What does refer to maker mean on a returned check

If they did not meet the midnight deadline, they must clearly assert a claim for a breach of warranty or take the check back. When treated this way, I would be willing to at least make them do the extra work in the hope that the return was not timely. Well, for years I was smart. I recommend pleasant. You have several option to resolve this depending on your situation. Call the bank ask if they know which checks are legitimate.

If so verify yours are good if possible. Send them as a collection item, requesting they be paid or if forged that be designated as such. They cannot be used to prosecute unless declared a forgery. If deposited by a customer charge them back to the depositors account and let them deal with the maker. Call the maker if possible and ask the them if they are legitimate. Tell him his bank did not honor them and ask what he intends to do. You can even ask him to bring good funds to your bank and pick them up.

We use refer to maker and we want them to do just that - talk to the person who made out the check. When we use it, it is generally due to a levy - we can't pay the check because of the levy and the hold on the funds, but we don't necessarily want the holder to know there is a levy on the account privacy and all that. If the holder contacts the maker who knows about the levy , the maker can tell them whatever they story they want as to why the check was not paid or offer to make it good.

There are a few other reasons why we might use refer to maker - perhaps we suspect the maker is kiting and have sent them a letter saying we are closing the account as of date and not paying any further checks. The account is not closed yet, but we are also not releasing any funds until we know we will not suffer a loss. Again, the holder should be contacting the maker who knows why the checks are being returned.

The refer to maker has always been a big red flag to me when we get a check back with that notation. Ding ding! It's for you. Susan, In both of the cases you mention, wouldn't it be just as respectful of customer privacy, but much more accurate to return the checks "funds subject to hold"? Then, the payee would know your customer had not knowingly written them a bad check and your customer could still offer any explanation he wanted to the payee.

In addition, the depositary bank would know it still had a "cash item" which it could resubmit throught the clearing system and whether or not your bank had met the appropriate deadline in returning the item. Refer To Maker is not an indication that the customer wrote a bad check. It also provides some privacy in that the actual reason, which should be between the bank and the maker is not made public.

Its not practical to say thing like, checks reported stolen so we are returning everything. There are a lot of reasons to return items, and not all are due to Holds. Another problem is maintaining some sort of consistency in the industry. If every bank stamped their own return phrases on a check it going to get mighty confusing. I would be very careful about the reasons for return being stamped on a check. Please enter a valid email address. Confirm Email Please enter your email address.

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