Disposing of unused and current check book
My bank has sent me a check book. Apparently it is a standard feature of my account, included at no extra charge.
Odds are I am never going to write a check in my life. Due to dysgraphia, I have difficulty with my handwriting, and even if I could, merchants hate them.
Keeping the checkbook around just wastes space and opens me up to another avenue of vulnerability should it ever be stolen.
What should I do with the book?
Throwing it out seems insecure.
Shredding it is an option perhaps?
Maybe I can just return it to the bank and say I don't want it?
To be clear this question is not about the practicalities of accessing facilities for shredding. But as to if that is even the right thing to do.
(e.g. are there consequences of not being able to present my unused checkbook to the bank, if there is money stolen from my account.)
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You can try returning it to a local branch of your bank, though you can't be entirely certain they'll accept it - it's probably not a very common request and the staff may not have a procedure for handling it.
If that doesn't work or you don't want to try it, then shredding them would work. You could also get away with writing "VOID" or similar on them and tearing them in several pieces, if you don't have a shredder.
Ultimately, if they are misused, as long as you keep an eye on your bank account and report it in good time, you shouldn't be held liable. But dealing with that would create extra effort for you.
You shouldn't ever need your unused chequebook nowadays. Many years ago when there were limits on daily withdrawals and no means to track it electronically, the branch staff would mark a calendar in the back of your chequebook, but that hasn't been needed for a long time. If something was stolen from your account, there's nothing that possession of your chequebook would help you prove.
Why not simply place them in a fireproof container and apply a match?
Regarding the added information to the question:
To be clear this question is not about the practicalities of accessing
facilities for shredding. But as to if that is even the right thing to
do. (e.g. are there consiquences of not being able to present my
unused checkbook to the bank, if there is money stolen from my
account.)
Having a checkbook does open up a avenue of somebody getting money from your account. Destroying the checkbook if they are not needed closes most of that avenue. The risk of the checkbook is that if somebody gets a hold of it they can easily write themselves a check, and cash it. But that also means they need to have a fake ID or an accomplice who will unknowingly help them. But the true exposure is the info on the check that can be used to setup electronic transfers.
Even if there is no checkbook or in fact no checking account, there is still a large risk of money being transferred from a bank account by fraud or by mistake. My son had several mistakes made by his bank where they accidentally withdrew money from the wrong account. He caught it when he reviewed his next statement. The account was a checking account where he has never had a checkbook.
If you want to protect yourself. Contact the bank, ask what you should do with the checks. Ask what you can do to protect the account based on your situation.
If they don't want the checkbook then you should shred them, but you might not need your own shredder.
Some banks, and some communities organize a "community shred" that allows customers or residents to drop off a box or bag of documents they want shredded.
At a community shred the sponsor hires a shredding company to spend a day crosscut shredding documents while the people dropping off the documents watch. They can have shredded old bills, bank statements, tax documents and medical records. I have used this type of service several times in the US and a quick google search shows these are also in the UK.
Generally the shredding company then takes the shredded documents to a recycling center.
Ironically, some people end up having to pay quite a bit to get checkbooks at all. Guess your bank was doing you a favor.
There's no point to keeping a checkbook you won't use, except maybe in case you thought you wouldn't use it but were wrong. The one thing it's good for is to quickly see your account number and similar useful bank information - but you could just write those down in a notebook, you don't need the checkbook for it.
Keeping it won't really do you any harm either. You can't do much with someone's blank checkbook. The checks are useless if not signed, and you could easily go to the bank and dispute a fraudulent check. Banks advise being careful with the checks, which is a good idea, but relying on you to keep the checks secret is really their security policy. For one, anyone you write a check to can see them. I would suspect that if you simply threw it in the trash, chances are 99% that absolutely nothing would happen.
The standard way of voiding checks is to cross them out and writing VOID across them. No bank would accept such a check even if filled out and signed. You can do this on all your blank checks to make them unusable, even for you.
If you really want to, you could shred them. You might need to do only a few at a time if your shredder is low capacity.
For a more exciting option, there's always fire. But unless you have a place to burn them, I'd recommend against this as it's impractical: It's a fire hazard, the checks might not burn well, if you do it in something like BBQ they might release harmful chemicals, and burning generally is bad for health and the environment.
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