What banks charge for cashier's checks, money orders, stop payments and printed checks, and which of them you can avoid.
Check fees tend to arrive at moments when you have no time to shop around. A cashier's check for a car purchase or a stop payment on a payment gone wrong is not a decision you make at leisure.
Paying to stop a check.
Illustrative amountsIllustrative amounts, not any institution's prices. You wrote a $200 check and ask your bank to stop it. The $30 stop payment fee is charged whether or not the stop succeeds, and if the check has already cleared, the stop does nothing. Look for whether it has cleared, put the stop in writing and note the date it expires.
Check whether a payment has cleared before you pay to stop it.
Stop payments also expire. A written stop payment generally lasts six months and an oral one expires far sooner unless confirmed in writing, so a stopped check can resurface later and be paid.
Check printing is easy to overlook, because it is presented as part of opening an account rather than as a purchase. You can order checks from an independent printer instead. They carry the same account and routing numbers and clear the same way, so compare the price.
Counter checks, at a median $2.00, are the emergency option: blank checks a teller prints when you have run out. They work, but some businesses refuse them because they lack your printed name and address, which is worth knowing before relying on one.
| Fee | Institutions |
|---|---|
| $0 to under $1 | 49 |
| $1 to under $2 | 111 |
| $2 to under $3 | 270 |
| $3 to under $4 | 346 |
| $4 to under $5 | 120 |
| $5 to under $6 | 976 |
| $6 to under $7 | 112 |
| $7 to under $8 | 160 |
| $8 to under $9 | 100 |
| $9 to under $10 | 12 |
| $10 to under $11 | 220 |
| $11 to under $12 | 4 |
| $12 to under $13 | 25 |
| $13 to under $14 | 8 |
| $14 to under $15 | 9 |
| $15 to under $16 | 36 |
| $16 and up | 29 |
The chart below compares cashier's check fees at banks and credit unions, from published fee schedules in the Bank Fee Index. Some institutions waive these fees for members or for certain accounts, so check the schedule for the account you hold.
To find your own price, open your bank's fee schedule and look for the service by name: cashier's check, money order, stop payment or counter check. The price is listed beside it. Some schedules list a different price for each account, so read the column for the account you have.
A cashier's check is different, and this is the part worth knowing. Because it is drawn on the bank's own funds, you generally cannot stop payment on one. If it is lost or stolen, the process is a declaration of loss and a waiting period, often ninety days, before the bank will pay the claim. Treat a cashier's check like cash.
Regulation CC governs how long your bank may hold funds from a check you deposit. That is a hold rather than a fee, but it matters here: a hold you did not expect can lead to the NSF and overdraft fees covered in the other guides.
Regulation DD requires fees tied to your account, such as stop payment fees, to be disclosed before you open the account. Services sold to anyone, such as money orders, may not appear in the account's fee schedule, so ask the price first. 12 CFR 1030.4
| If your bank charges | Where that puts you |
|---|---|
| Free to account holders | Best available |
| $3.00 or less | In the lowest-priced quarter |
| Around $5.00 | Right at the national median |
| More than $6.00 | In the highest-priced quarter |
These fees are easy to ignore because you meet them rarely. That is why they are worth checking now rather than at the counter.
Check your own bank
Find your bank or credit union and see its published cashier's check against the national median.
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