How Can We Buy Things With A Check Instead Of Money?
Answer: A check is a set of instructions to the bank to pay money from a person’s account to someone else.
If you look closely at a check you will see the words Pay to the order of and then a blank line.
This line is a message to the bank; it means, “When the person named on this line asks for the amount of money written on this check, go ahead and pay the person, and take the money from my account.”
There is a place for the person who wrote the check to sign it to show that the check is real.
Checks are more convenient than cash. A check allows you to pay someone without having to go to the bank or carry a lot of money with you.
Checks are also safer than cash. If you lose cash, anyone can use it. But a check can only be cashed by the person you wrote it to.
That’s why people send checks-not cash-through the mail.
Key verses: I also said to the king, If it please Your Majesty, give me letters to the governors of the province west of the Euphrates River, instructing them to let me travel safely through their territories on my way to Judah.
And please send a letter to Asaph, the manager of the king’s forest, instructing him to give me timber. I will need it to make beams for the gates of the Temple fortress, for the city walls, and for a house for myself.
And the king granted these requests because the gracious hand of God was on me. (Nehemiah 2:7-8)
Related question: How does a checking account work?
Note to parents: Write a check the next time you give your child money. Then take your child to the bank to cash it.
How Does A Check Bounce?
Answer: The word bounce describes what happens when a person writes a check for more money than he or she has in the bank.
A check is a set of instructions to the bank that says, “Pay this amount of money to the person named on this check.”
If there’s not enough money in the account, the bank won’t follow the instructions. It won’t cash the check.
The bank says, “This person doesn’t have enough money to cover this check” and returns the check. It “bounces” back.
A check is a promise. Just as we should always keep our spoken promises, so we should always make sure we have enough money in the bank to cover the checks we write.
It is dishonest to write a check when we know we don’t have enough money to cover it.
Key verses: Who would begin construction of a building without first getting estimates and then checking to see if there is enough money to pay the bills?
Otherwise, you might complete only the foundation before running out of funds. And then how everyone would laugh at you!
They would say, “There’s the person who started that building and ran out of money before it was finished!” (Luke 14:28- 30)
Related verses: Proverbs 12:17; 16:11
Related question: Why do some stores not take checks?
Where Does All The Money In The Bank Machines Come From?
Answer: Bank workers put it there. About once a week they open the machines (called automatic teller machines, or ATMs) and put the money in.
They get the money from the bank’s safe. The bank workers put enough into the machines so whoever needs to get some from their account can do so.
Key verses: Joash gave instructions for a chest to be made and set outside the gate leading to the Temple of the Lord.
Then a proclamation was sent throughout Judah and Jerusalem, telling the people to bring to the Lord the tax that Moses, the servant of God, had required of the Israelites in the wilderness.
This pleased all the leaders and the people, and they gladly brought their money and filled the chest with it. (2 Chronicles 24:8-10)
Related verses: Proverbs 21:20, 25
Related question: Do bank machines get robbed?
Note to parents: Younger children often get the impression from watching adults use automatic teller machines that you can get money whenever you want and get as much as you want. Explain that using an ATM is like getting money out of your piggy bank.
You are getting out money that you had put in earlier. Older children can benefit from having and using an ATM card.
It can be very convenient for them and for you, and it can give them practice managing their own money.