If a customer purhcases a personal money order at the bank and then comes in and wants to put a stop payment on it, can we do that? I didn't know if these were treated the same as a cashier's check or not.

The term "personal money order" has no defined meaning. You need to determine if its characteristics make it fit some other definition.

Is it drawn on your bank?

Who signed it, a bank employee or the customer?

You also need to verify that it has not already been paid and that you actually have a mechanism to prevent its payment if you take an order to stop payment.

It has not cleared yet and the customer signed it. They do have our bank logo on the check and it has a Purchaser listed on each one.

Well, it's not a cashiers check or a teller's check under the model version of the UCC - your customer promised to make the payment, not your bank.

I'll say that payment can be stopped, but I'll leave it to you to determine if you want to set the precedent. Discuss it with your co-workers...this has to have come up before. It would also be prudent to determine why the drawer wants to stop payment and point out that he assumes certain risks in doing so; e.g. the check may have already been transferred to a holder in due course.

In some states' courts, personal money orders have been determined to be "one use deposit account checks" subject to stop payment.

Bank money orders, though, which are typically signed by a bank official, fit the UCC definition of either a cashier's check or a teller's check, and payment cannot be stopped.

So the customer has a lost money order that is not considered bank official. We put a stop payment on it because she lost it. Do you give her the money back or do you reissue a money order?

i would ask the customer which option they preferred.