Depositing a check with a DBA on the title
Assuming it's your business, endorse the check as yourself and your DBA name, payable to your personal account
In the united states, they may request a check written by the bank to the other party. I have had to make large payments for home settlements, or buying a car. If the transaction was over a specified limit, they wanted a cashiers check. They wanted to make sure it wouldn't bounce.  I have had companies rebate me money, and say the maximum value of the check was some small value. I guess that was to prevent people from altering the check. One thing that has happened to me is that a large check I wanted to deposit was held for a few extra days to make sure it cleared. I wouldn't have access to the funds until the deadline passed. "There are at least a couple problems:   Your friend may not manage money well and so may not have enough money in the account.  Check bounces.  They get charged a fee.  You get charged a fee.  You have to chase after the friend to get the fee paid.  The friend was cheap about the regular fees and doesn't want to pay this much higher fee.   Your ""friend"" may really be a crook.  The check is no good.  Perhaps it's written under a false identity such that you are attempting to cash a stolen/forged check.  You cash it.  They take the money and disappear.  You get charged with participating in the crime, go to jail, and now have a criminal record (worst case).   My quick thought is that if you don't know the person well enough to know the home address, you don't know the person well enough to cash checks.   In general, I would view this the same as a loan.  When loaning to a friend, you should never loan more than you are willing to lose.  Note that an actual loan would be safer.  If you loan $50 to a friend, at worst you're out $50.  If you deposit a fraudulent check, you did something illegal.  You will have to be convincing when you tell your story to the police.  If they don't believe you, they could charge you.  A couple bad breaks and you could go to jail." The advice above is generally good, but the one catch I haven't seen addressed is which specific laws apply.  You said that you are in Arkansas, but the dealer is in Texas.  This means that the laws of at least two different states are in play, possibly three if the contract contains a clause stating that disputes will be handled in a certain jurisdiction, and you are going to have to do some research to figure out what actually applies.   One thing that may significantly impact this issue is whether you were in TX or AR when you signed the contracts.  If you borrowed the money in TX, and the lender is in TX, then it is almost certain that the laws of Texas will govern.  However, if you were living in AR at the time you acquired the loan, particularly if you were in AR when you signed the papers, you have a decent case for claiming that the laws of Arkansas govern.  I don't know enough about either state to know if one is more favorable to the consumer than the other, but it is a question you really want to have answered.  That said, I would be shocked if any state did not have provisions requiring the lender to provide a copy of the terms and a detailed statement of the account and transaction history upon request.  Spend some time on the web site of the Texas attorney general and/or legislator (because that is where the lender is, they are more likely to respect Texas law) to see if you can track down any specific laws or codes that you can reference.  You might also look into the federal consumer protection laws, though I can't think of one off hand that would apply in the scenario you have described.   Then work on putting together a letter asking them to provide a copy of the contract and a full history of the account.  As others noted, make sure you send it certified/return receipt, or better yet use a private carrier such as fedex, and check the box about requiring a signature. Above all you need to get the dialog transferred to a written form.  I can not stress this point enough.  Everything you tell them or ask for from here out needs to be done in a written format.  If they call you about anything, tell them you want to see their issue/offer in writing before you will consider it. You do not necessarily need a lawyer to do any of this, but you do need to know the applicable laws.  Do the research to know what your legal standing is.  Involve a lawyer if you feel you need to, but I have successfully battled several large utility companies and collection agencies into behaving without needing one. buy a cashiers check with the cash (a CRT will be nec if over 10 K) and deposit the cashiers check "You're a partnership. You should ask the money to be paid to the partnership. You'll have to fill partnership income tax return (form 1065) and each of you will get a K-1 schedule with your own personal portion of the income. For example, you're Adam, Ben and Clara. You work together on a project and are being paid. You get a check for $300 issued to ""Adam, Ben and Clara, DBA ABC Partnership"". You don't have to have a DBA, it just makes it easier to show you as a single entity. You then deposit the check to an account you set up for your partnership, and from that account you transfer $100 to each of you. Year end, you file form 1065, showing $300 income, and attach K-1 for each of the partners showing $100 income. That $100 income will flow to your individual tax returns. The overhead here is setting up a partnership account, potentially making a DBA, and filing the extra tax return. That's the proper way to do it, especially if it is something you're going to do regularly. For a one-time thing, one of you can get paid, report it as income on his/her Schedule C, and issue 1099 to the rest of you for your parts, and deduct the amount as his/her expense. Here, the overhead is Schedule C for each of you (instead of Schedule E if handling it as a partnership), extra 1099 forms (instead of 1065 and K-1s), and a risk of one partner defrauding the others (depends on how much you trust each other). With proper documentation, each of these is equally legal, and tax-wise the costs are the same (i.e.: either way you pay the same taxes). With partnership the overhead is a bit more expensive (DBA+1065 extra cost), but in the long term it will make your life easier if you do this kind of thing regularly. You may want to consider setting up your partnership as a LLC/LLP (depending on what your State allows), but that would require State paperwork and potentially more fees." "Depending on where you are, you may be able to get away with filing a ""Doing Business As"" document with your local government, and then having the bank call the county seat to verify this. There is generally a fee for processing/recording/filing the DBA form, of course. But it's useful for more purposes than just this one. (I still need to file a DBA for my hobby work-for-pay, for exactly this reason.)" "If you wish to lend them the money, make the check payable to the order of  ""loan"", not directly to your son or daughter." The person writing the check has already signed and endorsed it. The depositer's signature is not to confirm the check's validity, but to demonstrate that the check was depisited to the correct Fred Smith's account, and permit charges to be brought if, eg, Fred Bonzo Smith tries to steal Fred Gnorph Smith's check. Many businesses