how long can you wait to cash your cheque?

[jackti]

ok. simple question:

I just make low 4-digit amounts of dollars from adsense every month, so i thought i'd just let them sit and cash in a bunch of them when i get around to it, how long can i wait? i heard they are valid for 6 months if they are 'personal' cheques? mine is made out to:
myname
myname
address
country
would that be considered 'personal' or..? can anyone answer this for me? i'm from europe so maybe things are a little different here...

thanks

jack

[richmondsteve]

I'm sure Google can answer your question. Asking them is probably safer than asking here. They generally respond quickly to such questions and give adequate answers. After you ask them, please return here and post your findings.

First of all, I believe a check is classified as a business or personal check based on whether the check's account holder is a business or an individual. In other words it's not based on who the check is made out to. Since you spell it "cheques" I assume you are not in the US though and it sounds like you are trying to avoid fees for cashing International checks, otherwise you're losing out on interest on large sums.

In many cases I receive checks (not from Google) which are marked to expire 90 days after issued, but I've cashed checks on several occasions after expiration. In my experience, bank tellers do not check the expiration date (and worse for check writers, do not check to make sure a post-dated check is not cashed early). I have no idea whether there is a standard expiration on checks where the expiration is not marked and whether the likelihood that you're outside the US makes a difference.

[jackti]

yes it's true, im not in the US but scandinavia.
the thing is that there is no expiration date on those i recieve from Google.. i will mail them and post the results when the answer comes.

thanks

jack

[onfire]

I would go with richmondsteve advice on this one, better to ask Google directly and see what they have to say.

However me personally i would not let them go over the 90 days (3 months) which seems to be the standard for cheques anyway.

[zoltan]

jackti, do you consider a 4 digit amount USD low? Funny. :)

[Ivana]

Ask your bank how long it takes to actually cash the cheque. Most banks lets you get the money in your account from a foreign cheque before the check is actually cashed. With some countries it can take years before the money actually get transfered to your bank.

What I'm getting at is that if you wait with cashing your cheque, Google may have cancelled it in the meantime and eventually your bank will see that they didn'y get the money from this check and they'll obviously charge your bank account.

I think you should get advice from your bank on this matter. They'll be able to tell you exactly how foreign checques work.

[jackti]

ok thanks for the answers everyone.. zoltan - it's not like the money isn't welcome, but it's just to eliminate all the fees, and the site is really just a hobby so the money comes when the money comes.... i acctually just mailed Google asking them if they could pay me every 3 months for example, and also how long they are valid plus i asked them if they had plans to use a VISA/paypal like system soon - like fastclick uses.. it would really be a lot more simple than these checks. (was that spelled right? :)

thanks again to all of you

jack

[Ivana]

I believe both 'check' and 'cheque' are correct, but 'check' is the US spelling and 'cheque' is the UK spelling...

If you do hear from Google, I'd be interested in their answer.

[richmondsteve]

jackti, just for the record I wasn't giving you a hard time because of how you spelled check/cheque so I hope it didn't come across that way.

I just inferred that based on your spelling you were outside the US and probably were asking because you wanted to avoid bank fees by cashing several checks from Google's US bank at the same time.

But yes, in the US it is spelled check, though I do think cheque seems classier.

[jackti]

no offence taken my friend :)

but yes i will post their answer here when it comes back.

[jackti]

i am just writing to let everyone who was curious about it know what the guys at google replied to my mail

first i asked how long they are valid, they said:
"At this time, the checks you receive for your AdSense earnings are valid indefinitely."
i'm not sure if this is true for all adsense publishers or just ones from other countries.. but at least that leads me to think i could just keep my cheques until i got a decent sum together and then cash them all at once and blow it all in one night:)

about what i asked them about paying every 3 month instead they said they could hold the checks from month to month if i mailed them about it.. i don't want to make their lives or mine hard or anything so i won't be doing it.

last was the paypal thing, they said they were hoping to add more options (not paypal specifically or direct deposit) in the coming months.. whatever that meant.

hope this helps you others too..

so, just to clarify.. 'indefinitely' means i dont have to worry about the time then?

thanks

jack

[richmondsteve]

jackti wrote:

so, just to clarify.. 'indefinitely' means i dont have to worry about the time then?

jackti, that's how I'd interpret it. Just keep them somewhere safe! If you do lose them I suspect Google, like many companies, would just reissue the checks though.

Thanks for keeping us all posted on what Google had to say.