Cashier's Check
A personal check might bounce. A cashier's check...won't.
When you write a check out of your checking account (i.e. a personal check), you're basically making a promise that the money is there. The person receiving the check takes it to their bank, and then that bank contacts your bank, who then checks your account. If there's not enough money there, they'll let the first bank know that there are insufficient funds. The original bank will do the equivalent of a sad-face emoji to their client, and then charge them $20 for depositing a bounced check. You'll probably get a fee, too, plus an angry phone call from the person you wrote the check to.
For a cashier's check, the money comes out of your account at the moment the check is issued (or you give some cash to cover it to the cashier). The check isn't attached your your account...it's backed by the bank. If someone asks for a cashier's check, it means they don't want the risk that the check will bounce. For the person receiving it, it's much closer to cash in terms of the guarantee that they'll get the money.
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Finance: What is Cash on Delivery (COD)?41 Views
Finance a la shmoop what is cash-on-delivery?
or CoD well if you have a deadbeat buyer who's taken forever to pay you in [Danny Deadbeat laying on sofa]
the past think remember Popeye and wimpy borrowing money for burgers next Tuesday
when he actually never pays you'll eventually have to make that customer
that deadbeat a COD status purchaser well CoD has nothing to do with cheap
fish rather it stands for cash on delivery like you get cash when the good
is delivered and it means that the postal person or UPS gal or FedEx dude
has to collect the cash you are owed before they will actually leave the [Cash transfers to mail people]
package being shipped at the warehouse on your doorstep or van parked you know
down by the river if a client has such bad credit or has such a miserable
payment record that they have to be put on COD status well you may really have
to re-evaluate your relationship there COD also carries charges and often
they're big because a postal worker may have to ring the door eight times before [Postal worker ringing door bell]
finding the deadbeat at home and then even if he is home well it's uncertain
whether or not he'll have the ready cash to pay for whatever goods he just
ordered and sometimes you'd have better odds of getting money out of this thing [Pile of fish appear]