How to Write a Cheque in Canada: 6 Steps, a Sample Cheque and the Rules Banks Follow

By Mikeal Janifa, Personal Finance Writer at The Finance Guys · Published September 17, 2026 · Last updated September 17, 2026

Quick answer: To write a cheque in Canada, fill in six things in pen: the date, the payee after “Pay to the order of”, the amount in numbers in the box, the amount in words on the long line (with cents as a fraction, such as 50/100), an optional memo, and your signature. The numbers along the bottom are your cheque number, 5-digit transit number, 3-digit institution number and account number. A cheque is stale-dated after six months, and since March 12, 2026 a bounced cheque costs you at most a $10 NSF fee at your own bank.

Learning how to write a cheque still matters in 2026. Canadians write more than 300 million cheques a year, according to Payments Canada, and most of us meet one at the moments that are hardest to get wrong: a rent cheque for a new landlord, a deposit for a contractor, a payment to a small business that does not take cards, or the void cheque an employer or the CRA wants before they will pay you by direct deposit.

This guide shows you how to write a cheque step by step, with a labelled sample cheque, a table of amounts written out in words, the meaning of every number printed along the bottom, what each big bank calls the void cheque in its app, and the federal rules on holds, stale dates and NSF fees that decide what happens after the cheque leaves your hands. Every rule and figure was checked on September 17, 2026 against the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada and Payments Canada.

Key Takeaways

• Write a cheque in blue or black ink, never pencil, and fill every field: date, payee, numeric amount, written amount, memo (optional) and signature.
• If the number in the box and the amount in words disagree, the bank goes by the words, so write them carefully and draw a line through any empty space.
• The bottom line reads cheque number, then 5-digit transit (branch), then 3-digit institution number, then your account number; that is what a direct deposit form needs.
• A cheque is stale-dated after six months unless it is certified or issued by the Government of Canada; a post-dated cheque should not be cashed before its date.
• Banks can hold a deposited cheque of $1,500 or less for up to 4 business days (in branch) or 5 (ATM or mobile), but must release the first $100 right away or the next business day.
• Since March 12, 2026, NSF fees on personal accounts are capped at $10, down from $45 to $48, and cannot be charged twice in two business days.

A Labelled Sample Cheque for Canada

Every personal cheque issued by a Canadian bank or credit union follows the same layout, set by Payments Canada’s Standard 006, so once you can read one sample cheque you can write a cheque from any bank. Here is the layout with each field numbered:

1. Cheque number. Printed at the top right and repeated at the bottom left. Use it when you record the cheque or ask for a stop payment.
2. Date. The day you write a cheque, or a future date if you are post-dating it on purpose.
3. Payee line (“Pay to the order of”). The person or business you write a cheque to, and the only one who can deposit it.
4. Numeric amount box. The amount in figures, with cents.
5. Written amount line. The same amount in words, cents as a fraction of 100.
6. Memo. Optional note for you and the payee: rent month, invoice number, unit.
7. Signature line. Your signature as the bank has it on file. No signature, no cheque.
8. MICR line. The machine-readable numbers: cheque number, transit number, institution number, account number. More on these below.

How to Write a Cheque in 6 Steps

To write a cheque correctly, work top to bottom with a blue or black pen and fill every field before you hand it over; a cheque with a blank amount or signature is not a cheque, and a cheque with a blank payee is as good as cash to whoever finds it.

