Wisconsin seller of checks bonds.
From $100.
Wisconsin’s seller of checks license is now the money transmission license, and the security is still a surety bond. Wis. Stat. 217.10(2) sizes the bond at the greater of $100,000 or 100% of your average daily Wisconsin transmission liability, capped at $500,000. The premium is 1% of the bond amount, $100 minimum.
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How much does a Wisconsin seller of checks bond cost?
1% of the bond amount, from $100. Enter your amount in the calculator for the exact price.
Three steps. One sitting.
No underwriting queue on the standard money transmission security — enter your amount, pay, and attach the executed bond to the filing. Here is the whole thing:
Apply online
Company details, the bond amount your DFI filing calls for, an effective date and a term. That is the application. No credit check up to $25,000.
Pay & e-sign
The rate is 1% of the bond amount with a $100 minimum, so the exact premium appears before you pay — and the bond issues the moment you do.
File with the Division of Banking
Your executed bond and power of attorney arrive by email, ready to upload with your NMLS company record or send to the Division of Banking with a new application or a December 31 renewal.
What it is and who needs it.
What the bond actually guarantees
Wisconsin licensed sellers of checks for decades under Wis. Stat. ch. 217 — anyone in the business of selling or issuing checks, drafts and money orders, or receiving money for transmission. 2023 Wis. Act 267 repealed that chapter and re-enacted it as the Money Transmission Modernization Act, the multistate model developed through the Conference of State Bank Supervisors. Existing licensees were not made to reapply: DFI renamed the license inside NMLS on September 3, 2024, opened applications for the new money transmitter license on October 1, 2024, and required everyone to meet the modernized standards by January 1, 2025. The bond survived the rewrite; only the arithmetic changed.
The repealed statute sized the bond by storefront — a minimum principal sum of $10,000 for the first location plus $5,000 for each additional location, with the division able to demand more and a hard $300,000 ceiling — and it ran to the state for the benefit of any claimants against the licensee or its agents, securing the faithful performance of the licensee’s obligations in the receipt, handling, transmission and payment of money. Today’s 217.10(2) replaces the location count with a volume test: the greater of $100,000 or 100% of the licensee’s average daily money transmission liability in Wisconsin over the most recently completed three-month period, up to $500,000 — and a licensee that simply maintains security at the $500,000 ceiling never has to run the average-daily calculation again. A copy of the security is part of the license application itself under 217.05(3)(b).
It is not insurance for you — if the surety pays a claim, you repay the surety. Two things commonly send people to this page who do not need their own bond: an authorized delegate operating inside a licensee’s written contract does not hold its own license, and 217.03 exempts federally insured depository institutions, the U.S. Postal Service and its agents, federal and state government agencies, registered broker-dealers and futures commission merchants acting as such, and employees acting within the scope of employment. Everyone else licenses and bonds. Because the amount tracks your transmission volume, it can move between quarters — we track the term and send renewal notices 60 and 30 days out so you can right-size before the filing.
You need this bond if you are
Claims, renewal, filing, and what sets the price.
If a claim is made
A claim comes from the party the bond protects, the obligee named on the form, when the duty the bond guarantees is not met.
The surety investigates and pays a valid claim, up to the bond amount. You then repay the surety: a surety bond is a guarantee of your performance, not insurance for you.
Renewal and term
The premium covers a one-year term from the effective date you choose.
Renew before the expiry date to keep the bond in force: the license, permit or contract it backs expects continuous coverage.
How to file it
File with the Division of Banking. Your executed bond and power of attorney arrive by email, ready to upload with your NMLS company record or send to the Division of Banking with a new application or a December 31 renewal.
What sets the price
The premium is 1% of the bond amount, $100 minimum: the amount the obligee sets moves the price, not your business profile.
No credit check up to $25,000. Above that, the carrier may run a soft pull, which never affects your score.
Where a check runs, it decides approval; the rate is the same for everyone approved.
One application, issued instantly.
These are the actual issuing fields — company details, your bond amount, an effective date and a term. No credit check up to $25,000.
Start the application →Common questions.
Other Wisconsin bonds.
Price and requirements checked on the carrier’s application, . Page updated .
Post the security and finish the filing.
1% of the bond amount, $100 minimum, issued the moment you pay and e-signed for your NMLS record. Free until issued.