> Those numbers across the bottom are your bank's routing number and your account number.
Those aren't secrets, are they? Isn't your bank account protected by separate secrets and or physical authentication tokens? You can't just take money out at a bank by giving a bank account number, surely?
> You can't just take money out at a bank by giving a bank account number, surely?
That's exactly what a check is. It's a legal document that says "I give you X dollars from account Y." You can use a napkin instead of a the pre-filled sheets of paper your bank sends you, and it's still the same legal document.
Typically your signature is checked against one on file, but only for large transactions, and of course handwriting signatures can be forged. And, if you are writing checks against other people's bank account, you'll probably go to prison. That is the check on the system.
(It's no different than signing a contract. I'll do this work and you'll pay me when it's done. What happens if they don't pay you? You sue them. The root of trust is the judicial system.)
Right, but the bank is still entitled to check with me before handing over the cash. They have no way of knowing that I signed the contract. Account numbers and squinting at a signature isn't any kind of proof!
> the bank is still entitled to check with me before handing over the cash.
They're allowed to, but have no (legal or socially expected) requirement to do so. I've never heard of a bank doing so for small (<$10k or so) amounts, and then only if fraud alerts are already present.
Those numbers are not secrets. They're literally just the bank's routing number and your account number. Using those numbers anyone can withdraw/deposit into that account. Madness isn't it?
I'm from the US and I've never heard of a bank verifying permission before releasing funds, they simply release the funds. As far as I know, US banks no longer check the signature (if they ever did) and no longer validate the date on the check (at least at my bank you can no longer post-date a check).
We recently lost a book of checks and the bank totally wigged out. They demanded that we close the account immediately and it took a decent amount of back and forth to talk them into waiting a week (we wanted existing checks to clear). To my mind, this implied that they did no validation on checks.
I haven't actually used a check in a looong time so I don't know exactly what you mean.
I do know that I keep the numbers off a check from my checkbook I received when originally opening my bank account like 10 years ago in Lastpass. When sites that don't accept credit need payment information (my student loans mainly) I just copy/paste the numbers into their payment form and the money gets taken out of my account. No verification whatsoever, Nelnet is able to just withdraw the money from my account using those numbers.
I assume anybody with a debit processing backend or service can do the same if they have the routing/account #. It's kind of a wonder peoples money doesn't just disappear all the time really.
No, you would have to do some authentication at a physical bank itself.
You can use the numbers to request a wire transfer from the account. In fact, when you're setting up an ACH transaction for bills and such, they tell you to get the numbers from a check.
Those aren't secrets, are they? Isn't your bank account protected by separate secrets and or physical authentication tokens? You can't just take money out at a bank by giving a bank account number, surely?