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Comment by spacehome | Hacker News Reader

Landlords only want cashier's checks if they don't trust you. If they don't trust you, they're less likely to rent to you. So requiring cashier's checks is uncommon, barring some extenuating circumstance like you've previously written a bad check or been late.

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As a landlord, I always request cash or cashiers check for move in money. I don't want you living there for 3 months for free while I fight your bad check through the court system to get you evicted.

It may sound shocking, but some people will do this. Source: me, landlord since 2001.

Fair enough. My experience is I've been living in apartments for decades and never been asked for cash or cashier's checks.

Cashier's checks are frequently fraudulent. You've been lucky if they worked for you.

I use a credit card much more often these days, because the CC company takes fraud seriously. The banks don't. At least my bank did not.

>CC company takes fraud seriously.

On behalf of the cardholder they do. When a cardholder complains the card company just reverses the payment to the merchant in a 'chargeback', sometimes months later. Then the merchant has to appeal to get it back. So no the credit card companies don't care about fraud.

I would ask for cash...

Why not a bank transfer?

Tenant: "Reverse this payment from 6 weeks ago."

Bank: "Why?"

Tenant: "Well my landlord [tale of woe]."

Bank: "So I'm hearing that the payment was unauthorized."

Tenant: "Yes!"

Bank: "Reversed."

Landlord: "... YOU DID WHAT?!"

Bank: "sigh We don't want to be in this discussion."

Landlord: "YOU HAD ONE JOB!"

Bank: "It's not sitting between two adults trying to figure which of them screwed the other. We've got courts for that. Good luck."

In the US, bank transfers are reversible? (Here in Germany, if you sent the money it's basically gone, you can only reverse payments that the other side "pulled" from your account) Always interesting how the types of service available and their rules shape what's used where.

I was always asked for the deposit in cashier's check form, and I had a credit rating over 800 and a steady high paying job. It's a real hassle when you're new to the area and don't have the bank account moved over. Luckily convenience stores will write them for you but they charge for it.

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