The Anatomy of a Check: What All Those Numbers and Spaces Are (and Why They Matter)

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Paper checks have a lot of features. Read on for a breakdown of this payment method and how its various components work. 

Paper checks are still around, but they are being used less and less often these days — according to a survey by GOBankingRates, just 55% of Americans wrote one in 2022. I maintain a dwindling supply of paper checks that I purchased in 2016. I still dig into the checks occasionally, most often for paying my city’s government for the privilege of an annual on-street parking pass.

When was the last time you truly looked at a check and saw all the various numbers and spaces on it? Did you wonder what they all meant? Or maybe you’re younger than I am and checks are even less familiar to you. Let’s take a deeper dive into how paper checks work and why all their features are important to ensure money from your checking account makes it to the right destination. I’ll break down the parts of a check by whose information they reflect — your bank’s, yours, and the person you’re paying.

Your bank’s information

Your bank’s name will be printed on your check, sometimes alongside a logo. This will tell the check’s recipient where the money is coming from. If they would rather have cash than deposit the check into their own account, they may be able to take the check directly to your bank to cash it.

The bank must know which account the money should come out of, and that’s what your account number is for. This is printed along the bottom of a check, between two other numbers. The number to the left of the account number is an ABA (American Bankers Association) routing number, which tells the bank where to get the funds to cover the check. And the shorter number to the right is a check number. You can also find this number at the top right, and it’s there for security purposes.

Your information

Your name and address will be at the top left of your check. You might also have your phone number there. If you’re worried about your privacy, you could opt to skip the phone number, and even use a P.O. box address instead of your home address. There’s also a signature line for you at the lower right. This is another security feature, as your bank will have your signature on file and can compare it against checks you write. Don’t ever sign a blank check, or one that hasn’t been filled in yet, as this can open you up to fraud and money loss.

The payee’s information

At the top right of your check, you’ll see a line for the date. If you want your bank to process the check at a later date, you’ll need to notify it; otherwise, whenever the payee deposits or cashes the check, that’s when it’ll be processed. The payee’s sections of the check include the top line, which will say “Pay to the order of.” This is where you’ll fill in the name of whoever you’re paying.

You can further clarify the purpose of the payment using the memo line at the bottom left. For example, in the case of the check I wrote for my parking pass, I put the name of my city in the payee line, and “2023 parking pass” in the memo line.

Money amounts

You’ll also see two spaces for money amounts. There’ll be a small box to the right of the payee’s name line, where you’ll fill in an amount in dollars and cents, such as $100.00. Then you’ll need to fill in that same amount on a line under the payee’s line, writing out your figure instead: One hundred dollars and 00/100. If you don’t fill the whole line, it’s a good idea to run your pen through it, so no one can add additional money to this line.

Why two places to write the same amount? This will help your bank process the payment, in case one part of the information is difficult to read. If the amount written in words is different than the one written in numbers, your bank should use the payment line, rather than the box, as it’s easier for a scammer to alter your numbers than your words. Banks may also refuse to cash or deposit a check that has mismatched numbers on these lines, as it could be an indicator of fraud.

Why is all this information required?

As you just saw, a lot of bits and pieces of information go into a check. If you’re used to swiping a credit card for payment, you might wonder why all these are necessary. Well, a credit card is processed differently than a check. There’s a lot of information encoded in that little chip in your credit card and it’s shared when you tap, insert, or swipe at a payment terminal. For a check, the processing happens later, after you’ve written it and given it to whoever you’re paying, so all this information is required in order for that to occur as intended.

Paper checks are still very much alive and well, and some people (more than half of us!) still use them. This means there’s even still money in committing check fraud. Take care when you write paper checks, and be sure that all the information (both pre-printed and what you fill in) is accurate to ensure you’re safe from fraud.

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