Writing a Check

Does your teen know how to write a check?

When my husband and I started dating he didn’t have a checking account. He just cashed his paychecks and paid for everything with cash. It was easy back then because he didn’t have a lot of bills. He lived with his grandmother and owned an old car he had paid for with just a couple hundred dollars in cash. If he needed to mail somebody some money he just got a cashiers check from the bank or the post office.

About two years later we were living together with our first child so I added him to my checking account. It wasn’t long before I realized he didn’t know how to write a check. He was 25 years old and didn’t know how to properly write a check. He wasn’t totally clueless, but he did struggle with it a little bit. And I was shocked. I guess I just assumed everybody knew how to write a check.

A lot of schools now teach kids about money and check writing, but some teens are still confused. Make sure your teen isn’t one of them. Get him/her a checking account. A parent needs to co-sign on accounts for kids under 18. This means you will be able to monitor his account and help him figure it all out. This will give him some experience before he heads of to college and is solely in charge of his own money.

Here are some tips to remember when teaching teens how to write a check:

Date: The date goes in the upper right hand corner, directly under the check number. You can write the date in any format as long as it’s legible. 9/5/2008, 9/5/08, September 5, 2008, Sept. 5, 2008 are all acceptable choices. You can put in the current date or a future date. Putting in a future date is post dating the check so the payee must wait until the future date to cash the check.

Pay to the order of: The next line starts with “Pay to the order of.” This is where you write the name of the person or company you are giving money to. This would be Target or Hy-Vee or your Grandma Jean.

In the box with a $: In the same line is a box with a dollar sign. Here you write the numeric dollar amount you need to pay (e.g. $36.45).

Long line ending with the word “Dollars”: On the next line you write the dollar amount in words, along with the change as a fraction plus a horizontal line (e.g. Thirty-six and 45/100 ———). Make sure the entire line is filled in. Fill the additional space with a horizontal line.

Signed: The check needs to be signed in order for it to be valid. Don’t forget to sign the check,

Memo: You can write anything in this section (e.g. your account number, a reminder as to why you wrote the check).

Also, make sure your teen keeps track of his money so he isn’t writing checks his checking account can’t cash. Don’t forget to write the date, check number, payee and dollar amount in the check register. Then subtract the check amount from the outstanding balance in the checking account.

We tend to take check writing for granted. We assume everybody knows how to do it because we do it every day and it’s become so second nature to us. But does your teen really know how to fill out each field?