1. Write the date. Use the format your cheque shows. Most Canadian cheques print a DD/MM/YYYY or YYYY/MM/DD guide under the date line; follow it, and write the year in full. Use today’s date unless you are post-dating on purpose (see below).
2. Write the payee’s name. Use the exact legal or business name the payee gave you, spelled correctly: “Riverside Property Management Inc.” rather than “the landlord”. Do not write a cheque to “Cash” unless you are cashing it yourself at your own branch; anyone holding a cheque made out to Cash can deposit it.
3. Write the amount in numbers. In the box beside the dollar sign, write the figures with cents: 1,250.00, not 1250. Start right against the dollar sign so nothing can be added in front.
4. Write the amount in words. On the long line, write the dollars in words and the cents as a fraction: “One thousand two hundred fifty and 00/100”. Then draw a line from the end of the words to the printed word “dollars” so nobody can add to it. If the words and the figures disagree, the bank pays the words, so this line is the one to get right.
5. Add a memo (optional). “October rent, Unit 4” or “Invoice 1187” helps you both later when you write a cheque for a recurring bill. A landlord or business will often ask for a specific memo.
6. Sign it. Sign on the line at the bottom right, the same way you signed your bank’s signature card. A cheque without a signature will be returned, and a signature that does not match can be too.

Before you hand it over, read it once more: date, name, both amounts match, signature. Then record it. A cheque can take days or weeks to clear, and the money must be in your account the whole time. If you are not sure your balance can carry it, wait; the section on NSF fees below explains why.

How to Write a Cheque Amount in Words: Examples From $50 to $2,500

The written amount is the part people search for most, because there is only one accepted pattern: dollars in words, the word “and”, then the cents as a fraction over 100, followed by a line to the word “dollars”. You do not need to write “dollars” yourself; it is already printed. Capitalize the first word, use lowercase after that, and use “and” only once, between the dollars and the cents.

Three details trip people up. Write “and” only before the cents; “one thousand and two hundred” is wrong on a cheque even if it sounds natural. Hyphenate the numbers from twenty-one to ninety-nine. And when you write a cheque for whole dollars, still write “and 00/100” or “and no/100” so nobody can add cents. If you write a cheque in French, the same logic applies to the French fields: the payee line reads “Payez à l’ordre de”, the amount is written in words, and cents are still a fraction over 100.

What the Numbers Mean When You Write a Cheque (Transit, Institution, Account)

The numbers printed along the bottom of every Canadian cheque, in the blocky MICR font that sorting machines read, run left to right as the cheque number, the transit number, the institution number and the account number. Direct deposit and pre-authorized debit forms ask for the last three, and getting them from a cheque is faster than phoning the bank.

You never fill these numbers in when you write a cheque; they are pre-printed. The institution number is the same for every branch of a bank, so it is worth recognizing the common ones: 001 is BMO, 002 Scotiabank, 003 RBC, 004 TD, 006 National Bank, 010 CIBC (Simplii Financial cheques carry it too), 039 Laurentian Bank, 219 ATB Financial, 614 Tangerine, 623 EQ Bank and 815 Desjardins. Credit unions use provincial central numbers (809 in British Columbia, 828 in Ontario, 899 in Alberta) followed by their own transit numbers.

Always confirm against your own cheque or your bank’s direct deposit form rather than memory, because a wrong digit sends a deposit to the wrong place. Payments Canada’s consumer guide to paying by cheque explains the standard behind the layout.

Write a Cheque at TD, RBC, Scotiabank, BMO, CIBC or the Others: Void Cheques and Ordering

Every Canadian bank and most credit unions now let you produce a void cheque or direct deposit form from the app or online banking in under a minute, and you can order a book of paper cheques the same way; the fee for a cheque book varies by bank and account, while the digital void cheque is free everywhere.

• TD. A TD cheque carries institution number 004. In EasyWeb or the TD app, open the chequing account, look under the account details for the direct deposit form or void cheque, and download the PDF; it shows your transit, institution and account numbers. Paper TD cheques are ordered from the same account screen or at a branch, and TD’s mobile deposit lets you deposit a cheque by photo up to the app’s limit.
• RBC. Institution number 003. RBC Online Banking and the RBC app offer a void cheque or direct deposit information under the account’s details; paper cheques are ordered through the same menu.
• Scotiabank. Institution number 002. In the Scotia app, the account details screen produces a void cheque or pre-authorized debit form; cheque orders go through online banking or a branch.
• BMO. Institution number 001. BMO’s online banking lists a direct deposit form under each chequing account, and cheques can be ordered from the account menu.
• CIBC and Simplii. Institution number 010 for both. The void cheque PDF is under the account’s details in CIBC Online Banking or the Simplii app.
• Desjardins. Institution number 815. AccesD produces a “spécimen de chèque” (specimen cheque) for direct deposit; caisses order paper cheques.
• Tangerine, EQ Bank and other online banks. Institution numbers 614 and 623. Neither issues paper cheque books; both produce a direct deposit form in the app, and Tangerine can issue a cheque on your behalf on request.

