R W and Charles,
When you say you will only do a check and will not accept a draft, how are you going about that? Are you saying you have them send you a check in advance before you will send them an executed lease? Many times the leasing agent/oil company is no where near so it's not possible to meet in person so everything must be done by mail so I just wanted for you to elaborate on just how your going about this. Drafts, if used properly, work very well. The draft and executed lease are meant to be given to a bank and for that bank to then send it to the bank on the draft that the funds are to be drawn from, that bank is to hold the lease until the draft is paid by mailing a cashiers check back to your bank, or return the lease to your bank if the draft is not paid by the drop dead date. Some drafts are payable upon being presented with required documents. The banks are to act as intermediary to the transaction therefor relieving either party of risk . A lot of companies have gotten bold knowing people's greed and have started wanting the executed deed be sent to them directly rather than presented along with the draft. They have even gone as far as to have you send them the executed deed and draft and bypass then banks entirely.