Cash a check day before pay day?

Clay201 — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 12:06:50 -0800

If I write a check today and it's cashed immediately, but the money to cover it won't be in my account until tomorrow, what happens? I stopped dealing with analog checks some years back. Most of my transactions these days are digital. I get the impression that, thanks to computers and what-not, things have changed in the banking industry quite a bit in the intervening years. So I feel I'm mostly clueless about current check-related procedures.

The situation:

I get a check at the beginning of the month, always by the third at the absolute latest. But I need the money today, it's only the second, and it hasn't shown up yet.

The questions:

If I write a check today and the recipient cashes it immediately (or if I just write it to cash), what happens? Does the bank look at my account and say "sorry, you don't have this much money" and refuse to cash it? Do they cash it, process it right away, discover that I have insufficient funds, and then hit me for the fees? (And if this happens, do they wait a day or so and then put the check through again?) Or do they cash it, take a day or more to process it - by which time the money has been deposited - and then everything is fine?

Yeah, I know this is not the way to conduct one's finances. Believe me, I don't normally do it this way. It's a pretty special set of circumstances. If you want to post to call me an idiot or tell me this is a bad idea, please also include in your post some information I don't already have or an account of your personal experience with this sort of thing. I figure that's a fair trade-off.

I've explored the possibility of getting a short-term loan (either personal or commercial). It doesn't look do-able and I'd rather not waste my time or yours discussing all the ins and outs of that avenue.

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Cash a check day before pay day?