Need to change cash to cashier's check without bank account (Just arrived to the US)
A cashier's check costs money to get and is not connected to an account.  You have cash.  You should be able to get a bank to sell you one, even without an account.  Find a bank where you would like to open an account and explain the situation.  I can't guarantee that that will work, but I would expect it to do so.  If not, the bank can probably suggest an alternative.   You might also ask the landlord if you can do it with postal money orders.  I am positive that you can buy those with cash.  You might have to buy a bunch to reach your desired amount.  Or perhaps a Western Union money order might be better.   You also might be able to open an account with your passport and Social Security Number (SSN). If you have an SSN and foreign passport - it's all you need to open account, so just open it and order a checkbook. It will take some time before they will issue it but most probably they'll give you some checks to use till that very moment.  So basically you should: Also I strongly suggest you to open two accounts - one would be for you and one for rent exclusively. The thing is that check could be cashed any time and it's pretty annoying exercise to keep that in mind. "the easiest thing would be to go to walmart and stock up on 1000$ money orders paying a 70 cents fee for each. your landlord would almost certainly accept money orders, but double check first just in case. i say stock up because you can't get a money order for more than 1000$ and they usually won't let you buy more than 3 per day. alternatively, you can probably open a bank account using your ssn and your passport.  look for any bank offering ""free"" checking, and they should be able to give you a few ""starter"" checks on the spot when you open the account. in any case, they can certainly get you a cashier's check for free or a small fee.  side note: if you want to shop around for a checking account, look for a bank or credit union offering a ""kasasa"" account."
"You can (usually) take it to your bank, and with appropriate identification, endorse the check with the words, ""not used for the purpose intended."" The one time I needed to not-use a money order, I was instructed to do so by the cashier/clerk at the bank." "IANAL, but. As you note, when you open a new account, they give you temporary checks that are usually blank in the upper left. I've used such checks and the bank has honored them. Therefore, I conclude that there must not be any legal requirement for anything to appear there, nor does the bank require it. Businesses are often reluctant to accept such temporary checks, for the obvious reason that anyone could go to the bank, open an account with $10, write checks for thousands of dollars, and disappear. At least if they've waited long enough to get the permanent checks in, there's some reason to believe that they plan to stick around.  In any case, it's not clear what you are trying to accomplish. You want to hand-write either your business name or your personal name depending on whether the check is for personal or business purposes? I don't see what that gains. You could always use a personal check for business purposes. If you're afraid someone will say, ""Hey, that doesn't look very professional, what kind of fly-by-night company is this that uses personal checks?"", surely a hand-written company name would look even less professional. Why not just open a business account and have your personal checks printed with your personal name and your business checks with your business name? I don't know where you live, but I have a business account on which I pay zero fees. The only cost is getting checks printed. There's the small hassle of having to make one trip to the bank to open the account. Well, the biggest hassle I have is that the bank won't let me transfer money between my personal and business accounts over the Internet, so I have to either go to the bank to move money back and forth, or I have to write a check from one account to the other and deposit through an ATM." A SWIFT code helps but it is not always necessary. In the early 2000s I worked in Hong Kong.  All a Hong Kong bank needed to wire money to the USA was the ABA number, which was the check routing number from the bottom of a US check, the bank account number, and the name on the destination account. The easiest options appear to be to open an account with one of the large multinational banks like Citi. They have options such as opening two separate checking accounts, one in each currency, and Citi in particular has an international account that appears to make mutli-currency personal banking easier. All of the options have minimum balance requirements or fees for conversion, but if you need quick access this seems to be the best bet. Even if this is a one-time event and you don't need the account, a bank like Citi may be able to help you cash the check and get access to the funds quicker than a national or local bank. http://www.citibank.com/ipb-global/homepage/newsite/content/english/multi_cap_bank_depo.htm Alternatively if you know anyone with a US bank account you can deposit it with them and take the cash withdrawal from their account, assuming they agree, the check isn't too large, etc. Many banks offer online payment. He can add a payee and just type your name and address in. The bank will mail the check out if they cannot deliver payment electronically. Edit: Recently I came across this (Citibank Global Transfer), you and your friend should see if your bank offers a similar service. Citibank requires both of you to have an account with them. If you can get to a physical branch, get a cashier's check (or call them and have them send you one by mail).  When they draft the cashier's check they remove the money from your account immediately and the check is drawn against the bank itself.  You could hold onto that check for a little while even after your account closes and you make other arrangements for banking. If you cannot get a cashier's check, then you should try to expeditiously open a new account and do an ACH from old to new.  This might take more days to set up than you have left though. First of all, don't be rude-I'm trying to help here.   Second, picture this scenario-  a company manages an offshore oil rig.  The employees by law have to be paid in a certain period of time.  To send paper checks to the employees who work on the oil rig would cost thousands of dollars and the employees can't cash them anyways. Thus the company requires it's employees to have direct deposit.  One of the employees can't or won't get a bank account (yes there are people like this).  How do you pay him?  A prepaid debit card solves this problem. I just tried doing that on my PP which is in the Netherlands, I have added a USD bank account (from my dutch bank) and they sent the verification amount in Euros, I called the bank and wonder why they didn't let me choose account currency they said it's not possible and if I cashout Dollars that I have in my PP (cause we usually do international business so we set it to dollars) it will be changed to Euros, So we decided to keep the dollars in account to pay our bills instead of getting ripped off by PayPal in xchange rates. Do you write checks?  You are giving your bank account and routing number to anybody you have ever given a check to.  Your employer is paying taxes on your behalf, so they need your social security number so they can pay your social security taxes. Account and routing numbers are how deposits are made.  If you are concerned, create a free checking account, collect the direct deposit and each payday go to the bank and withdraw your money to put it where you like. Nothing is deposit only because you will want your money back. Finally, you would be shocked at how little it takes to make a draft on your account in the US.  Certainly not your SSN, Address, or even your name. You cannot open an account in USA unless you have an address to provide to the bank in USA, You need ID, such as US Driver's License. The simplest thing to do is still one of the oldest: Write a check.  If you don't have a checking account, you can still probably enter the payment in your bank's online bill pay - In this case they will send him a paper check. There's an irrational desire these days to avoid checks at all costs, which I don't understand.  There's a time and place for electronic transfers and there's no doubt they're often very useful.  This is probably not one of those cases, however, since neither you nor your friend are set up for it. If you don't have a bank account then open one and use the check as your opening deposit.  You'll need to obtain a Social Security card as well (you didn't indicate you have one or not, so I'll assume you don't), but they're free and quick to apply for.   I assume you're from Washington state, so there should be no problem with you opening an account in Washington, no matter where the check is from.  Because of the amount of the check, the bank will probably only let yo have a part of the amount for a few days until it clears, but federal banking rules require quick clearance of out-of-state checks (I think it's 48 hours now), so you'd have access to at least half of the money right away and the rest in a few days. When I moved banks.  I had my old bank cut a cashier's check.  It isn't a check you write. They write it and give it to you.  I then took the cashier's check to my new bank to deposit it. She needs to get a bank account at literally any other bank or credit union. I have not paid for a checking account ever, any bank that tries to is ripping you off. Personally I've used ING Direct/Capital One 360 for years without any problems. You can simply deposit the check into your joint account. You should be able do that even without his signature. Then you can transfer the money out of that account and into yours.