Adding a 180 day expiration to checks
While you can print that on the check, it isn't considered legally binding. If you are concerned about a check not being deposited in a timely manner, consider purchasing a cashier's check instead. This doesn't solve the problem per se, but it transfers responsibility of tracking that check from you to the bank. "Your bank has discretion to honor checks after 6 months, so you should talk to your bank about their specific policy. In general, banks won't accept ""large"" stale checks. The meaning of ""large"" varies -- $25,000 in NYC, as little as $2k in other places. Banks that service high-volume check issuers (like rebate companies) reject checks at 180 days. For business purposes, I think some banks will create accounts for specific mailings or other purposes as well. (i.e. 2011 refund account) The accounts close after a year."
I have only been comfortable using my credit unions online bill payment system where the service they use already has the target in the database. When I enter the name of the company and the zip code from the bill, the system responds with the address that matches what is on the bill. In most cases the money is not sent via mail, but it is sent electronically. This eliminates the case of somebody finding the check. Though electronic delivery doesn't guarantee that I didn't type the wrong account number. When adding a new target, I like to pick those that also have an online system that I can check in a few days to make sure the money was received and properly credited. Recently a company failed to credit my account in a timely manner, my credit union actually noticed that the payment hadn't been cashed, and alerted me. I asked the credit union about mistakes, either by me or by them. They claimed that the payment is treated like any other check, and that if there was a problem the money could be pulled back, and my account credited with the funds. Your bank should have a disclosure document stating the risks and protections with the service. Have you tried contacting them via phone or e-mail to follow up?  If not, definitely do that first.   If no response, you can keep this simple: Close your old account, write a personal check from your new one, and send the check with an explanatory note via Certified Mail.  That will get you proof that it was delivered successfully (or not).  Leave the money in your account for 180 days.  Your check should be void after that and cannot be cashed (check with your bank on this) and if it's still unclaimed they will need to contact you to request payment. Here is some good advice, read your UCO prospectus.  It seems to hold 20% of it's value ($600MM out of $3B) via 13800 of the Apr 21st 2015 contracts.  (expiring in 30 days)   Those will be rolled very quickly into the May contracts at a significant loss of NAV. (based on current oil futures chains)   Meaning if crude oil stays exactly the same price, you'd still lose 1% (5% spread loss * .20% the percentage of NAV based off futures contracts) on the roll each month.   Their other $2.4Billion is held in swaptions or cash, unsure how to rate that exposure.  All I know is those 13,800 contracts are in contango danger during roll week for the next few months (IMO).  I wonder if there is a website that tracks inflows and outflows to see if they match up with before and after the roll periods. http://www.proshares.com/funds/uco_daily_holdings.html How Oil ETFs Work Many oil ETFs invest in oil futures contracts. An oil futures contract is a commitment to buy a given amount of crude oil at a given price on a particular date in the future. Since the purpose of oil ETFs is only to serve as an investment vehicle to track the price of oil, the creators of the fund have no interest in stockpiling actual oil. Therefore, oil ETFs such as USO periodically “roll over” their futures contracts by selling the contracts that are approaching expiration and buying contracts that expire farther into the future. The Contango Problem While this process of continually rolling over futures contracts may seem like a great way to track the price of crude oil, there’s a practical problem with the method: contango. The rollover method would work perfectly if oil funds could sell their expiring contracts for the exact same price that they pay for the futures contracts they buy each month. However, in reality, it’s often true that oil futures contracts get more expensive the farther their expiration date is in the future. That means that every time the oil ETFs roll over their contracts, they lose the difference in value between the contracts they sell and the contracts they buy. That’s why funds like USO, which invests only in WTI light, sweet crude oil futures contracts, don’t directly track the performance of the WTI crude oil spot price. http://www.etftrends.com/2015/01/positioning-for-an-oil-etf-rebound-watch-for-contango/ Due to these reasons, I'd deem UCO for swing trading, not for 'investing' (buy-and-hold).  Maybe later I'll remember why one shouldn't buy and hold leveraged vehicles (leverage slippage/decay).    Do you have an exit price in mind ? or are you buy and hold ? You are asking 'what if', do you have some anticipated answers? Having volume smaller than open interest is the norm. As far as I can tell, having only one trading day and no previous open interest only affects someone trying to sell a contract they are holding.  