This Page is NOT Applicable for ACH Accounts
About 5 years ago, it was almost imperative that you use blank check stock (check paper) and magnetic (MICR) toner to print you checks for deposit. That was before the introduction of remote desktop scanners issued by some banks and more recently the advent of Mobile Deposits where you simply use a smart phone, ipad or tablet to take photos of the front/back of a check and your bank's app to deposit that check. Also, a lot of the larger banks have upgraded their in-house check scanners to optical instead of magnetic character recognition.
So, whether you need to use check paper and/or MICR toner to print checks depends on who you bank with and how you make your deposits.
The tabs below will help you determine.
Yes, you will HAVE to print checks on blank check stock. You may have to also use MICR toner depending who you banks with. Many larger banks (Chase, Bank of America and others) have upgraded their in-house scanners to optical so MICR toner is not necessary. You best bet is to ask you bank if they use Optical or Magnetic scanners for deposited checks.
NO, you do NOT need to print you checks on blank check paper. You might want to buy perforated paper (see note below) to make your job faster. You may or may not have to use MICR toner. When it comes to bank issued remote scanners, some or fully Optical (no MICR toner necessary - see note at the bottom of this page) and some are the older Magnetic scanner (MICR toner required). You can call you bank and ask or do a check from your own account to yourself, print it without MICR toner, and see if your scanner will read the routing number/account number.
If you use a Mobile Deposit app from your bank to use your phone/ipad/tablet to take photos of each check for deposit - then you do not have to use either blank check paper or MICR toner. You are simply taking a photo of the check.
Using your bank's Mobile App to make deposits? See this page for a quick tip.
If you determine you need to use blank check paper and/or MICR - here are some sources:
For 500 sheets or more of check paper and/or MICR toner - we sell that.
For smaller quantities of check paper, you can check Office Depot/Max or Staples (call your local store and ask for the Software department). You want BUSINESS size checks - NOT the small wallet or personal size.
If you have an Amazon Prime (free 2-day shipping) account - they carry both check paper and perforated 3-up paper. Here are some links for a Search at Amazon for these products. Vcheck supports business size TOP Check or 3 Checks per page. Either 3.5" or 3 5/8 check size.
Blank perforated Paper (if you use a desktop check scanner or Mobile Deposit)
Fully Optical OCR Check Scanners
If you contact your bank about using a check scanner for remote deposits, see if they can provide one of the scanners listed below as they are fully optical or Magnetic and/or OCR scanners. You might be able to purchase a scanner yourself (Amazon carries a number of them) - but your bank would have to provide the software to connect it to your account.
All Digital Check Corp. Scanners are Magnetic and/or OCR. From their support department:
"All of our scanners have the option of reading MICR by OCR. The main limitation on this is that the software that runs the scanners has to be configured to tell the scanner to read MICR via OCR. If that is not enabled, it will always default to magnetic MICR. Many software providers (your bank) write their software so that it will use OCR as a backup if magnetic MICR is not available."
The Panini Vision X scanners are also capable of OCR if the bank's software supports that option.
Epson check scanners are also magnetic/OCR if the software supports that. From their support department:
"Our scanners “present a read image”. IF the check does not have MICR magnetic toner – we still present the image and it is up to the software organization how they read it from there. Epson does not do OCR (Optical Character Read)…..Many software companies utilize the OCR engine – and read the MICR via the OCR."
We will expand this list as we get confirmation from the various scanner manufacturers.
