How to get a voided check, with or without a checkbook

Someone has asked you for a voided check. Usually it is a new employer setting up direct deposit, a payroll company, or a biller that wants to pull a monthly payment from your account. If you have a checkbook in a drawer, this takes about a minute.

If you have never owned paper checks, which is completely normal now, the request is confusing and the answer is not simply "go buy some checks." Here is what the request actually means, how to handle it either way, and how to keep your account details from ending up somewhere you did not intend.

What a voided check is and why anyone wants one

A check is a paper instruction telling your bank to pay someone. A voided check is an unused check with the word VOID written across the front, which cancels that instruction before it can ever be used. Nobody wants it as payment. They want it as proof of where your money lives.

Printed on a check is the name on the account, the bank's name, and the line of numbers along the bottom of a check. Those digits include a routing number, which identifies your bank, and an account number, which identifies your specific account. The check's own number is in there as well. The routing and account numbers are what an employer or biller needs to move money electronically through the ACH network, the system US banks use for direct deposit, automatic bill payments and transfers between accounts.

They ask for a check rather than for the numbers typed into a box because a printed check is harder to get wrong, and because it shows the account really is in your name. One mistyped digit means a deposit that bounces back, or one that goes somewhere it should not.

How to void a check if you have a checkbook

Take a fresh, unused check from the book. Do not use one you have already filled out and given to someone else.

That is the whole job. Whether you hand over the paper itself or a copy depends on who asked, which is covered further down.

1. Write VOID across the front in large letters, using a pen with dark ink. Ballpoint or gel is fine. Pencil is not, because it can be erased.
2. Make the letters big enough to be unmistakable at a glance, while leaving the printed numbers readable.
3. Do not sign it. The signature is what turns a check into an instruction to pay, and there is no reason for one here.
4. Leave the amount blank, and leave blank the space for whoever the check would be paid to. That person or company is called the payee.
5. Note the check number and mark it void in your register, or wherever you keep track. Otherwise a gap in the numbering looks like a missing check months later.

What to do if you have no checks at all

Not having a checkbook is ordinary, and payroll departments run into it. You have a few options, and it is worth asking the person who requested the check which one they will take before you spend anything.

• A form or letter from your bank. It goes by different names depending on the bank: direct deposit authorization form, account verification letter, letter of account confirmation. This is often the cleanest substitute, because it comes from the bank with your name and numbers on it. Many banks generate one in online banking or the app; others print one at a branch.
• A bank statement, or the account details screen from online banking. Whether this is accepted varies, and so does what it actually shows. Some statements list both numbers, some show only part of the account number and no routing number at all.
• A counter check or a small order of checks. Some banks can print one for you at the counter. Ordering a book takes days, and the cost varies: some accounts include free checks, some banks charge, and a third party is priced differently again.
• A check you print yourself. Blank check stock is paper sold with a check's security features but nothing filled in, and it is easy to buy online, though a check that only has to show your details is never going to be deposited. If you want something on paper today, Print A Checks has a free page at free voided check page that fills in your own details in the browser and marks the check void so you can print it. Check first that whoever asked will accept a check you printed yourself, because some will and some only take a document issued by the bank. Printing checks you intend to actually use is a different job, covered in How to print your own checks at home.

Whether a photo or a PDF is accepted

This varies, and it is the one thing worth confirming instead of guessing. Many payroll systems and billers now run everything through an online portal and will take a photo or a scan uploaded as an image or a PDF. Others, often smaller employers or a bank setting up an automatic transfer, still want the original piece of paper handed over or mailed.

If you are sending an image, the usual problems are easy to avoid. Lay the check flat on a dark surface, use daylight rather than a flash, get all four corners in the frame, and zoom in on the finished file to confirm every digit is legible.

Use the requester's own portal or secure upload when one exists. Ordinary email and text messages sit in inboxes and phone backups for years, and this is not a document you want scattered around.

Treat it as sensitive, because it is

A voided check is not meant to be cashable. It has no signature, no amount, and the word VOID across the front, and a bank is not supposed to accept it. If one slips through an automated deposit, the credit is normally reversed. That part is not the thing to worry about.

What it does carry is your routing and account number, your name, and sometimes your address. Anyone holding those has enough to attempt an electronic withdrawal from your account. Banks do have dispute processes for debits you never authorized, but the rules and time limits vary, and it is a mess worth avoiding.

So the practical habit is simple. Give a voided check only to a party you already have a relationship with and reached yourself: your employer's HR or payroll system, a biller whose account you opened. If a request turns up out of nowhere by text or email, offering a refund, a bonus or a new payment method, contact the company using a number you already had. And do not post a photo of one publicly or leave copies sitting in a shared folder.

Last updated 2026-09-16. General information about how checks and US bank payments usually work — not legal, tax or financial advice.