How to Write a Check Amount in Words

Most people write a few checks a year now, which is exactly why the words line causes trouble: there is no practice. This guide covers how to write a check amount in words the way banks expect, with the conventions for cents, hyphens, zero cents and large amounts, what to do with the leftover space, and which figure the bank uses when the words and the numbers disagree. The check amount in words tool produces the line for any amount; the rules below let you check it or write it yourself.

The standard form

The amount $1,250.50 is written on the words line as:

One Thousand Two Hundred Fifty and 50/100

followed by the pre-printed “Dollars”. The dollars are in words, the cents are a fraction over 100, and “and” joins them. Capitalization is a matter of style; many people capitalize each word, and all lower case is equally valid. Hyphenate compound numbers from twenty-one to ninety-nine: Forty-Two, Ninety-Nine. Do not write “and” anywhere except before the cents, so $1,250 is “One Thousand Two Hundred Fifty”, not “One Thousand Two Hundred and Fifty”.

Cents

Always write the cents as a fraction, even when there are none: $75.00 is “Seventy-Five and 00/100” or “Seventy-Five and no/100”. Leaving the cents off invites someone to add them. Writing cents in words (“and fifty cents”) is understood by banks but is not the standard; the fraction is quicker to read and harder to alter.

For an amount under a dollar, write the cents and strike the word Dollars: “Only 75/100” with “Dollars” crossed out, or “Zero and 75/100”. Checks under a dollar are rare enough that either is accepted.

Large amounts

Group by thousands and millions, with no “and” between groups:

• $3,000: Three Thousand and 00/100
• $12,345.67: Twelve Thousand Three Hundred Forty-Five and 67/100
• $250,000: Two Hundred Fifty Thousand and 00/100
• $1,500,000: One Million Five Hundred Thousand and 00/100

Avoid writing “Twelve Hundred” for $1,200 on a check; it is understood in speech but “One Thousand Two Hundred” is the form that matches the digit grouping and leaves no room for argument. Spell out “Million” and “Thousand”; abbreviations such as “K” or “M” are not accepted.

Filling the line

Start at the far left of the line, write the amount, and draw a line through the remaining space to the word “Dollars”. The line stops anyone from inserting words. In the numeric box, write the figures close to the dollar sign for the same reason: “1,250.50”, not ” 1,250.50″ with room for a digit in front.

Use a pen, never pencil. If you make a mistake, write a new check rather than correcting the words line; a check with an altered amount may be refused, and a corrected one with initials is accepted by some banks and not others. Write “VOID” across the spoiled check and keep it for your records.

When the words and the figures do not match

Under the Uniform Commercial Code, which every state has adopted, the words control if they conflict with the figures. A check with “One Thousand Two Hundred Fifty and 50/100” on the words line and “1,520.50” in the box is a check for $1,250.50. In practice banks often return a check with a mismatch rather than pay the words amount, because the mismatch is a sign of alteration or error, and the payee is left to ask for a new one. Writing the two to match is the only outcome without a delay.

If the words are illegible or missing, the figures are used. A check with figures only is technically incomplete, and a bank may pay it or not at its discretion.

Common mistakes

Writing “and” between hundreds and tens (“Two Hundred and Fifty”). Harmless to a bank, but it is the one place where “and” means the decimal point on a check, and the tool omits it for that reason.

Mixing numerals into the words line (“1 Thousand 250 and 50/100”). Many banks accept it; it defeats the purpose of the line, which is to be hard to alter.

Omitting the cents fraction on a round amount. Add “and 00/100”.

Writing the cents as “50/100 Cents”. The pre-printed word is Dollars, so the fraction is of a dollar.

Spelling errors in Forty (not Fourty) and Ninety (not Ninty), which are common enough that tellers see them weekly. Neither causes a check to bounce, but they look careless on a rent check.

Worked examples

Two rows deserve a second look. $2,000.05 has five cents, written “05/100” with the leading zero so that nothing can be squeezed in front of the 5. And $99.99 shows the hyphen rule twice: once in the dollars and once in the cents fraction, where the cents are digits and need no hyphen at all.

The other fields, briefly

The words line is one of five things a check needs: the date, the payee, the figures, the words and the signature. Write the payee’s full name as it appears on their account, since a check to “Bob” cannot be deposited by Robert Smith at some banks. The date can be today’s; post-dating a check does not stop the bank paying it early. The memo line is optional and is for your records (an invoice number, “March rent”); it has no legal effect. Sign in the same way as the signature card on file, or the bank may hold the check. Keep the carbon or write the details in the register; a check you cannot identify three months later is a check you cannot dispute with the bank.

Electronic checks and online bill pay

When a bank prints a check for you through online bill pay, it fills the words line itself from the amount you enter, in the standard form. The same is true of payroll and accounts payable software. The words line still matters because the printed check is the legal instrument, so if a vendor says the check amount is wrong, the printed words settle it.

Using the tool

Type the amount into the check amount in words tool and copy the result onto the line. The default output is the “and 50/100” form; the plain-words option writes the cents in words for letters or contracts where a fraction looks odd. For the figures box, the amount including any sales tax can be checked in the sales tax calculator, and the routing number printed on the bottom of the check can be verified with the routing number validator if you are setting up a payment from it. All the tools are on the homepage.

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