IL check seller bonds.
From $100. Enter your amount.

Illinois asks a company that sells or distributes checks to consumers — and is not itself a bank — to register with the Department of Financial and Professional Regulation and to keep a surety bond on file while that registration is live. Premiums cost 1% of the bond amount, $100 minimum; the application collects no credit information, and most applications approve instantly. Enter the amount your registration requires and your exact price appears at the application.

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Filed with the IDFPR Division of Banking as a condition of the check seller / check printer registration

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Covers a judgment against the registrant for violating the registration law — including damages a consumer wins

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From $100, no credit section in the application — enter your required bond amount and see your price at application

From $1001% of the bond amount, $100 minimumNo credit sectionin the applicationInstantissued the moment you pay

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How it works

Apply to filed in one sitting.

Registration bonds are the fast half of a licensing file — the paperwork queue is at the Department, not at the surety. Here is the whole thing:

TODAY · ONLINE

Apply online

Your company details, the bond amount your registration requires, and an effective date. That is the entire application — no financial statements, no credit section.

INSTANTLY

Pay & e-sign

Registration bonds like this are among the thousands of bond types that issue right after purchase. The application collects no credit information, and most applications approve instantly.

SAME DAY

File with IDFPR

Your executed bond and power of attorney arrive by email, ready to file with your registration or annual renewal. Wet-ink original mailed on request.

About this bond

What it is and who needs it.

What the check seller bond actually guarantees

The Department describes a seller or distributor of checks plainly: a company or person, other than a bank, that sells or distributes checks to consumers. That is the check-printing and direct-to-consumer check business — the companies whose order forms arrive in a statement envelope or sit behind a bank’s online ordering page — and Illinois requires them to register with IDFPR before selling into the state, then to register again each year.

The bond is the consumer-facing half of that registration. It answers for a judgment entered against the registrant for violating the registration law, including damages awarded to a person who sued under it. So the protected party is not the Department — it is the customer whose order was mishandled, whose account data was misused, or whose checks were printed outside the standards the law sets for a negotiable instrument.

It is a three-party arrangement: you (the principal), the surety carrier, and the State of Illinois through IDFPR (the obligee), with harmed consumers as the protected parties. It is not insurance for you — if the surety pays a claim, you repay the surety. Because registration is annual, the bond has to stay continuous; we track the expiry and give you notice before it lapses.

IDFPR Division of Banking — check seller / check printer registrationIllinois built this registration on the Check Printer and Check Number Act (205 ILCS 690), which required a registrant to maintain, at all times, a surety bond from a company authorised to do business in Illinois in a principal sum of not less than $10,000, to file proof of that bond at each registration, and to register annually. The bond answered for any liability from a judgment entered for a violation of the Act. Be aware of one wrinkle before you buy: the General Assembly’s own ILCS listing now shows that Act as repealed by Public Act 100-5, while the Department has continued to describe the check seller and check printer registration and the $10,000 minimum bond in its published guidance. We are not going to invent a replacement citation for you. Confirm the current registration requirement, the bond form and the penal sum with the IDFPR Division of Banking, then enter that figure here — we will issue whatever amount your registration actually calls for.

You need this bond if you are

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Registering as a new seller or distributor of checks selling to Illinois consumers

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An out-of-state check printer already selling in other states and now entering the Illinois market

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Renewing an annual registration whose current bond is expiring or non-renewing

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Replacing a surety that has cancelled or is leaving the line

One application, issued instantly.

These are the actual issuing fields — no credit section, because this application does not collect credit information.

Start the application →

FAQ

Common questions.

How much is the Illinois seller or distributor of checks bond?Premiums cost 1% of the bond amount, with a $100 minimum. Enter the penal sum your registration requires and the exact figure appears at the application — there is no quote round-trip.

What amount should I enter?The figure on your IDFPR registration. The long-standing floor for this registration is a $10,000 principal sum, and that is what most registrants file. If the Department has asked you for more, enter that instead — the bond must match the registration, not the other way round.

Who has to register as a seller or distributor of checks?A company or person that is not a bank and that sells or distributes checks to consumers. The Department applies it both to businesses newly setting up in Illinois and to established check printers in other states that want to sell to Illinois consumers, with registration renewed annually.

Do I pay the full bond amount?No. You pay the premium, priced at 1% of the bond amount with a $100 minimum. The penal sum is the surety’s maximum exposure if a valid claim is made against the bond — it is not a deposit and nobody holds your money.

Where do I file it?With the IDFPR Division of Banking, alongside your registration or annual renewal. Your executed bond and power of attorney arrive by email the same day; we will mail a wet-ink original if the Department asks for one.

Related bonds

Other Illinois bonds.

Finish the IDFPR registration.

From $100, no credit section, bond issued the moment you pay. Enter the amount your registration requires. Free until issued.

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IL check seller bonds.From $100. Enter your amount.