Printing Us-bank Readable Checks In Thailand

[MattFS218]

I'm having problems receiving checks for my bank account in American in Thailand (I think it has something to do with the checks being shipped internationally).

I was wondering if anyone knows of a printer in Thailand that can print the machine-readable code (ABA Routing codes & Account number) on checks that can be used for transactions in America.

Please let me know..thanks.

[Crossy]

No idea about printers to do this, will your bank even accept cheques printed by a third party?

Get your cheque book sent to a US address and have them post it on, UK banks are the same, no overseas shipment for cards, chequebooks etc.

BTW didn't they make a movie about you "Catch Me if you can" ??

[jakesideas]

...also my credit card seems to be malfunctioning... and my passport... where can I get a new one printed.

But seriously, why would shipping the checks internationally ruin them. You tried to deposit an American check in Thai bank account and it didn't work? Or you are writing them for payment?

I don't know where you can get checks made in Thailand, I'm just trying to understand the situation so that I can suggest other ways to remedy it.

[think_too_mut]

...also my credit card seems to be malfunctioning... and my passport... where can I get a new one printed.

You guys don't know how it works in America. There, you can print your own checks, even put an image of your family, house, scenery or your dog on the face of it if you want. The reason being - the check there means nothing until cached, no obligation to the bank, it merely replaces a piece of paper saying "Pay the bearer x amount of money".

The OP is simply asking where he can do that printing in Thailand. There are MICR (that codeline at the bottom of each check) printers that print with special (magnetic) ink and make checks readable by payment processing machines. Printers like that are commercially available and good chance someone runs a shop with them. My bet would be to ask at Pantip.

[lopburi3]

For fraud reasons checks in the US are never directly shipped to any address other than the address of the check owner; if printed by bank contract or a third party, as far as I know.

If you use electronic transfers you might find out you never even need a check in todays world.

[Lost in LOS]

I have a bank account with bank America. I don’t have a checkbook, I don’t trust the Thai. mail

I have my account online and online you can have bankamerica write a check to anyone you want and they mail it. If you have repeat accounts like credit cards you can send it electronically in minutes

much easier and safer than writing a check here and mailing it

[bino]

You guys don't know how it works in America. There, you can print your own checks, even put an image of your family, house, scenery or your dog on the face of it if you want. The reason being - the check there means nothing until cached, no obligation to the bank, it merely replaces a piece of paper saying "Pay the bearer x amount of money".

This is correct- as long as a cheque has all of the relevant information and an original signature, it can be written on anything. Allegedly, this is where the "shirt off my back" expression comes from.

There are third party companies in Canada and the US that specialize in printing custom cheques- if you want your family picture, your car, your business logo or anything at all on them. Perhaps the OP can try searching out some of these and see if they will ship to Thailand...?

There are companies like this in Thailand too. I've seen a company like this somewhere that has a storefront shop, printing custom cheques and greeting cards. ... wracking my brain to remember where I saw it. Lower Sukhumvit maybe. Maybe you could search them out and see if they can help.

[Sophon]

You guys don't know how it works in America. There, you can print your own checks, even put an image of your family, house, scenery or your dog on the face of it if you want. The reason being - the check there means nothing until cached, no obligation to the bank, it merely replaces a piece of paper saying "Pay the bearer x amount of money".

The OP is simply asking where he can do that printing in Thailand. There are MICR (that codeline at the bottom of each check) printers that print with special (magnetic) ink and make checks readable by payment processing machines. Printers like that are commercially available and good chance someone runs a shop with them. My bet would be to ask at Pantip.

The cheque laws are very similar in most western countries, but even so in many (most?) countries you are not allowed to print your own cheques. Not because the bank will be in any way obligated, but because it's the banks that will have the extra work if the cheques are not machine readable. For that reason in those countries you can only get your cheques directly from the banks or from third-party printing house that has been pre-approved (and quality tested).

I think it would be a long-shot to find somewhere in Thailand, that would be able to print U.S. cheques. They would need special printers/ink and (U.S. cheque) fonts installed. All technically very possible but I just can't imagine there would be enough of a demand that someone would have gone through the trouble. But who knows...

