What is Ante Dated Cheque?

I, like you, was also not well acquainted with ante dated cheque meaning until I landed in a situation where I came across an ante date cheque. Although we may be using cheques frequently, it can be possible that not all of us know every term or attribute related to cheques. One such thing is the ante dated cheque. So, to save you from any such situation and also to make you aware beforehand, I am going to tell you all that I have learned and understood about an ante dated cheque. Please continue reading to understand it.

What is ante dated cheque?

Antedated means the date entered on any legal contract which is earlier than the actual date of occurrence of the contract. An antedate cheque bearing a date prior to the actual date of signing the cheque or opening of an account is called an antedated cheque which is valid and can be paid till it becomes stale. So any cheque with the past date (not exceeding the past 3 months) can be presented to the bank for clearance. In banking, antedated refers to cheques which have been written by the drawer, and dated at some point in the past.  

Ante-dated cheques can be used when the contract is delayed to avoid unnecessary trouble for the party. In the financial markets, there are several dates associated with an investment that may be considered a type of antedate. In the United States antedated cheques are described in the Uniform Commercial Code’s Article 3, Section 113.

An antedated cheque is one which is issued for a backdate, i.e., a date which is prior to the date of issue of the cheque. Antedating documentation and legal contracts are other realms of financial transactions in which antedates may be used. For example, a check is drawn on the 10th of July 2000 but if the date is written as the 1st of July 2000, then it will be called an Antedated Check. 

Another example, suppose today is 14th Jan 20xx, and a cheque is dated 13th Jan 20xx, then it is an ante-dated cheque. ‘Ante’ means earlier. Ante-date is an earlier date. Such a cheque is valid since the validity of a cheque is six months from the date of issue of the cheque.

I hope now you too are well aware of what is an ante dated cheque.