Scenario 1. If you work at a rental place and have limousines in your lot, you might get a phone call or e-mail from a wedding planner requesting a limo for a wedding that takes place the following month. After messages going back and forth, negotiations stop at an agreed price. You are waiting for their check, which finally comes on Monday, five days before the wedding.

You deposit the check in the bank and then prepare the limo. Three days before the wedding, the planner calls you saying that the wedding was cancelled, because the bride got seriously sick or her grandma died suddenly.

He asks for a refund, but says that you can keep 10%, to pay for your trouble. Nice guy, you think, and you send them the refund less 10%. The following week your bank contacts you to tell you the wedding planner’s check has bounced.

Scenario 2. Let’s say you agree on a price of $1,200, but the check they send you is for $4,500. You call the client and tell him. He apologizes for the mistake, but suggests that you just go ahead and deposit the check, sending them the difference of $3,300. Naturally, their check for $4,500 bounces.

How to avoid: never issue a refund on a check until the check has cleared and the money is in your bank. Honest clients will be quite happy with that.