Sophon

[think_too_mut]

You guys don't know how it works in America. There, you can print your own checks, even put an image of your family, house, scenery or your dog on the face of it if you want. The reason being - the check there means nothing until cached, no obligation to the bank, it merely replaces a piece of paper saying "Pay the bearer x amount of money".

The OP is simply asking where he can do that printing in Thailand. There are MICR (that codeline at the bottom of each check) printers that print with special (magnetic) ink and make checks readable by payment processing machines. Printers like that are commercially available and good chance someone runs a shop with them. My bet would be to ask at Pantip.

The cheque laws are very similar in most western countries, but even so in many (most?) countries you are not allowed to print your own cheques. Not because the bank will be in any way obligated, but because it's the banks that will have the extra work if the cheques are not machine readable. For that reason in those countries you can only get your cheques directly from the banks or from third-party printing house that has been pre-approved (and quality tested).

I think it would be a long-shot to find somewhere in Thailand, that would be able to print U.S. cheques. They would need special printers/ink and (U.S. cheque) fonts installed. All technically very possible but I just can't imagine there would be enough of a demand that someone would have gone through the trouble. But who knows...

Sophon

That is not true.

Let me tell you why I am so sure: there are 100 people in the world who develop payment processing software. I was one of them. Through Unisys, NCR, IBM and BanCtec. We know what the banks were asking us to process.

Good chance the Feds are still processing US checks through my software.

The "special" ink/printers have been available for a decade if not longer, there is no science in that.

OCR is also accepted, that requires no "special" ink or anything.

Of course, If one made their own check, they won't bear "Bank of New York" logo.

Just account number and BSB (Bank-State-Branch) or it's equivalent (Bank Routing Number) in the US. Where the money goes, same as always - it has be to encoded by the receiving bank branch and then it is ready to go through the main processing. So, the half of the encoding is done by someone else - an another bank, shop or whoever.

All the banks read is the codeline and the checks have to be within the specified format. If there is no enough information, the check is sorted out into a separate pocket for further attention. About 40% of all checks end up there, be printed by the bank or by an individual.

Some banks send the images of those checks to India for human reading and encoding.

I allow for the new rule that the checks have to be printed by an approved printer (still not by the issuer) but that was not in place 5 years ago.

[peterjackson]

Hey

As stated above, if you have a Bank Of America account, you can do everything online without ever having to be in receipt of a bank checkbook. I have been using the BOA online system for 5 years now and have not wrote one paper check in all that time.

The BOA system is secure, easy to use and you can see images of the check within 24 hours of it being processed. Many companies are signed onto the BOA system and they can receive the money totally electronically. But you can just process one check for a one off payment for anyone in the USA and BOA take care of everything. Great service.

Kind regards

Peter Jackson

[billaaa777]

You need to get a software package that allows you to print on black check stock. You will then enter all your banks info as well as your account info. Then you need MICR toner. Magnet ink toner for your printer. That is all you need to do. I believe packages Quicken offer this feature. I do not believe QuickBooks does, Peachtree might.

[klrsmith]

...There are MICR (that codeline at the bottom of each check) printers that print with special (magnetic) ink and make checks readable by payment processing machines. Printers like that are commercially available and good chance someone runs a shop with them. My bet would be to ask at Pantip.

Actually, you don't need a special printer. You should be able to buy a MICR toner cartridge for most HP laser printers, however I don't know the availibility of them in Thailand - Search for "HP Toner MICR" on Amazon.com and you'll find about 3 pages of them for the different models.

Regards,

Kevin

[Sophon]

You guys don't know how it works in America. There, you can print your own checks, even put an image of your family, house, scenery or your dog on the face of it if you want. The reason being - the check there means nothing until cached, no obligation to the bank, it merely replaces a piece of paper saying "Pay the bearer x amount of money".

The OP is simply asking where he can do that printing in Thailand. There are MICR (that codeline at the bottom of each check) printers that print with special (magnetic) ink and make checks readable by payment processing machines. Printers like that are commercially available and good chance someone runs a shop with them. My bet would be to ask at Pantip.

The cheque laws are very similar in most western countries, but even so in many (most?) countries you are not allowed to print your own cheques. Not because the bank will be in any way obligated, but because it's the banks that will have the extra work if the cheques are not machine readable. For that reason in those countries you can only get your cheques directly from the banks or from third-party printing house that has been pre-approved (and quality tested).

