With a new calendar year comes a new date and for some customers, that means forgetting to change the date on their cheques when heading to one of the local banks.
Even though staff at Lac La Biche banks say there are only a few people around town who forget to change over the dates on their cheques, most banks in town offer a grace period for anyone who writes the wrong date.
“Regardless of the amount, customers have a one month grace period to fix the dates,” said Servus Credit Union Branch Manager Donna Sauers in LLB, adding that many just cross off the wrong date in front of the tellers.
Staff at the ATB in Lac La Biche say that although they don’t offer a grace period, there is a very low impact on the cheques being passed if the date is wrong. For the amount of transactions being passed during the day, the chances of a wrong date appearing on a cheque is something like one out of a 100, said LLB ATB branch manager Reuel Thomas.
“Cheques are an old technology and many people do everything electronically,” said Thomas, adding that if a cheque does have the wrong date, bank staff contact the customer right away and fix the mistake.
But bank staff say that even if a customer does put the wrong date, they can always just cross off 2010 and replace it with the new year and sign their initials next to the correction.