will request that you get a bank-issued check for large amounts of money. The exception is often in cases where you're not going anywhere: you can write a 50,000 check for a deposit on a new house, and you'll never have a problem, but a car dealer will probably request a counter check for the same sum. Savings accounts have lower fees. If you don't anticipate doing many transactions per month, e.g. three or fewer withdrawals, then I would suggest a savings account rather than a checking account. A joint account that requires both account holder signatures to make withdrawals will probably require both account holders' signature endorsements, in order to make deposits. For example, if you are issued a tax refund by the U.S. Treasury, or any check that is payable to both parties, you will only be able to deposit that check in a joint account that has both persons as signatories. There can be complications due to multi-party account ownership if cashing versus depositing a joint check and account tax ID number. When you open the account, you will need to specify what your wishes are, regarding whether both parties or either party can make deposits and withdrawals. Also, at least one party will need to be present, with appropriate identification (probably tax ID or Social Security number), when opening the account.  If the account has three or more owners, you might be required to open a business or commercial account, rather than a consumer account. This would be due to the extra expense of administering an account with more than two signatories. After the questioner specified interest North Carolina in the comments, I found that the North Carolina general banking statutes have specific rules for joint accounts: Any two or more persons may establish a deposit account...   The deposit account and any balance shall be as joint tenants...   Unless the persons establishing the account have agreed with the bank   that withdrawals require more than one signature, payment by the bank   to, or on the order of (either person on) the account satisfys the bank's obligation I looked for different banks in North Carolina. I found joint account terms similar to this in PDF file format, everywhere, Joint Account: If an item is drawn so that it is unclear whether one payee’s   endorsement or two is required, only one endorsement will be    required and the Bank shall not be liable for any loss incurred by the   maker as a result of there being only one endorsement. also  Joint accounts are owned by you individually or jointly with others.   All of the funds in a joint account may be used to repay the debts of   any co-owner, whether they are owed individually, by a co-owner,   jointly with other co-owners, or jointly with other persons or   entities having no interest in your account. You will need to tell the bank specifically what permissions you want for your joint account, as it is between you and your bank, in North Carolina. If they bring cash, meet at your bank to verify. If they want to use cashiers check, meet them at their bank. Large amounts use wires directly to your acct and verify (not only received, but deposited) before handing over the title/keys. I've done this, though with a loan company rather than a bank.  We agreed on price, drove to the loan company's office (the seller having notified them in advance), I gave them the money, got the title, and they gave the balance to the seller.   Important point is that you get the signed-off title from the lienholder. "You cant! There is the risk that between the time you get the check and the time you get to the bank that you will be murdered, have a heart attack, stroke, or aneurysm too.  And they are probably more likely than the bank going out of business between the time you deposit the money and get access to it. Prior to accepting the check I would do the following: Get a lawyer that specializes in finance and tax law.  There are some steps you can take to minimize your tax exposure.  There is little you can do about the immediate tax on the winnings but there are things you can do to maximize the return of your money.    You will want to do what you can to protect that money for yourself and your family.  Also create or revise your will.  This is a lot of money and if something happens to you people from your family and ""friends"" will come out of the woodwork trying to claim your money.  Make sure your money goes where you want it to in the event something happens to you. Get a financial planner.  This money can either make you or break you.  If you plan for success you will succeed.  If you trust yourself to make good decisions with out a plan, in a few years you will be broke and wondering what happened to your money. Even at 1% at 20million dollars that is 200k a year in interest... a pretty good income by itself.  You do not have to save every penny but you can plan for a nice lifestyle that will last, if you plan and stick to your plan. Do research and know what bank you are going to deposit the money in.  Talk to the bank let them know of your plans so they can be ready for it.  It is not every day that they get a 20 million dollar deposit.  They will need to make plans to handle it.  If you are going to spread the money out among several banks they can prepare for that too. When choosing that bank I would look for one where their holdings are significantly more than you are depositing.  I would not really go with one of the banks that was rescued.  They have already shown that they can not handle large sums of money and assuming they will not screw it up with my money is not something I would be comfortable with.  There were some nice sized banks that did not need a bail out.  I would choose one of them." "Your friend probably cannot deposit the check to your U.S. bank account. U.S. banks that I've worked with will not accept a deposit from someone who is not an owner of the account. I don't know why not. If some stranger wants to make unauthorized deposits to my account, why should I object? But that's the common rule.  You could endorse the check, your friend could then deposit it to his own account or cash it, and then transfer the money to you in a variety of ways.  But I think it would be easier to just deposit the check in your account wherever it is you live. Most banks have no problem with depositing a foreign check. There may be a fairly long delay before you can get access to the money while the check clears through the system.  I don't know exactly what you mean by a ""prize check"", but assuming that this is taxable income, yes, I assume the U.S. government would want their hard-earned share of your money. These days you can pay U.S. taxes on-line if you have a credit card. If you have not already paid U.S. taxes for the year, you should make an ""estimated payment"". i.e. you can't wait until April 15 of the next year, you have to pay most or all of the taxes you will owe in the calendar year you earned it." Years ago, I had a tenant who bounced a check now and then. I started going to the bank where his account was. With my ID they were agreeable to cashing the check against his account. The teller first checked his balance and only cashed when there were enough funds. One time he was $10 short. I wrote a deposit slip and added the $10 it took to clear the check.  As they say, your mileage may vary, I hear some banks won't even break a large bill for a non customer.