is banker's check safe?

Question

Is it safe to receive banker's check from a strange person for a sale?

Answer 1

Acasiers check ---sure is

Answer 2

1. The check is only as good as the entity behind the check. If the check is a forgery you have a problem.

2. If you receive a cashier's check the bank issuing it will turn it into cash when you present the check. If you deposit it at another bank they should credit it immediately. I do believe that they can wait to pay out cash if the cashier's check is greater than $5K (by federal regulation). You can go back to the issuing bank and ask for a number of $5K checks.

3. Better than the above and for almost no extra cost is to just have the funds wired from their bank to your bank. Assuming you are with a reasonable sized bank you will have the funds in your account in 30 to 60 minutes after the other bank sends the money. Cash money that you can withdraw.

There is a fee when they send and likely a $10 to $12 fee at your end. For large sums the fee is rather minor compared to knowing that the funds are there and they have cleared.

Answer 3

Not necessarily. In fact, they are forged so regularly and so well, that most bank tellers can't even tell if a cashier's check from their own bank is legit or a forgery.

I wouldn't release the product being purchased until that check has fully cleared your bank.

There's a ton of scams out there right now, often used for people claiming to want to rent an apartment, but can be done for any number of reasons. It goes like this:

I want to rent your apartment. You need a $500 deposit. I'll send you a cashier's check for $2000. Please send me back the difference. You send them $1500, your $2000 never clears because it's fake, and they just stole $1500 from you.

Again there's probably 500 variations of this scam, but point is, cashier's checks are NOT necessarily safe. Not by a long shot.

Answer 4

Not always.

There is a scam where people issue forged bankers/cashiers checks for more than the purchase price, and ask you to refund them the difference. It takes banks a while to figure out the check is forged, and meanwhile they've run off with the money you refunded them.

Answer 5

Yes, a cashiers check has to be purchased with cash so that makes it ok. It's not like it can bounce because it was paid for by cash. Money orders are purchased the same way.