English question

Turnabout is fair play, or should be....

Anyway, I know the answer, but I want some confirmation. Some years ago my dad asked me to write a check for the company's bank account in the US. I forget the amount, but let's say it was $1,150 dollars. I wrote down "eleven hundred and fifty dollars."

I'm sure that's right, but both my dad and older brother said it was wrong. So I had to redo the check and write "one thousand one hundred and fifty dollars."

The way I see it they're both right.

I'm asking because for some reason my brother brought it up recently. We had the same English teacher, actually, and he's just about as fluent as I am. But sometimes he lets show some amazing gaps in his understanding. Like the time he said the "No Littering" signs on the freeways meant the use of high-beam headlights was restricted :)

I think both are right too. When I was a client at PNC I had no problems in writing checks with "one thousand and two hundred" for example.

In all those instances "and" should have been omitted.

I believe that the cheque should have been written 'one thousand one hundred and fifty dollars'. Probably either way would clear the bank though. I am not sure of the comment about no "and" but believe it is necessary. But of course my english is more British than American as shown by my spelling of cheque.

Quote: aluisio

I think both are right too. When I was a client at PNC I had no problems in writing checks with "one thousand and two hundred" for example.

The thing is in Spanish there's no equivalent to "eleven hundred." The hundreds top out at "nine hundred," which is called "novecientos."

Now, my dad, who didn't have any formal education in English, did understand "eleven hundred." But he thought it only applied when the amount was even as far as hundreds are concrned. So in his mind it was "eleven hundred" yes, "eleven hundred and fifty" no. My brother should have known better.

Quote: kenarman

I believe that the cheque should have been written 'one thousand one hundred and fifty dollars'. Probably either way would clear the bank though. I am not sure of the comment about no "and" but believe it is necessary. But of course my english is more British than American as shown by my spelling of cheque.

Mexican banks are awful and strict about how checks have to be made out. For example, in the area where you write the amount in words, cents have to be expressed as fractions of one hundred like this: 1,127.56 = Un mil ciento veintisiete pesos 56/100. If you instead write at the tned "cincuenta y seis centavos," odds are your check will be rejected by the teller.

On the upside, any check from any Mexican bank clears for deposit on any other Mexican bank the next business day at noon (unless the check lacked enough funds). You can also pay a credit card issued by one bank at a second bank with a check from a third bank, but that gets you charged a comission.

Having just taken a semester-long class on writing checks, I can tell you the correct way is:

One thousand one hundred fifty dollars.

The "and" is unnecessary and is only used to indicate the decimal point for cents, e.g. "One dollar and fifty cents."

You should also do a strikethrough of the rest of the amount line or write "and no cents," "00/100," or something of the sort.

That's an impressive clearing time by Mexican banks. In the U.S. the deadline for final payment is midnight on the day after the item is deposited. Often times they are faster. Depends on whether you are in a big city and how concentrated the banking market is. I'd imagine Mex City has a couple big banking chains that are pretty well integrated.

Quote: teddys

That's an impressive clearing time by Mexican banks. In the U.S. the deadline for final payment is midnight on the day after the item is deposited. Often times they are faster. Depends on whether you are in a big city and how concentrated the banking market is. I'd imagine Mex City has a couple big banking chains that are pretty well integrated.

Not quite, but the number of banks is rather small. At a guess I'd say there are less than 30 or 40 banks operating in the whole country. That is banks with branch offices where you can open accounts, make payments, cash checks deposit money, etc. There are a number of foreign banks with offices here, but they don't provide bannking services to the public at large.

There are many advantages to the small number of banks, beyond claering checks quickly (there's a kind of central celaring house for that, as I understand). For instance, you can use a branch in Guadalajara as easilya s one in Mexico City. You also find your banks ATMs nearly everywhere and avoid extra fees from networked transactions.

Lately small banks were quite the rage, until a certain big company known as Walmart got in on the action. They offer small bank services at all their retail stores. Then other large retail chains began to copy them, so now Soriana and Chedrahui also offer banking at their stores. Only Comercial Mexicana hasn't jumped in yet. Oh, to be fair Banco Azteca started that trend in a chain of applaince stores called Elektra, but their numbers can't comapre to Walmart's; and their banks were separate fromt he stores. At Walmart you can make deposits to your account at the checkout line. That's very convenient.

Quote: Nareed

Mexican banks are awful and strict about how checks have to be made out.

I don't think that American banks even look at the writing. It's all processed by computers. The only purpose of writing out the amount is a check against fraud if someone alters the digits. I wouldn't normally write the word "and" on a check, but I always wrote 45/100 for the cents (even if it was 00/100) . The only reason was that it makes it harder to move a decimal point for fraud.

I did have one case a long time ago where I was very careless, and sent a check in for a credit card company where I forgot to write in who the check was made out to. Someone at the company wrote in their own name and cashed the check. This was in the day when you had carbon copies. Even though I had made the mistake, the company had a thief on their staff. So I wrote in the company name on the carbon copy, xeroxed it and sent it in as proof. The company accepted it, but I doubt that would work today. It is too easy to get a picture of the original check as cashed. On the other hand the thief would be much easier to catch.

Eleven hundred fifty dollars would be normal for way to say the amount verbally. Most newspapers have style manuals, and I think they usually present amounts like that as numerals instead of spelling it out. They limit words to numbers from one to ten.

Quote: pacomartin

I did have one case a long time ago where I was very careless, and sent a check in for a credit card company where I forgot to write in who the check was made out to. Someone at the company wrote in their own name and cashed the check. This was in the day when you had carbon copies. Even though I had made the mistake, the company had a thief on their staff. So I wrote in the company name on the carbon copy, xeroxed it and sent it in as proof. The company accepted it, but I doubt that would work today. It is too easy to get a picture of the original check as cashed. On the other hand the thief would be much easier to catch.

That's interesting. There is a legal remedy for forged employee indorsements, so for example if the thief forged the credit card company's signature on the back of the cheque and cashed it, the company would be held liable for failing to monitor the thief. Forgery of the payee's name is a different matter. You would probably be liable for negligently failing to fill in the payee name. I can't see any company passing the loss onto you, however. In the name of good customer service they would shoulder the loss. I assume the employee absconded with the money, and you didn't have to pay twice?