Abstract: A negotiable instrument with fraud and identity theft protection and method of use is provided. The method includes step accepting a negotiable instrument having a pre-printed bar code, reading the bar code on a negotiable instrument using a bar code scanner, and receiving from the writer a code presented to the merchant for deriving personal information associated with the account holder and banking information associated with the account from the bar code. The method also having the step of comparing the personal identification information from the bar code with information provided by the writer. The merchant using the bank processing information derived from the bar code to process the negotiable instrument.