Meaning that if you only have one day to sell your contract then you need to offer it 'at market' or at the bid price (or even lower than the bid price). If you cannot sell your contract then you have to let it expire worthless or you have to exercise it. Those are your three options: let it expire, sell it (perhaps at a loss), and exercise it.  Edit: be careful about holding an in-the-money option. Many brokers will automatically exercise an in-the-money contract if you hold it till expiration date. You can dial the phone systems of the credit reporting agencies directly to put a freeze on your credit report account. The phone systems require quick responses or the systems will fail you out, but **this work is relatively quick** and probably easier than trying to do this on the websites that try to re-direct you to buying credit monitoring services. Here are the phone entries you will make as a guide for the phone menu of each of the credit reporting agencies:  **Transunion** 888-909-8872:      enter zip code     press 3 to add freeze     enter social security number     enter date-of-birth as 8 digits MMDDYYYY     enter house number from street address then # key     choose a 6 digit security code     credit card number for $10 charge     4 digit expiration date of credit card MMYY  **Equifax** 800-685-1111:      press 3 to select freezes     press 1 to continue     say your state then 1 to confirm     enter social security number then 1 to confirm     enter house number from street address then # key, then 1 to confirm     press 1 to select a freeze     there will be a long pause at this point but when the bot comes back it goes very fast.          Write down the 10-digit pin provided XXXXXXXXXX then later,          Write down the 10-digit confirmation number provided XXXXXXXXX.          Press * to repeat both until you have it correct  **Experian** 888 397 3742      press 2 for freeze     press 2 for freeze     press 1 for add freeze     press 2 for no fraud report     enter social security number then # key then 1 to confirm     enter date-of-birth as 8 digits MMDDYYYY then 1 to confirm     enter zip code then # key     enter house number from street address then # key     press 2 for not blind     press 1 to pay by credit card     wait through list of charges by state     select credit card type 1 for mastercard, 2 for visa, 3 for american express, 4 for discover     enter credit card #, then 1 to confirm     4 digit expiration date of credit card then # key MMYY#  Cross-posted this from the megathread in r/personalfinance. I found a good description of these on the Laurentian Bank website.  Very similar to Abraham's answer, but the details are a little different (perhaps because it's Canadian). Certified cheque: A cheque which has been certified by the bank that the funds to be drawn are available and locked in for the sole beneficiary. This type of payment is guaranteed in case of theft, loss or destruction. Certified cheques can be entirely replaced after investigation (may be subject to a fee). Official cheque: As for the certified cheque, the official cheque is guaranteed by the bank against theft, loss or destruction. This type of cheque is different because it will be automatically and fully reimbursed within a 30 to 90-day period. If the amount is over $1,000, fees will be higher than   those of the certified cheque. Money Order: The money order is also a bank-guaranteed payment in case of theft, loss or destruction. As with the official cheque, it will be replaced or totally refunded within a 30 to 90-day period. Its difference resides in the fact that the maximum amount is $1,000 and it can be issued in US dollars. Bank draft: A bank draft is the ideal guaranteed payment vehicle for all your foreign currency transactions. It’s guaranteed against theft, loss or destruction and will be replaced or totally reimbursed within a period that varies according to the currency. If you are an immigrant or an emigrant or if you make purchases outside of the country, you could require this payment vehicle. "I don't think there's any federal law prohibiting them from allowing you to AutoPay more than your minimum.  Certainly there are federal laws telling them what to do with payments more than the minimum - they must apply the leftover to the principal by default - so the law doesn't assume you can't overpay. However, federal law does require them to advance your next payment date if you overpay by a multiple of your minimum payment; i.e., if your payment is $50 and you send them $100, you don't have to make your next payment [though interest still accrues of course].  It's possible Navient isn't interested in implementing this functionality in their AutoPay, who knows. In any event, assuming you have a bank that has AutoBillPay functionality, you may want to consider using that - either for the ""extra"" or for the whole amount (if Navient isn't giving you a discount for AutoPay - if so, use that at least).  Your bank is happy to cut a check in any amount and send it on, and Navient is required to apply it to the principal.  (Though if you do the autopay-and-billpay and are sending an extra amount less than a whole payment, verify that they're willing to accept amounts less than a full payment, first; not all lenders are.)" Why not 180 weeks then? Being able to get cash without having to work for it changes the human psyche regarding the necessity of work. At the end if the 99 weeks, a lot of people resent having to work again, which translates into an overall lesser quality labor pool. I'm not arguing for no unemployment, but 99 weeks is extreme. No one is actively job searching that long.