how a stop payment on a check works
to request a stop payment an account holder generally provides specific information about a check that is in progress to the bank e g check 607 for 250 written to john s cleaning agency in an ideal scenario the bank would then flag the check and prevent it from clearing the account if a bank is unable to locate the check it will often continue to look for the check for six months although policies differ among banks some banks offer the opportunity to extend or refresh the stop payment via a verbal or written request if the check is never found the request for stop payment usually expires and the check could potentially be paid special considerationsin addition to issuing individual stop payments additional measures for securing checks and personal finance information more generally are becoming mainstream this protection is important if an account holder is concerned about error or fraud one method that has been updated over time is the addition of a padlock feature on personal checks the washington d c based check payment systems association formerly financial stationers association created the padlock feature as check fraud grew pre 2000 1 the padlock feature completed a triumvirate of features incorporated into a check to add complexity and make it more challenging for fraudsters to reproduce it online banking which is now used by all major banks like bank of america td bank citibank chase bank is designed to improve the efficiency of depositing transferring and withdrawing funds along with balance checking and other relatively simple personal finance tasks with individual financial information now stored online the potential for secure encryption is high along with the ability of cyber criminals to steal data despite such threats many have chosen to bank fully online in this way issuing stop payments among other tasks become more efficient 