I've read all (well most) of the stale dated check issues previously posted. However, they all seem to be referring to honoring an "on us" check. My question is when you take a check to cash, not drawn on your bank, what are your policies then? And if the stale dated check is a government (Federal or State) do you treat them the same as any other check in regards to what you consider stale dated. In other words, when you are cashing someone else's check what do you consider stale dated and therefore refuse to cash w/o a hold being placed ? (Although, you can't place a hold on government checks.)

On U.S. Treasury checks, if the check is more than a year old the check is void. It's not stale dated, it's void; it will not be paid. The teller should circle the date and hand the check back to the customer with a suggestion that he or she contact the issuing agency and obtain a new check.

On state checks, you would need to contact the Treasurer of the state that issued the check for their individual perspective. There are no uniform rules, but I would expect any check which they felt to be stale dated in a period less than 6 months would contain a legend to that effect.

On business or personal checks, the paying bank could pay the check or it could return it - you would have no way of knowing what decision they might make. If your teller noted the stale date I would expect that he or she would simply circle the date, explain the problem to the customer and hand it back, instructing the customer to request a replacement check. Alternatively, the bank could accept the item for deposit and impose an exception hold based on reasonable cause to doubt collectibility. Finally, the bank could send the check as a collection item.

Exactly what I was looking for--thank you.

Ok, where do you find "legal discription" of a stale dated check. Or is stale dated just and excuse banks have used for years to return items? This is a hot topic right now in one of our departments.
Thank you in advance.

You need to look at your State's UCC. It is normally 6 months for standard checks.

In reading our UCC 6 months is a stale dated check. What if the customer does not find that the item paid until our customer receives their statement. As the bank can we send it back?

No. Your decision to pay/not to pay a stale-dated check is just as final as your decision to pay/not to pay a check written last week. It's a decision you can make based on your records and the check itself.

Note that most state UCC versions provide that a bank may pay a check notwithstanding the fact that it's more than 6 months old, as long as it does so in good faith. Here's the wording of the "model" version of the UCC, which may or may not have been adopted by your state:

§ 4-404. BANK NOT OBLIGED TO PAY CHECK MORE THAN SIX MONTHS OLD.

A bank is under no obligation to a customer having a checking account to pay a check, other than a certified check, which is presented more than six months after its date, but it may charge its customer's account for a payment made thereafter in good faith.

"Good faith" is normally defined as "honesty in fact and the observance of reasonable commercial standards of fair dealing."

In general, if your state uses the model UCC language, if a bank is unaware that its customer doesn't want a stale item paid (there's no effective stop payment order on the item), payment would be "in good faith." Given the fact that most banks don't normally check dates on checks, it would be hard to suggest bad faith if the bank paid a stale item, unless the customer had a valid stop order in place.