The amount line is the part people get wrong. Type the figure below and copy the exact wording a bank expects — then read what the other five fields need.
Check format sets its own capitalisation: banks expect Title Case, so the option is fixed here.
Type a number to see it spelled out. Pick a currency for an amount with cents, or Check to get the line a bank expects.
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01 · the amount line
Dollars in words, then "and", then the cents as a fraction over one hundred: One Hundred Twenty-Three and 45/100.
Three details in that line surprise people. The word "Dollars" is missing, because it is already printed at the end of the row. The cents are a fraction rather than words. And a whole amount still needs the fraction — and 00/100 — because an empty cents position is somewhere a figure can be added.
Everything else about the amount line follows from one idea: leave nothing that can be added to. Start at the far left, keep it tight, and draw a line through whatever space is left over.
People usually look up how to write a check for one of two reasons: they write one so rarely that the format has gone, or they are writing an unusual amount and want to be sure. Both are the same question — what exactly goes on that line — and the converter above answers it for any figure. What follows is the rest of the check, so that the one field you were unsure about does not turn out to be one of three.
02 · anatomy
A check has six things to fill in. The order below is the order to do them in, and the signature is deliberately last. Learning to write a check properly is mostly learning that order: every field is easy on its own, and the trouble comes from doing them out of sequence or leaving one for later.
01
Today's date, in full. Postdating a check does not reliably stop it being cashed early: in practice many banks process it regardless unless you have given them separate written notice.
02
The payee's full legal name. Not a nickname, not an abbreviation the bank has never seen. Leaving it blank makes the check payable to whoever fills it in.
03
The box on the right. Write it tight against the currency symbol so nothing can be inserted in front, and include the cents.
04
The long line underneath. This is the binding version, and the one this page is about.
05
Optional, and worth using. An invoice or account number here is what lets either side match the payment later.
06
Last. A signed check with anything else blank is a gift to whoever holds it.
03 · worked amounts
Every line comes from the converter at the top of this page, so what you copy is what you see here.
| Figures | On the amount line |
|---|---|
| $100.00 | One Hundred and 00/100 |
| $123.45 | One Hundred Twenty-Three and 45/100 |
| $500.00 | Five Hundred and 00/100 |
| $1,000.00 | One Thousand and 00/100 |
| $1,234.56 | One Thousand Two Hundred Thirty-Four and 56/100 |
| $7.05 | Seven and 05/100 |
| $21.00 | Twenty-One and 00/100 |
| $2,500.75 | Two Thousand Five Hundred and 75/100 |
04 · why twice
A check asks for the amount twice, and the two are not equal in standing. When the figures and the words disagree, the written words control. It is a long-standing rule of negotiable instruments, and it is the reason the amount line deserves more care than the box.
The logic is about tampering. A 1 becomes a 4 with one stroke; a 3 becomes an 8; a zero can be added to the end of a number. None of that works on a phrase. Turning "One Hundred" into "One Thousand" means forging a whole word in someone else's handwriting, in the middle of a line that has no room left.
Which is why the two habits that look fussy — the 00/100 on a whole amount, and the line through the leftover space — are the two that actually matter.
05 · mistakes
— One Hundred Twenty-Three
+ One Hundred Twenty-Three and 00/100
Leaving the cents off leaves a space where cents can be added. The fraction is required even when the amount is whole.
— One Hundred Twenty-Three and 45/100 ________
+ One Hundred Twenty-Three and 45/100 ————————
Blank space at the end of the line is the vulnerability. Draw a line through whatever is left.
— One Hundred and Twenty-Three and 45/100
+ One Hundred Twenty-Three and 45/100
Two "and"s on one line. The one that belongs there separates the dollars from the cents; the British connector after the hundreds muddies it.
— one hundred twenty-three and 45/100
+ One Hundred Twenty-Three and 45/100
Lowercase is not invalid, but Title Case is the convention and makes the start of the amount unmistakable.
— Signing first, filling in later
+ Signing last
A signed blank check is a bearer instrument in everything but name. Fill in every field before the signature.
06 · questions
Q01
Write the dollars in words, then "and", then the cents as a fraction over one hundred: One Hundred Twenty-Three and 45/100. Start at the far left of the line, use Title Case, and draw a line through any space left over. The word "Dollars" is already printed at the end of the row, so you do not write it.
Q02
Because a fraction is much harder to alter than words and stays legible in poor handwriting. It is a fraud-prevention convention, not a style choice, and every US bank expects it.
Q03
Use 00/100: "Five Hundred and 00/100". Some people write "and no/100", which banks also accept. What you should not do is leave the cents off entirely — an empty cents position is space someone else can fill.
Q04
Yes. Under the rules governing negotiable instruments, when the written amount and the numeric amount disagree, the written words control. That is the whole reason a check asks for the amount twice.
Q05
On a check, no. American usage omits it anyway, and on a check the word "and" already has a job: separating the dollars from the cents. Writing "One Hundred and Twenty-Three and 45/100" puts two of them on one line and blurs where the dollars end.
Q06
For a small slip, cross it out, write the correction next to it and initial it — though a bank may still refuse a visibly amended check. For anything involving the amount, void the check instead: write VOID across it in large letters, keep it or shred it, and write a new one.
Q07
You can, and you should not. Pencil can be erased and rewritten, which defeats the point of writing the amount twice. Use ink, and preferably dark ink that photographs cleanly, since most checks are now deposited as images.
Q08
Less than they were, but they have not gone away. Rent, contractors, private car sales, security deposits and anything routed through a title or escrow company still run on paper checks — and the format has not changed in decades.
Copy the amount line from the converter above, leave no blank space on it, and put the signature last. Those three habits cover almost everything that goes wrong with a check.
Once you have written a check a few times the format stops needing to be looked up. Until then, the converter above will write the amount line for any figure — and it is worth checking rather than guessing, because the amount in words is the part the bank actually reads.