I think it would be a long-shot to find somewhere in Thailand, that would be able to print U.S. cheques. They would need special printers/ink and (U.S. cheque) fonts installed. All technically very possible but I just can't imagine there would be enough of a demand that someone would have gone through the trouble. But who knows...

Sophon

That is not true.

Let me tell you why I am so sure: there are 100 people in the world who develop payment processing software. I was one of them. Through Unisys, NCR, IBM and BanCtec. We know what the banks were asking us to process.

Good chance the Feds are still processing US checks through my software.

The "special" ink/printers have been available for a decade if not longer, there is no science in that.

OCR is also accepted, that requires no "special" ink or anything.

Of course, If one made their own check, they won't bear "Bank of New York" logo.

Just account number and BSB (Bank-State-Branch) or it's equivalent (Bank Routing Number) in the US. Where the money goes, same as always - it has be to encoded by the receiving bank branch and then it is ready to go through the main processing. So, the half of the encoding is done by someone else - an another bank, shop or whoever.

All the banks read is the codeline and the checks have to be within the specified format. If there is no enough information, the check is sorted out into a separate pocket for further attention. About 40% of all checks end up there, be printed by the bank or by an individual.

Some banks send the images of those checks to India for human reading and encoding.

I allow for the new rule that the checks have to be printed by an approved printer (still not by the issuer) but that was not in place 5 years ago.

I see nothing in your post that contradicts what I said, your information mostly seems to concentrate on U.S. matters. I work in the banking industry in Denmark, and it is a fact that here you are not allowed to print your own cheques. The result is that nowhere near 40% of cheques needs further attention (the actual number is less than 1%). I'm pretty sure the same is the case for the other Nordic countries.

Also I never stated that the OP couldn't print his own cheques if he got the necessary software. What I did say was that I found it unlikely that he could find somewhere in Thailand with the necessary set-up to print the cheques for him (which is what he was asking for).

Sophon

[think_too_mut]

I see nothing in your post that contradicts what I said, your information mostly seems to concentrate on U.S. matters. I work in the banking industry in Denmark, and it is a fact that here you are not allowed to print your own cheques. The result is that nowhere near 40% of cheques needs further attention (the actual number is less than 1%). I'm pretty sure the same is the case for the other Nordic countries.

Also I never stated that the OP couldn't print his own cheques if he got the necessary software. What I did say was that I found it unlikely that he could find somewhere in Thailand with the necessary set-up to print the cheques for him (which is what he was asking for).

Sophon

40% of checks sent by mail or not encoded in the branch where they were received will have handwritten amount that intelligent recognition can not read or would read with confidence level below the treshold.

That happens, among other things, while the checks are travelling at speed of 2000 checks per minute through the machine. Those checks go for further attention and I have seen shops with hundred operators just reading them and keying (NatWest processing centre in Leichester, for example).

Bank's own checks go smoothly as they are mainly already encoded.

Western European law (before EU) about checks was that the bank guarantees payment up to a certain amount. Then, of course, they won't allow anyone to print their own checks. In the US, Australia there is no such guarantee.

And, another poster said, he had seen a shop that does printing but could not remember where. It's not illegal, I don't see why it is so unlikely, especially if they print other things (insurance claims, tickets, shopping vouchers, coupons....).

[Niloc]

What an amazing coincidence, I worked for Unisys in Melbourne as a contract programmer in the document processing area and discovered only a few months ago that another girl from the same office is also in Thailand, Donna from Samui I think....

Maybe we should all get together and start a cheque printing business!!

[think_too_mut]

What an amazing coincidence, I worked for Unisys in Melbourne as a contract programmer in the document processing area and discovered only a few months ago that another girl from the same office is also in Thailand, Donna from Samui I think....

Maybe we should all get together and start a cheque printing business!!

Knew a few people from there. (Barbara, Angela, Steve...)

They developed S4000 payment processing for NAB, from scratch, not used Unisys code.

I did world's first commercial (not test lab) DP500 at Barclays in Sydney.

Then, NAB asked them to re-do it for DP500s in "C"...then I moved to NCR.

Edited March 8, 2007 by think_too_mut