ljdickey@watmath.UUCP (Lee Dickey) (08/27/84)
Mark Callow, in writing about government ID cards, mentions: > Other than making sure I took my cheque guarantee card when > going shopping, I never ever carried any form of ID in Britain. The British cheque guarantee cards are marvelous things. They allow the holder to cash a check at every major bank in Britain, no matter which bank carries the account and issued the card. To use such a card, you had to have your own personalize checks and your card issued by the same bank. When you use the card for id, you give up the right to stop payment on the check. The advantage for a merchant is that it gives complete security in accepting your check. But that is not all. It also allows you to cash checks at many major banks in Europe... guaranteed within a certain group of member banks in participating countries. Because of the popularity of the system, many banks outside the group and also outside the defined set of countries accept the cards, because the make a commission on the exchange and incur little risk in dealing with you, a trusted holder of a checking account.
kolling@decwrl.DEC.COM (Karen Kolling) (02/24/86)
It's been my experience that in New England personal checks are almost never accepted by merchants. In Calif., a driver's license and a "major credit card" makes a personal check acceptable virtually every place. (Also, I have the vague impression that there's now some sort of instantaneous credit check available by phone, keyed on the driver's license number, in many places that I shop; but this is just based on random impressions I've gotten when I'm standing around with my mind shut off in a checkout line.)
rep@grkermi.UUCP (Pete Peterson) (02/26/86)
In article <1308@decwrl.DEC.COM> kolling@decwrl.DEC.COM (Karen Kolling) writes: > >It's been my experience that in New England personal checks >are almost never accepted by merchants. In Calif., a driver's >license and a "major credit card" makes a personal check >acceptable virtually every place. (Also, I have the vague >impression that there's now some sort of instantaneous credit check >available by phone, keyed on the driver's license number, in many >places that I shop; but this is just based on random impressions >I've gotten when I'm standing around with my mind shut off in a >checkout line.) I can't speak for other parts of New England, but I have never had any problem with acceptance of personal checks in the Eastern Massachusetts area. If you buy a house or car, they tend to want bank checks; otherwise, a driver's license usually suffices (sometimes large department stores want "major credit card" also) except for some grocery chains which want you to have one of their check-cashing ID cards. The supermarket where I shop takes checks without asking for any ID at all! The worst place I found for check acceptance was the Phoenix area. When I moved there from Mass., I was shocked at how reluctant people were to accept personal checks, even with reasonable ID.
king@kestrel.ARPA (Dick King) (03/03/86)
From: kolling@decwrl.DEC.COM (Karen Kolling) Newsgroups: net.consumers Date: 24 Feb 86 05:19:57 GMT It's been my experience that in New England personal checks are almost never accepted by merchants. In Calif., a driver's license and a "major credit card" makes a personal check acceptable virtually every place. I understand that at least part of the reason for this is that California's laws are really rough on people who pass bad paper. (Also, I have the vague impression that there's now some sort of instantaneous credit check available by phone, keyed on the driver's license number, in many places that I shop; but this is just based on random impressions I've gotten when I'm standing around with my mind shut off in a checkout line.) There is. It's called TeleCredit or TeleCheck or something like that. Their logo is a red checkmark. It costs the merchant 2% to use it, which is why they usually don't when you have other ID. If a merchant gets a TeleCredit authorization number than that company will pay any bad checks. -dick
ansok@spp3.UUCP (Gary Ansok) (03/03/86)
Perhaps surprisingly, many places will take your ATM card as if it
were a check guarantee card. I did this occasionally when I was a
student and therefore not worthy of credit. If that became widespread,
that could explain why some places stopped accepting check guarantee cards.
Also, some check guarantee cards are only valid if the merchant has a
prior agreement with the bank. I don't know if they still are, but
I believe Bank of America was like this at one point.
Gary Ansok
{hplabs,ihnp4,decvax,ucbvax}!trwrb!trwspp!spp3!ansok
Everything on this silly planet is a distraction. That's why I moved.rt@cpsc53.UUCP (Ron Thompson) (03/06/86)
> >It's been my experience that in New England personal checks > >are almost never accepted by merchants. In Calif., a driver's > >license and a "major credit card" makes a personal check > >acceptable virtually every place. (Also, I have the vague > >impression that there's now some sort of instantaneous credit check > >available by phone, keyed on the driver's license number, in many > >places that I shop; but this is just based on random impressions > >I've gotten when I'm standing around with my mind shut off in a > >checkout line.) Check cashing policy must be in some way connected to the locale and clientel. During my extended stay in Florida last year, I was shocked at how easy it was to have an out of state personal check accepted by merchants - they were often more readily accepted than in my own home town! I am told this is because of the large number of tourists that make up a significant portion of total sales. New England - bah! A rather clannish section of the country that regards all strangers with distrust and depends little on out of state business. -- Ron Thompson AT&T Information Systems Customer Programming (404) 982-4217 Atlanta, Georgia Services Center ..{ihnp4,akgua}!cpsc53!rt (Opinions expressed are mine alone.)
holloway@drivax.UUCP (Bruce Holloway) (03/10/86)
>New England - bah! A rather clannish section of >the country that regards all strangers with distrust and depends >little on out of state business. Wait a second -- I grew up in New England! I lived the first part of my life in Southern Massachusetts, right next to Rhode Island, then moved to New Hampshire, and then a bit over to the border with Maine. My sister goes to school in Vermont, so I know a bit about New England. Where do you get your ideas about New Englanders? I moved from New Hampshire to California, and I've never met such an unfriendly and uninviting set of people in my entire life. Give me New England any day. I'd move back if I could. Tourism is one of New England's largest sources of income, especially Northern New England. We're desperate for out of state business. And you'd be surprised at the number of Florida license plates we see. It wasn't until I moved to California that I found that unless you had a credit card of some sort, cash was the best way of doing business. Imagine my shock when I found that even local checks were rarely accepted unless I had some plastic, a license, and preferably some other sort of ID as well. In New Hampshire, only malls really required all that ID. -- +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ |Whatever I write are not the opinions or policies of Digital Research, Inc.,| |and probably won't be in the foreseeable future. | +----------------------------------------------------------------------------+ Bruce Holloway ....!ucbvax!hplabs!amdahl!drivax!holloway (I'm not THAT Bruce Holloway, I'm the other one.)