Saturday, January 10, 2009

Order Personal Checks Direct From The Printer

By Brad Knipper

Ordering personal checks direct from the printer can save an easy 50%. Historically, the need for personal check derived for the need to transfer value safely. Over thousands of year the means of transferring wealth evolved to what it is today.

A check is a negotiable instrument. It instructs a financial company to pay someone a specific amount of money from a specified account held at an institution. It may be for a person or a company that the maker or depositor originates from.

Checks have been used by the early Romans around 1 BC and likely earlier. Anywhere the transfer of goods or use of bills of exchange to facilitate trade by eliminating the need for merchants to carry large quantities of currency (e.g. gold) to purchase goods and services, checks gained favor.

Carrying money around to do business could be very risky for an ancient merchant. Any draft or bill of exchange which could later be redeemed and payment guaranteed at a later time was a safer way to do business.

Checks generally contain: 1. place of issue 2. identification check number 3. date of issue 4. payee 5. amount of currency 6. signature identification of the drawer and 7. routing number.

The routing / account number in MICR format - in the U.S., the routing number is a nine-digit number in which the first 4 digits identifies the U.S. Federal Reserve Bank's check processing center.

Number 5 through 8 show which bank is served by the check processing center. The 9th digit serves as a identification number and verification digit for a complicated algorithm for the before mentioned digits. The entirety of the digits are assigned by various banks interdependently.

Fractional routing number (U.S. only) - also known as the transit number, consists of a denominator mirroring the first 4 digits of the routing number. And a hyphenated numerator, also known as the ABA number, in which the first part is a city code (1-49), if the account is in one of 49 specific cities, or a state code (50-99) if it is not in one of those specific cities; the second part of the hyphenated numerator mirrors the 5th through 8th digits of the routing number with leading zeros removed.

You're able to buy checks online or from a bank. Many choose to bypass the financial institution middleman and purchase directly from the check printer and, in the process, save 50% in costs. - 16928

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