Old Bounced Checks?

Question

A long time ago when i was fresh out of high school i wrote a few checks with my first bank account and they played off eachother and some bounced. now there were 2 checks when i was 18 and one when i was 19. I am now 22, what will happen about these? I never had the funds to clear them up and just recently found out how serious this is. Can someone tell me what exactly i am in for and also how to figure out who i owe money to and clear it up? I cant remeber whom i owe for these checks its been so long ago but i want to try to clear them up if at all possible.

the checks were through 2 different banks in 2 different states... California and Nevada... i currently live in Texas. Also what kind of legal action can result from this? I been reading about this on some law pages and it says in california they can sentence me to 30 days on one page and then on another it says i can do a year in county. Nevada says 60 days on one then it also says 1-10 years in state? Im not a criminal and i dont want to go to prison over a mistake i made with my old bank account fresh out of high school

i just got off the phone with the banks... to answer a couple statements from you guys... i did not write these checks knowing i had insufficient funds... they were written in confidence i could cover them and the reason they bounced was my inexperience in handling a bank account. Now both banks claim i do not owe them anything from my accounts being closed and they both state that i am up to date on that. I am going to my uncles to use his long distance and I'm going to make some calls and try to figure out what to do and how to clear this up. thank you for all of your help everyone

also it was 2 checks for 100$ and one for 300$...i have a large check coming in for financial aid in college and i am going to use as much of it as i can spare to clean this up while i look for a job.

Answer 1

"I'm not a criminal" but I act like one! If you are found guilty, you really are as you did the deed and have a paper trail to prove it! It's not the intent, but the actions that would determine guilt!

I actually think if you haven't heard anything about this for 3 years or more, nobody reported it.

Answer 2

If the checks bounced, then the bank did not pay them, and so you do not owe the bank anything. The person who has the loss is the person to whom you wrote the checks. Assuming that your correct name and address was on the checks, if anybody was concerned about this you would have heard by now. If you can figure out who the checks were written to, I would say that you have at least a moral obligation to take care of it if you can. (If your right name and address were NOT on the checks, then the problem now could be anything from credit problems to an outstanding warrant for willfully writing checks against insufficient funds.)

ADD: If you intentionally wrote checks knowing there was not money to cover them, that can be a very serious offense indeed. You could go to prison for it in California (though most first offenders are not treated nearly so harshly). But the criminal law does not punish people for honest mistakes in their checking accounts.

ADD2: I do not understand the posters who claim that the banks lost money. When a check bounces, the bank returns it to the depositor WITHOUT paying it. The bank loses nothing, it is the depositor who suffers a loss. If the person or business to whom you wrote the check had your correct address, and you have not heard anything in this length of time, it is most probable that no action was or will be taken, but that is not certain. If you no longer remember who you wrote the checks to, you might want to ask the bank whether they have retained copies of the returned checks.

Answer 3

It kind of sounds to me like *maybe* you were doing check kiting, which is illegal. IF that was the case, then the money would be owed to the bank, because in check kiting a person writes checks from one bank as deposits into the other bank account, so there is never a ‘third party’ involved (ie the check isn’t being written to someone one else).

But if the bank says that you don’t owe them any money for the checks, then the checks cleared (somehow) because if they didn’t, the bank would still show a balance due and they would want their money. (Even if the bank ‘wrote it off’, which sometimes they do, they still show it as being owed and it is owed) However, it’s not clear to me IF that’s what you’re really saying or not. You said “both banks claim i do not owe them anything from my accounts being closed” which doesn’t mean you still don’t owe for the checks.

Regardless, kudos to you for being proactive in clearing this matter up! Basically all the bank wants is whatever money is due to them, so as long as you pay it, you shouldn’t have a problem with them.

Answer 4

There's not enough info here to figure out what you actually did.

If the banks say you owe nothing to them, that's how it is. Write to each of them in turn simply asking them to confirm that Account # .......... is no longer active and that there is nothing owing on that account.

Assuming a satisfactory answer on that count, you still have a moral debt towards any third parties to whom the original bounced checks were payable. It may be a debt that is in practice unenforceable, but it is still a moral debt.

Remember that it costs money to investigate these things and if a bank or business were owed money, they might well have reckoned it cheaper to write it off than to pursue it. Check with the parties (assuming that we're talking about someone other than the banks) to whom you reckon you may owe money to see whether they deem that you have any outstanding debts towards them. If so, pay them. If not, accept the fact, and learn the lesson that being in debt is not a pleasant experience.

Answer 5

The process where I live, is the people that you wrote the checks to would try to contact you by certified mail. When you do not respond they would then take the checks to the courthouse for criminal summons (warrant for worthless checks) to be issued. At that time the police would try to serve this to you at the address that the company had on the check. If they were unable to locate you, the officers would return the warrant to the Clerk's office at the courthouse & they would enter the warrants as returned as unserved. Most large companies would have entered your info into their database & would not accept checks from you until you cleared this matter through the courts. Our state will let you come in to be served with this warrant & you can go to the Clerk's office & waive your trial, plead guilty & pay your restitution, court cost. They will then send the restitution to the place you wrote the checks to. If those people did take out warrants for these checks, they can't accept payment.

Some counties in my state (NC) have a worthless check program through the District Atty office. I am not sure how their process works.

Answer 6

Take it easy Randy. call the banks you owe money to. They'll propably work with you, I did the same thing in Ga. Set up a payment plan and this will show you are sincere about your mistake. If they wanted you believe me they would have gotten you by know. It takes 5 years to come off your record to get another checking account. If you get arrested be sure to have enough money to pay the check, then they have to turn you loose. At least that was my exp. How much was the checks? that counts for alot, but pay them off so you can get out of this mess. GOOD LUCK.

Answer 7

There is a difference between accidentally bouncing a couple checks and making a habit of it. Two accounts with one bounced check each is not anything to be so worried about. Also, checks are (on average) only good for one year after they are written. If the person who is owed money has not come forward, they have run out of time. Just be more careful in the future about keeping your checkbook balanced, and you should be OK.

Answer 8

You need to talk to the bank to whom the checks belong. If you owe money, it is most likely to the bank. Your credit score most likely took a hit from this incident as well...sorry to hear the bad news.
Well, good luck

Answer 9

Go to the bank and see if they are still in the system and you want to correct the problem, and maybe it might have been sent to a collection agency and you might have to deal with them??

Answer 10

I would contact the bank, and good for you for making this right!