With the economy being in such a bad shape it is often difficult enough to make it from payday to payday. Things only get worse when you finally get paid only to discover that your bank is closed for the weekend or the holiday and that you can’t even use your hard earned money because you have nowhere to cash that paycheck.
When the baby needs diapers or your food stores are depleted, waiting until Monday may not be an option, and long holiday weekends can make matters go from bad to worse. These are the times that many people feel frustrated and helpless. What they need, is some check cashing options, other than going to the bank.
Such options do exist, but, how available they are may depend in large part upon the community where you live and how well known you and the business you work for may be. Here are some options that you can try.
Friends And Family Members
Many times your best bet of getting a check cashed quickly is by having a friend or family member who has cash on hand cash the check for you. In these cases you either write a check to the person or sign over your paycheck to them and they give you the checks amount in cash and then when their bank opens they deposit your check into their account.
This was something that most people could have done on a regular basis but with the economy as it is, this has become more and more difficult, as often friends and family members are living pay check to pay check the same as you are doing.
Local Businesses
If you live in a small community or a close knit neighborhood where the company you work for has good standing, often times local businesses will cash a paycheck for you. The longer the business you work for has been in business, the more likely they are to cash your check, as they feel that there is little risk in doing so.
Many local businesses will even cash personal checks if you are a known customer and have done business with them for quite some time. The problem is that there is no guarantee that these businesses will have the money on hand to allow them to cash a check, unless they are in the habit of doing so on a regular basis. Local businesses however, will rarely if ever cash third party checks that are non business checks.
In smaller communities many local businesses will still cash checks as courtesy to their more favored customers, while others may charge you a check cashing fee. These fees are usually only a couple of dollars and may be worth it for the convenience alone.
The Business That Issued The Check
If you work for a small business that takes in a lot of cash through their business, such as a restaurant, cafe or small grocery store, sometimes they will cash their own paychecks for you in order that you can have the cash.
In many smaller communities, such businesses cash their employees checks as a matter of course. In others they may do so on an emergency basis. Either way, unless they have already stated that they won’t cash your paycheck, it usually doesn’t hurt to ask.
Check Cashing Businesses
There are many businesses set up simply for the purposes of cashing checks for people who do not have bank accounts, or for when people do not have access to their banks. While these places are convenient to use, and you can certainly get your paychecks, government checks and often even personal checks cashed easily and quickly at such places, they do cost you.
Most of these places charge between 3% and 5% of the check’s value for cashing the check for you. While this is costly, it is an option if you have nowhere else to go.
Other Options
While they won’t cash third party checks, if you have a check cashing card with them, WalMart stores will cash personal checks and many of them will also cash payroll and government checks for a fee. There may be other chain stores in your area that do the same.
If the banks are open and you simply don’t have a bank account, then you can get your pay check cashed at the bank from which the check was drawn, particularly if it is a payroll check. By going to the bank where the check was drawn, the bank can easily check and make sure that the money is in the account and there is no risk when cashing the check for you.
What You Will Need
Most places that do cash checks require you to have two forms of ID one a picture government ID such as driver’s license. Other forms of ID that check cashing places have accepted are credit cards, birth certificates, social security cards and even utility bills that are in your name and have your address attached. They simply want to make sure that you are who you say you are and that you are not trying to cash a check that does belong to you.
While getting a check cashed may not seem easy, there are options available where you can get that check cashed quickly if you know where to look. Having one or two readily available sources in case of an emergency, can help to keep your stress levels normal while providing the things for your family that they need.
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