How to Properly Fill Out a Money Order
For those who are unfamiliar with the term, a money order is a printed order to make a specific payment to a specific recipient. In this, it is rather similar to checks, certified checks, and a number of other financial tools. However, a money order is much closer to being a certified check than a check because the sum has to be prepaid, which makes much better-suited to certain individuals under certain circumstances than the other options.
Why Should You Want to Know How to Fill Out a Money Order?
Generally speaking, money orders see use because they are supposed to be safe. Since the sum is prepaid, this means that there shouldn’t be a risk of a money order bouncing, which isn’t something that can be said about standard checks. Moreover, since money orders are intended for a specific recipient, this makes them a more secure choice compared to, say, cash, which has a chance of being intercepted by opportunistic individuals. On top of this, money orders are useful for people who don’t necessarily trust the intended recipient because money orders lack personal information such as the sender’s home address, phone number, and bank account number, which are sometimes included on checks. Based on this, it is safe to say that money order see a fair amount of use because they provide an increased amount of security to both the sender and the recipient compared to a lot of the other options out there.
With that said, money orders have a fair number of drawbacks as well. For example, the same characteristics that make them useful to both the sender and the recipient has sometimes made them useful to scammers and other criminals, meaning that they are not accepted by some parties out there because they have a bad reputation with them. Furthermore, money orders can mean additional administrative work for banks and other financial institutions, which tends to make them somewhat less fond of money orders for perfectly understandable reasons. Finally, it should be mentioned that money orders have serious limitations on their values, meaning that they are far from being as convenient as check.
How Do You Fill Out a Money Order?
Still, money order can have their uses for certain people under certain circumstances. Moreover, while interested individuals will have to line up at either a retailer or some other business to buy a money order, the process tends to be relatively simple and straightforward. This is even true when it comes to filling out the money order, which is a critical part of the process.
First, interested individuals should fill in the name of the intended recipient, which could be either a person or an organization of some sort. This is important because said individual or said organization will be the one entity permitted to receive the funds represented by the money order. Moreover, the sender might want to fill out this part as soon as possible so as to make use of this protection.
Second, interested individuals should fill in their name, which makes it clear who is sending the money order. In some cases, there is a spot for additional information about the sender, which can be useful for telling the intended recipient who they should contact if they run into a problem.
Third, interested individuals should fill out the space that has been left blank for information about the reason that they are sending a money order as well as the account number with which they are associated. This can be critical if the sender is planning to use the money order to pay a bill or something similar because filling out the necessary information will make it much easier for the intended recipient to connect the sender with the right account.
Fourth, interested individuals should sign where the money order indicates on the front because that is what will make the money order official. In contrast, they should leave the back alone.
Fifth, interested individuals should make sure to hang on to the receipt that came with the purchase of the money order. After all, if something goes wrong, having the receipt will make it much easier for them to prove their claims, meaning that they should keep it somewhere safe and secure for documentation purposes.