I live in the United States, and on checks I've always put "Exactly X dollars" and a line all the way to the far right for values without cents. Last time I wrote a check to my landlord, she came over to ask me to rewrite the check so it says "X dollars and 00/100" because she said it'd be rejected by the bank. I did it, no point in arguing, but I've never encountered issues with it before.
Is putting "Exactly X dollars-------" on a check acceptable?
It may be more of a policy consideration per bank. I asked a head teller at a local branch and was told that the two lines, the numeric and the expression lines much match. Exactly x dollars on the expression line and x.00 or x 00/100 on the numeric line will match.
In the UK, the custom is (or was, since cheques are barely used nowadays) to write “Eight Pounds Only” on a cheque for exactly £8.
I've been using the form "One Thousand Three Hundred and Twelve Dollars Exactly" for decades. Note that the "Exactly" is placed to indicate that there are no fractional dollars (cents), which would otherwise be written at that point in the text.
Your landlord is confused. However, as you say, there is no point in arguing about it; you want them to feel comfortable accepting the check.
And seriously, these days fraud by alteration of checks is vanishingly rare. I just like using that style.
Writing Exactly X dollars------- doesn't completely prevent alteration. For example you can change to Exactly X dollars-99/100, having 99 above your line and 100 below. The check would then become invalid (numbers won't match). Writing it in the way your landlord asked prevents such an alteration.
You should write checks in a way that would prevent alterations as much as possible. Your landlord is correct.