Menu labels change with app updates, so if you do not see “void cheque”, look for “direct deposit form”, “pre-authorized debit form” or “account details”. The document you download is the same thing a paper void cheque would show, and employers, landlords and the CRA accept it. Whichever bank you use, you write a cheque the same way; only the institution number changes.

How to Write a Cheque Marked VOID for Direct Deposit

A void cheque is the one time you write a cheque without an amount or a signature. Take a blank cheque from your book, write VOID in large capital letters across the front in pen, and do not sign it, date it or fill in an amount; the point is to give someone your account numbers on a document that cannot be cashed. Write it big enough to cover the amount box and the signature line, but do not scribble over the MICR numbers at the bottom, because those are the part the recipient needs.

A void cheque is what an employer’s payroll department, a landlord setting up pre-authorized rent, an insurer or the Canada Revenue Agency ask for when they want to pay you or debit you electronically. If you no longer keep paper cheques, the bank’s downloadable direct deposit form does the same job, and the CRA also lets you enter direct deposit details yourself in My Account. Record the cheque number of any cheque you void so your own register stays straight.

Post-Dated, Stale-Dated and Certified: When You Write a Cheque, the Date Matters

The date you write a cheque with controls when it can be cashed and for how long, and Canada’s rules on both ends are simple: a cheque should not be deposited before the date written on it, and a bank does not have to accept it once it is more than six months old.

• Post-dated cheques. When you write a cheque with a future date, that is legal and common for rent. The payee should not deposit it early, and Payments Canada’s rules let you ask your bank to return an early-deposited cheque up to and including the day before the date on it. Automated processing means early deposits do slip through, so if it happens, contact your bank the same day.
• Stale-dated cheques. After six months, a financial institution can refuse a cheque; it is stale, not invalid, and some banks will still honour it, but they are not obliged to. The two exceptions are certified cheques and Government of Canada cheques, which do not go stale. If someone has not cashed a cheque you wrote, keep the money in the account until it clears or you cancel it.
• Certified cheques and bank drafts. A certified cheque is one you write a cheque for as usual and the bank then stamps after freezing the funds; a bank draft is drawn on the bank itself. Both cost a fee and both are treated as guaranteed funds, which is why a car dealer or lawyer asks for one. They cannot be stopped once issued, so only buy one when the deal is final.
• Stop payments. If you write a cheque and it is lost or stolen, ask your bank for a stop payment. You will need the cheque number, exact amount, payee and date, and there is usually a fee. If the cheque is presented before the stop is processed, you may still be on the hook, so act the same day.

The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada’s guide to paying by cheque covers the stale-date rule and stop payments, and it adds one protection worth using: writing “for deposit only to the account of the payee” on the back of a cheque you are mailing limits who can cash it.

Depositing a Cheque: Mobile Deposit and Hold Periods

When someone else has to write a cheque to you, the fastest way to deposit it is a photo in your bank’s app, and the slowest part is not the deposit but the hold: a federally regulated bank can hold a cheque of $1,500 or less for up to 4 business days after an in-branch deposit or 5 business days after an ATM or mobile deposit, and a cheque over $1,500 for up to 7 or 8 business days.

Those are maximums; many cheques clear sooner, and a bank can release funds early. The holds also explain why a payee may wait a week for the money. The first $100 rule is firm: your bank must make the first $100 of any cheque deposit available right away at a teller, or by the next business day if you used an ATM or the app, and if the cheque is for $100 or less the whole amount.

