Insufficient funds

A dishonoured cheque is a cheque that the bank on which it is drawn declines to pay ("honour"). There are a number of reasons why a bank might refuse to honour a cheque, with non-sufficient funds (NSF) being the most common, indicating that there are insufficient cleared funds in the account on which the cheque was drawn. An NSF cheque may be referred to as a bad cheque, dishonoured cheque, bounced cheque, cold cheque, rubber cheque, returned item, or hot cheque. Lost or bounced cheques result in late payments and affect the relationship with customers. In England and Wales and Australia, such cheques are typically returned endorsed "Refer to drawer", an instruction to contact the person issuing the cheque for an explanation as to why it was not paid. If there are funds in an account, but insufficient cleared funds, the cheque is normally endorsed "Present again", by which time the funds should have cleared.

Wikipedia. CC BY-SA 4.0. Updated Jun 27, 2026.