2021

On the other hand, when writing the date, nations like Sweden begin by writing the year, then the month and the date. For instance – 2021/05/15.

Step 2

The next feature one should fill in is the name of the person or organization to whom the check is being written. Precisely where it is written ‘pay to the order of’ is where you write the name of the receiver of the check/payment.

For security purposes, always draw a line in the remaining space after the person’s name or company to whom the check is being given. Drawing a line after writing the payee’s name means avoiding someone adding another name to it and defrauding you.

For instance, write ‘SOS Home————————–‘.                            

Step 3

You will then have to write the sum or amount of money that your account needs to withdraw. The amount should be written only in numbers. Writing the amount in numbers is done in a small Box, precisely on the same line where you wrote the name of the check receiver, but at the end. You will see a dollar sign beside the small blank box.

For example, Georgina can fill in ten dollars on the check as her grandmother wants. It will be written as follows 10.00 – meaning ten dollars and no cents.

Remember to put a decimal point after ten dollars 10.00 and not a comma 10,00-though this is done in some countries worldwide but not in the USA!

Also, do not repeat writing a ‘$’ dollar sign in the box as you write ten dollars since it is already written before the blank box on the check.

As a caution, when done writing the amount in numbers, in the remaining space, draw a horizontal line to the end. For example, 10.00——————– This avoids someone else adding different numbers other than what you have written.

Also, make sure when writing the amount on the check, begin precisely next to the borderline of the box to avoid someone inserting more numbers.  For example, write 10.00, and there is space before ten.

Someone could add an extra digit between 1-9 or as they wish, depending on how well the unscrupulous individuals know your financial status. So that 10.00 becomes510.00 with a five added… You do not want that to happen to you!

We shall look at more ways to write a check with no cents after step six.

The diagram above shows the number of checks paid in the USA in billions in 2007 Source:The Federal Reserve

Step 4

You will again have to write the amount stated in step in step four. However, this time around, you will write the amount, not in numbers but in words.

Please write the sum in words in the next space, which is immediately below the line where you wrote the amount in numbers. The line to write the amount ends with the word ‘dollars’.

Examples

• Example 1: Ten and no cents-10.00
• Example 2: Twenty-one and no cents-21.00

Note that one-we have used the word ‘and’ between ten and no cents in the example1 above

While in example two, take note of the line/dash/hyphen between the words’ twenty-one’.Similarly, like in example one, we use the word ‘and’ before no cents.

Do Not Write This Way

Example 1: Ten, no cents X  (do not use the comma between the words ‘ten’ and ‘no cents’ when writing the sum in words).

Example 2: Twenty-one and no cents X (Do not forget to hyphenate write ‘a dash line’ between compound numbers between 21 to 99 in our case ‘Twenty-one’).

Step 5

Here you want to write the reason for making the payment as it is essential for your records or the person who is cashing the check if it is a business.

For instance, Nicklas can write here-‘Bill for servicing car’.While Miss Alina can write here –‘Wedding gift’. At the same time, Georgina Eastwood can write – ‘From grandmom as an incentive for outstanding performance at college this term.’

It is also worth noting that this is the only place where you can also ignore and leave empty; there is no harm done!

Step 6

You will need to make your check valid or authorize that it can be cashed and that you are aware of it. You authorize whoever it is to cash in the check by signing on the check.

Without the signature, the check is invalid and cannot be cashed.

It is a good practice that before making a signature, one should go through the whole check to ensure all information is written correctly and in the correct format.

Also, never issue to anyone a blank check with your signature on it. Even if you trust the person, imagine if they misplaced the check. Anyone can use the blank check by simply writing whatever amount they want and cashing it out!

Five Ways Of How To Write A Check With No Cents

As indicated in step three, and the main reason for the article – here are more ways to write a check with no cents.

Which of the Five Ways of Writing a Check With no Cents Should I Use?

You may be wondering, which of the above five examples should you use? The fraction way of writing a check with no cents is commonly used. Okay, we are halfway through the answer; you may nod your head.

However, the question still remains-which of the fraction way of writing numbers with ‘no cents’ should one use? You could write 00/100, xx/100 or no/100.

As it turns out when writing an amount with no cents, it is clearer to write no/100 than add a horizontal line after than, for instance, xx/100. It is also way more secure in writing no/100 instead of 00/100 simply because crafty and unscrupulous people can turn the 00 into 99 for extra cents):

The point is you are learning how to write a check with no cents the right way to avoid being scammed or having a bouncing check because someone tried to temper with the amount.

 You want to avoid being slapped with a penalty for bounced check or fine for late payment since the bank withheld the check for no other reason other than someone had tampered with the cents part(:

However, you can use whichever example to write ‘no cents’ that you are comfortable with so long as you are in the USA):

Fun Facts in Connection With How to Write a Check Without Cents?

1. Did you know that the Federal Reserve of America (USA) no longer accepts checks larger than $99,999,999.00? The reason given for the decision… That Federal Reserve Banks’ check processing system could not take care of  $100,000,000.00 and above checks):
   
   Therefore, from January 1, 2016, until today, checks larger than $99,999,999.00 are handled by hand, which is risky and insecure!
2. You can write a check to yourself. It is one way in which you can move money from one of your accounts to another account.