Mobile deposit runs under Payments Canada’s Rule A10 for cheque images: photograph the front and back in good light, endorse the back if the app asks, and keep the paper cheque until the deposit clears, then destroy it. FCAC’s cashing a cheque page lists the hold limits.

What It Costs When You Write a Cheque That Bounces in 2026

A cheque bounces when the account it is drawn on does not have the money on the day it is presented, and in 2026 the price of that mistake fell sharply: since March 12, 2026, federal regulations cap the NSF fee a bank can charge on a personal deposit account at $10, down from the $45 to $48 that RBC, TD, Scotiabank, BMO, CIBC and National Bank charged before. The same rules say a bank cannot charge the fee more than once in two business days on the same account, and cannot charge it at all when the shortfall is under $10.

The cap does not make a bounced cheque free. The person you paid may be charged a returned-item fee by their own bank and will usually pass it to you, a landlord can treat a bounced rent cheque as unpaid rent, and a pattern of NSF cheques can get your account closed or reported. The fix is boring: before you write a cheque, confirm the balance covers every cheque still outstanding, and if you have overdraft protection, know its limit. The moment you write a cheque, treat the money as spent. The Financial Consumer Agency of Canada explains the new rules in its March 2026 announcement.

8 Mistakes People Make When They Write a Cheque

Most refused cheques fail on one of eight small errors, and every one of them is avoidable in the thirty seconds it takes to reread it after you write a cheque and before you hand it over:

1. Amounts that disagree. $1,250.00 in the box and “One thousand two hundred and fifteen” on the line. The words win, and a big gap gets the cheque returned.
2. Empty space after the words. Each time you write a cheque, draw the line to the printed “dollars” so nothing can be added.
3. No signature, or the wrong one. The bank compares it to the signature on file.
4. Pencil or erasable ink. Use a blue or black pen. Payments Canada asks for dark ink precisely so cheque images read cleanly.
5. The wrong year in January. A cheque dated last year can be treated as stale.
6. Corrections. Crossing out and rewriting an amount invites a refusal. Write VOID on the spoiled cheque, record it, and write a cheque again.
7. A cheque to “Cash” or with a blank payee. Anyone can deposit it.
8. Abbreviating the payee. “RPM” for “Riverside Property Management” may not match the deposit account name.

When Not to Write a Cheque

You should write a cheque when the payee insists on paper, when you need a post-dated series for rent, or when a deal calls for certified funds; for most other payments a cheque is now the slow, riskier option, because it can be lost in the mail, altered, held for days and bounced.

• Interac e-Transfer moves money between Canadian accounts in minutes, with the sender’s daily limit set by their bank. It is the default for paying a person or a small business.
• Pre-authorized debit replaces a stack of post-dated cheques for rent, insurance or a loan; you sign one agreement and the payee pulls the payment on the agreed dates.
• Online bill payment covers utilities, credit cards, property taxes and most large billers from your banking app, with no cheque, envelope or stamp.
• Bank draft or certified cheque for a vehicle, a real estate deposit or any deal where the payee needs guaranteed funds.

If you write a cheque to repay a loan or to cover a payment you are struggling with, the problem is the budget, not the payment method. Our guide to how to borrow money in Canada compares every option from an overdraft to a personal loan, and our how to choose a loan guide covers the cost test to run before you sign anything.

About the Author

Sources: Financial Consumer Agency of Canada, paying by cheque; FCAC, cashing a cheque (hold periods); FCAC, new NSF fee regulations, March 2026; Payments Canada, paying by cheque. Photos by cottonbro studio, Kindel Media, Anna Tarazevich and Aswin R S on Pexels.

Disclaimer: For informational purposes only; not legal or financial advice. Bank menu labels, fees and hold policies change; confirm the current rules with your own financial institution, the Financial Consumer Agency of Canada and Payments Canada before relying on them.