Cashier

A cashier's check (also known as a cashier's cheque, bank check, official check, demand draft, teller’s check, bank draft or treasurer's check) is a check guaranteed by a bank. They are usually treated as cash since most banks clear them instantly. However, banks are permitted to take back money from a cleared check one or two weeks later if subsequent processing finds it to be fraudulent.

Customers believe the checks have been found valid and have been converted to cash in hand, customers are readily defrauded by schemes which ask them to part with goods or a portion of the money if it is cleared in a timely manner. Cashier’s checks feature the name of the issuing bank in a prominent location, usually the upper left-hand corner or upper center of the check.

In addition, they are generally produced with enhanced security features, including watermarks, security thread, color-shifting ink, and special bond paper. These are designed to decrease the vulnerability to counterfeit items. In order to be recognized as a cashier's check, words to that effect must be included in a prominent place on the front of the item.

The payee's name, the written and numeric amount to be tendered, the remitter's information, and other tracking information One leading contractor is Integrated Payment Systems, which issues cashier's checks and coordinates redemption of the items for many banks, in addition to issuing money orders and other payment instruments.

In theory, teller's checks are checks issued by a financial institution but drawn on another institution, as is often the case with credit unions. Due to an increase in fraudulent activities many banks insist upon waiting for a cashier's check to clear the originating institution.

Personal checks will thus have the same utility in such transactions popular alternative to cashier's checks and are considered safer than personal bank checks. Counterfeit Money Orders and Cashier's checks have been used in certain scams to steal from those who sell their goods online on sites such as eBay and craigslist.