I know i may sound clueless but im unsure what type of check a sweepstakes check is. will it be considered a government, payroll, personal. i thought maybe a personal or payroll but im unsure.

   When I won $10,000 last year, I received a prize check from a small bank in Minnesota.  This was not a corporate check in that there was no mention of the sponsor of the sweeps (GlaxoSmithKline).  Anyhow...my bank ran me through the ringer trying to cash/deposit that check.  I went to a local branch of my bank and pulled up to the drive-in banking area.  I sent the teller my check, signed and with my account deposit slip included.  The teller told me he could not cash this check, and in fact, would not give it back to me.  His reason?  They thought the check may be fraudulent; that they had no way of knowing if it were real; that they were keeping the check to keep me from (I suppose) trying to cash/deposit it somewhere else.  Do you not think I was pissed at this?  I demanded they return my check.  I demanded they contact the bank (which was on the check).  I demanded to speak to the branch manager.  I told him to contact the bank to get the check verified...and he told me that they had tried to call the bank and was told the check was not good.  That was a LIE, because I then whipped out my cell phone and got the number of that bank in Minnesota.  I got a recording telling me the bank was now closed for the day and to call during business hours the next day (I was calling at 5:30).  The bank in Minnesota closed at 5pm (my time).  I threatened to contact the police because they refused to return my check!

I told the manager that I wasn't done with them yet, and I drove across town to my branch of the bank.  I personally talked with the asst. manager of the bank, who then called the other branch bank to find out just what was going on.  Well...I ended up getting that check deposited into my account, along with a 10-day verification hold.  See how easy that was for her to help me?  Now if the other branch bank had only done that...there would never have been so much drama and added stress to my life.

The moral of this story?  Be careful with handing over a large sweepstakes check to your bank, without first finding out the "what's what" first.  It will be beneficial for you to contact the bank typed on the check...verifiy the check...get their phone number and take it to the bank with you.  That way you will know the check is good when you waltz into your bank, in case the bank attempts to give you the run-around.

I won $2500 from Travelocity and had no problems depositing it at my Wells Fargo branch (then in the Twin Cities metro area). I can't remember what info was on teh check though and I do think they had a hold on some of the money for a couple days but it wasn't any more than a "normal" check.
Go prepared get receipts etc! Talk to supervisors/managers/presidents etc! Don't go at the end of the day/around lunch time or on a weekend!

omg thats outrageous. like i said i know the owner of the bank. if someone was to get rude with me like that in public id be pissed and embarrassed. it only takes a couple of mins to look the number up and verify it. thats hw it is with big amounts of money. like if i won even more like 25-100,000  know id proabbly go thru hell and back they proabbly hold it forever. it has its ups and downs to winning lol.

wow lol im glad im able to determina fake from a real. im surprised there are still so many ppl that think they win prizes and actually send money back to these ppl. it dosent even make any sense if you win 250,000 and you want me to see you back 5000 lol i never get ppl to send me anything like that but i wish one did so i could curse them out sooooo bad.