Understanding Meaning of Number at botton of Cheque

Most of us have came across the money transaction using Bank Cheque. We must have filled the cheque and have given to someone or you might have got the cheque to get it cashed. We just look at amount the ammount and submit for encashment :D .Have you ever noticed the four set of number on the bottom of cheque. What is number all about have you ever tried to find out what this number means. I am going to explain the meaning of that four set of number

There are basically four set of number present in Indian Cheque.

1) Cheque Number
First set of numbers represent the cheque number. It is a six digit number (refer image)

2)MICR code

MICR stands for Magnetic Ink Character Recognition. It is a method that helps route the cheque to where the money exist. This is used to efficiently transfer your money.




MICR is a 9 digit number.
The first three digits = City code of your bank account.
for example a bank in Bangalore will have first three digits of MICR code as 560 (since PIN code for Bangalore starts with 560)

The next three digits= Bank code
For example for HDFC it is 240,SBI it is 002, ICICI bank’s code is 229, for  and so on

The last three digits= Branch code for your account.

3) Bank Account Number
The third set of  number  is your account number as maintained by the Reserve Bank of India.This set of six digit numbers represents your account number It consists of a few digits of your account number(refer image)

4) Transaction ID

The last number represents whether your account is current or savings which help in faster processing in case of out-station cheques.
Last two digits represents cheque type that means whether it is a local cheque our payable at par cheque.
If last two digit is  29, 30 and 31 represents payable at par cheque
If last two digit is 09, 10 and 11 represents local cheque.

Payable at par cheque is a cheque that can be cashed at any branch of the issuing bank,
Local Cheque is cheque that can be cashed at cashed only at the issuing branch.

If you deposit cheque with  code 10 written at the bottom of the cheque, it’ll take a few days for the money amount to be credited into account. However since most of the branches these days are CBS (Core Banking Solution) enabled, so the cheques are generally payable at par.