I wish I was as smart as my kids. They’re never wrong.
Never.
If you don’t believe me, just ask them.
As a matter of fact, I was reminded of that little “fact” last month after the Honeybee noticed that a couple of checks hadn’t been cashed by my daughter’s school for fees related to her color guard activities.
Normally, we’d write a check out at the beginning of each month for $125 and Nina would then take it to school and deposit it in the music room lock box.
We also had the option of mailing the check directly to the school, but we figured it made little sense to waste 49 cents each month on a stamp when Nina could just as easily deliver the payment herself.
Anyway, from September through February, our little routine went off without a hitch. Nina turned in the checks and the school dutifully cashed them; always within a couple days of receiving them.
However, by late May, something was definitely amiss. For some strange reason, the checks for March and April were still uncashed. Why did the school suddenly stop cashing them?
Well, after firing off an email to the color guard’s treasurer, she told us that she emptied the lock box daily and cashed the checks as they came in. She also assured us that she never received the March or April checks.
Now, assuming the checks were lost, we could notify the bank and issue a couple of stop payment orders. However, my intuition was that the checks weren’t lost. As such I was willing to take my chances and pass. Besides, at $20 per transaction, that was a lot of scratch. Why waste it if we weren’t absolutely positive those checks could fall into nefarious hands.
Since two checks were missing, the Honeybee and I figured it was reasonable to infer that, logically, the problem was most-likely traceable to Nina.
Of course, when we asked her if she may have forgot to deliver the March and April checks, she gave her mom an emphatic, “No!”
“Are you sure?” the Honeybee asked.
“Very sure!” Nina implored. “I absolutely remember putting both checks in the lock box!”
“Are you positive?”
“Yes!”
“Maybe the checks are still in your backpack?” the Honeybee suggested. That seemed reasonable to me. Nina’s backpack has at least a dozen zippered compartments, each one packed to the gills with everything from homework assignments and protractors to makeup and miniature stuffed animals.
“Impossible!”
“Well, go check anyway.”
And with that, Nina stormed off in a huff. Precisely 16 seconds later, she was back. Upon conducting a thorough investigation of all 12 compartments in her backpack, there were no checks. Or so she said.
“Told ya!” she said matter-of-factly.
Uh huh.
Later that evening, after Nina had gone to bed, the Honeybee decided to go through Nina’s backpack and give it a more thorough examination.
Sure enough, in one of the pockets, crinkled up among all of the other flotsam and jetsam was the March check. As for the April check, it was in there too.
I don’t blame my daughter. It’s part of growing up, after all.
I’m just glad we didn’t waste $40 to have our bank stop payment on those “lost” checks.
Photo Credit: Donald Lee Purdue
(Note: The original publication date of this article was April 25, 2012.)
She’s going to read this one day. lol
True. And knowing my daughter, it’ll probably be before the day is out!
I don’t think I’ve ever had to stop a payment. Lucky, I guess!
I think I’ve had to do it on at least two occasions, but it’s been a long long time. Most likely it’s due to automatic bill pay, which has reduced the number of checks we pay out compared now.
How can someone not named “School Color Guard” cash those checks anyway?
Never underestimate the mind of industrious criminals.
@Oscar I’ve heard you can cash checks in someone else’s name provided that it is signed on the back. Con artists have all kinds of ways of convincing people to do things their way too.
One old trick criminals will do is acid wash the ink off the “Pay to” line and then rewrite their own names. If they are feeling really lucky, they may even do it on the “Amount” lines too — and then replace it with a higher total.
Only use gel pen to make out checks, this can not be successfully “washed.” You are safe with a gel pen.
You never disappoint, Karen. Thanks for the tip! 🙂
I’m just glad you didn’t find anything else beside the checks when you looked in her backpack.
Me too, Dr. Dean. Me too.
Online payment wasn’t an option. I’m not sure why the school didn’t ask us about the checks. I suspect they either: 1) probably had enough money in the bank to cover expenses, so it wasn’t a priority; or 2) the treasurer hadn’t balanced her own books.
Lucky you have smart kids! And, that is because of you. Congrats!
Nina is so smart and confident! But of course she’s still a kid. 🙂
I have a funny one to share. I put cheques on file for ‘stuff’ at a Care Home for my buddy who has no family … which made me think of this story:
I have POA for him etc etc and decided to keep his Visa going for the first year ‘just in case’. Mistake.
One day I get a snail mail bill for $28. The amount was not itemized as per usual CC practice, but said it was for Administrative Fees, which after several pissed-off phone calls to Toronto head office they finally admitted was for an ‘in house’ insurance system to take care of card scam losses. I lost it; “with you making billions and charging merchants a fee for using your card, plus 24% or whatever for customer late fees and you bilk same customers to supply a restitution fund”?
“I’m not paying, won’t pay, will never pay, go pound sand”.
So the bills kept coming and the interest owed after the warning threats were approx 28 cents per month. The mailing of said bill would be a dollar, and processing who knows? etc etc and for 28 cents?
Then, we canceled the card, (which was a freaking nightmare and I finally had to phone from the Care Home and hand the phone back and forth because my friend cannot do phone or phone menus. When they played the disclaimer recording he started to panic. So the card is officially canceled and they are still sending me the same freaking bills. What are they going to do, take the card away?
Suddenly, last month’s notice they reduced the $29 charge by $20 which they called an ‘adjustment’ and still asked for $9.20.
The minimum monthly payment is $10 and they want $9.20 for a canceled card. I am going to see how long the farce continues. It could be years.
Me? I use a Credit Union linked Mastercard. Never had a problem.
Wow. Your story, Paul, is just more proof that “No good deed goes unpunished!”