How to endorse a check

The short answer

To endorse a check, turn it over and sign in the “Endorse here” box at the top of the back, exactly as your name appears on the front, in blue or black ink. For a mobile deposit, add the words your bank asks for. Sign it just before you deposit it: a check with only your signature can be cashed by anyone holding it.

What you write besides your name depends on two things: how you’re depositing it, and whose name is on the front. If it’s your name, spelled right, and you’re using your bank’s app, you’re done in ten seconds.

How to endorse a check, step by step

1. Turn the check over. Hold it so the box marked Endorse here is at the top. It often has three lines. Under the box is a line that says not to write, stamp, or sign below it. That space belongs to the banks the check passes through, so keep your pen out of it.
2. Sign your name as the front spells it. Use blue or black ink, and match the name on the “Pay to the order of” line. If the front gets your name wrong, there’s a fix below.
3. Add the words for how you’re depositing. In an app, that’s your bank’s exact phrase, or a tick in the mobile deposit box some checks have. At an ATM, at the teller window, or in the mail, write “For deposit only” with your signature. The CFPB says those words mean the check can only be deposited in your account.
4. Deposit it the same day. Don’t sign it earlier than you need to. How long to keep the paper check afterward is at the bottom of this page.

What to write for mobile deposit

Write your own bank’s exact words, not a phrase you saw somewhere else. Wells Fargo and Chase each have their own line to write with your signature. Capital One and U.S. Bank ask for your signature, and Capital One adds a tick in its mobile deposit box when the check has one, or a note under your signature that it’s for mobile deposit.

A mobile deposit leaves the paper check in your hands, and that paper could be deposited a second time somewhere else. Under Regulation CC, if you deposit by phone and the same paper check is later accepted by a second bank after it was already paid, your bank has to cover that second bank’s loss. But the second bank loses that claim if the paper check carried a restrictive endorsement that doesn’t match how it was deposited.

Mobile deposit also needs the check made out to you. Capital One and U.S. Bank both say they won’t take a third-party check (one signed over to you by someone else) by mobile deposit.

Which endorsement to use

Use “For deposit only” or your bank’s mobile wording almost every time. A bare signature is the riskiest, and “Pay to the order of” is only for handing the check to someone else.

• Your signature alone (a blank endorsement). Under UCC 3-205, the check becomes payable to whoever holds it and can change hands just by being handed over. It’s fine when you’re standing at the teller window. It’s a bad idea on a check you’re about to put in an envelope.
• “For deposit only” and your signature (a restrictive endorsement). The check can only go into your account. A bank that pays it out any other way is liable for it under UCC 3-206.
• “Pay to the order of” a named person, then your signature (a special endorsement). Only that person can cash or deposit it from then on.

The labeled diagram of a check shows where each part sits on both sides, and the guide to reading a check goes through the front line by line.

What if my name is misspelled on the check?

Sign the name the way the front spells it, then sign your correct name directly below. The Uniform Commercial Code lets you endorse in the name on the check, your own name, or both, and lets the bank require both, so signing both saves a second trip.

That’s UCC 3-204(d), and it covers any check made out to you under a name that isn’t quite yours: a typo, a missing middle initial, or the name you had before you married. Wells Fargo and PNC both tell customers to do it in that order, wrong spelling on top.

Not every bank is that strict. In an October 2026 r/personalfinance thread about a commission check with the payee’s name misspelled, one reader said their bank took a check made out to their first name and their husband’s last name and “just went ahead and deposited it.” Sign both anyway. If the name is so far off that it could be someone else, ask whoever wrote the check for a new one.

Checks made out to two people

Look at the word between the names. “And” means both of you sign. “Or” means either of you can sign alone. If there’s no word at all, just two names, the check is ambiguous and the UCC treats it as “or,” but your bank can still ask for both signatures.

That’s UCC 3-110(d). The CFPB’s answer says the same thing, with “generally” in front of it. On an “and” check, each person signs on their own line in the box, and then you can add “For deposit only.”

Checks that name you and a business are harder. An insurance check can name you alongside someone else, such as an adjuster, and on an “and” check every one of them has to sign. Even then, a bank may say no. In a 2025 r/Banking thread, a homeowner whose insurance check had been signed by every payee was told the bank couldn’t take it “because it’s written out to a business” and the account was personal. When that happens, the fix is a new check, not a different signature.

How do I endorse a check to someone else?

Write “Pay to the order of” and the other person’s full name, and sign under it. That makes the check payable to them alone. But some banks won’t take a signed-over check, and the Capital One and U.S. Bank apps won’t, so ask the bank before you sign.

Under UCC 3-205(a), once you name someone this way, only they can cash or deposit the check. They then sign under your writing as if it were their own check. That’s the law. Whether a teller takes it is the bank’s call.

Two routes work more reliably. Deposit the check into your own account and send the money on, or ask the person who wrote the check to write a new one to the right name.

Signing for a business, or for someone else

For a check made out to a business, write the business name as it appears on the front, sign your own name under it, and add your title. For a check made out to someone you sign for, show that you’re signing for them, in the form “John Jones by Mary Jones.”

PNC puts any restriction, such as “For deposit only,” last, after your title (Owner, say, or Accountant).

“John Jones by Mary Jones” is the minimum the Treasury accepts on a federal check, such as a tax refund, when someone with legal authority signs for the payee. For a private check under a power of attorney, ask the bank what it needs to see before you sign anything.

When the person on the check has died

If you find a check while going through the mail of someone who has died, set it aside and don’t sign it. A federal recurring benefit check issued after the payee’s death is not payable and goes back to the agency that sent it. If no executor has been appointed, every federal check to the person goes back. An appointed executor can endorse some of them, such as a tax refund, as “John Jones by Mary Jones, executor of the estate of John Jones.” For any other check made out to someone who has died, talk to the executor and the bank first.

Will a bank accept a check without an endorsement?

Sometimes, when the check goes into the payee’s own account. The law lets a bank take it unsigned, but it doesn’t make the bank do it, and mobile apps ask for your signature.

Under UCC 4-205, a bank that takes a check for deposit from the person it’s made out to becomes the legal holder of the check even if that person didn’t sign it. Sign it anyway.

If you already signed it

You can still deposit or cash it as usual. If you signed only your name, treat it like cash until it’s in the bank. If you wrote the wrong words, or signed in the wrong place, don’t cross anything out: show it to a teller, who can tell you whether the bank will take it as it is.

After you deposit it

Keep the paper check until the deposit has cleared and your bank’s window has passed, then shred it. The window runs from two business days at Chase to ten business days in Capital One’s guide.

Before you shred it, check that the money landed on your bank statement, and log it in a check register if you keep one.

A check you received is proof that someone paid you, and that matters later: at tax time, in a dispute, or when a deposit goes missing. So take a photo of the front first and drop it in Granite. It reads the payee, the amount, the date, the check number and the bank, files it as a check, and flags the account number as sensitive. A phone photo works as it is, HEIC included.