abc@brl-tgr.ARPA (Brint Cooper ) (05/15/84)
I often pay for retail purchases by personal check drawn on a local branch of a well-known bank in Maryland. Most often, I am asked for my driver's license (with picture) and a "major credit card." THe reasons given for the latter have included (1) a second means of positive identification and (2) "if your check bounces, we'll just put the amount on your credit card. Several questions follow: 1. Since I haven't signed a credit card voucher, can they charge a bounced check to, say, my VISA account and make it stick? 2. Am I not increasing my risk of becoming a victim of credit card fraud of some sort by permitting my account number to be written down all over the place when I am not even using the account? In England, checking account olders are provided a card by their bank which guarantees to the payee any check written by the holder for an amount not to exceed 50 pounds sterlinlg (about $75.00). Why are American banks reluctant to require positive identification of their depositors and back up our checks? Do they have something to hide or do they turn a profit on bounced check fees?
ix21@sdccs6.UUCP (05/16/84)
The article 2969@brl-tgr.ARPA asks if you write a check and present your credit card as ID can the merchant charge the check against your card if the check is uncollectable. According to my bank the answer is no. A friend of mine who owns a store tried having a stamp made for the checks he accepts. He stamps the back of the check with it and has the customer sign underneath; the stamp says that the check writer authorizes his credit card to be charged if the check is uncollectable. He uses the stamp for shock value only as his bank won't accept the stamp as authorization to charge the credit card account. David
fish@ihu1g.UUCP (Bob Fishell) (05/16/84)
(oo) Apparently it is not necessary for a charge slip to be signed by the cardholder in order for the transaction to go through. I have made several telephone orders on my Visa to a place in PA that sells recording tape. The guy on the phone just takes my order, makes out a charge slip, and sends it in. What his means is that a merchant could theoretically make "purchases" on your credit card without your knowledge. However, the laws regulating credit card purchases would protect the cardholder against such illegal transactions; remember that you don't have to pay a disputed portion of a bill, and the burden of proof is on the issuer. Since the date, place, and details of a transaction are recorded at the time it's posted to your account, it would be fairly easy to determine whether a purchase were legitimate or not. Regarding check protection, several U.S. Banks *do* offer check overdraft protection tied to a credit card issued at that bank. If you overdraw your account, they chalk it up as a "cash advance" on your credit card, and you pay userer's interest on the money. It's still better than having a check bounce, though. -- Bob Fishell ihnp4!ihu1g!fish
lynnef@teklabs.UUCP (Lynne Fitzsimmons ) (05/16/84)
The item that you are referring to is a check guarantee card. Most of the banks out here in the Portland, OR area have them. You have to fill out a application similar to that of a credit card to get one. Most banks will guarantee checks up to $100, ours guarantees checks up to $200. They will pay a bad check up to that amount, but you still get charged the bad check fee. You ought to see if any of the banks in your area provide this service. -- Lynne Fitzsimmons UUCP: {allegra, decvax, ihnp4, orstcs, ucbvax, zehntel, ogcvax, reed, uw-beaver, hplabs}!tektronix!teklabs!lynnef CSnet: lynnef@tek ARPAnet: lynnef.tek@rand-relay
msc@qubix.UUCP (Mark Callow) (05/17/84)
Regarding check guarantee cards. I too have wondered why banks here are reluctant to issue useful check guarantee cards. BofA, for example, has a check guarantee card which is just about useless. No merchant will accept it alone. They still require a drivers licence *or* a major credit card. In other words it is one of the 2 pieces of requested identification. Even though it is useless, they are more careful about issuing them than they are about issuing Visa or Mastercard credit cards. I'm from England and I have a cheque guarantee card from my bank there. (Calm down all you IRS spies. There's *much* less than $1000 in it.) The way it works is very convenient. All you have to do is show the card, write the card number on the back of the cheque, and sign the cheque *in the presence of drawee* with a signature that matches the one on the card. If these conditions are met, the bank guarantees to cash the cheque. The only small drawback is that you cannot stop payment on such cheques. Also British banks do not charge you when they bounce your cheques. In fact you have to have overdrawn enough to worry the Bank Manager before they even bounce a cheque. When they do, they send you a polite letter asking you to rectify the situation. They do charge interest on the overdraft. I can only conclude that US banks find returned check charges too profitable. It is interesting that British banks which operate in the US (eg Barclay's, and Lloyd's) acquire all the bad habits of their American counterparts including an inability to spell the word "cheque" -:). -- From the TARDIS of Mark Callow msc@qubix.UUCP, decwrl!qubix!msc@Berkeley.ARPA ...{decvax,ucbvax,ihnp4}!decwrl!qubix!msc, ...{ittvax,amd70}!qubix!msc "I'm a citizen of the Universe, and a gentleman to boot!"
flake@ncrcae.UUCP (Joe Flake) (05/17/84)
A clerk in a furniture store once told me their reasoning behind asking for a credit card id when using a check. If the check bounced, a credit card billing was submitted with "signature on file" (yep, there it is on the bad check!) written in on the credit card slip. (Similar to the "phone order" written in on telephone orders.) If the credit card agency would accept such an order, most people would probably just pay the bill that way rather than argue about the right or wrong of such a charge. PS: I have a Master Card which I always use for check id. The account was cancelled when the bank went to an annual fee, but they didn't request the card to be returned. The card itself says it's valid, but it should be in the books as a bad card number. Joe Flake, NCR Corp., W. Columbia, SC ....mcnc!ncsu!ncrcae!flake
ron@brl-vgr.ARPA (Ron Natalie <ron>) (05/18/84)
Equitable bank here used to give you a Welcome Check card with your account. You had to do nothing to get it. No one seemed to think they were any special. Even a store with a welcome check decal in the window was uninterested in the fact that I had one. Colorado banks are a different story. You don't get a check guarantee without a credit check and the back guarantees (really) bad check reinbursement. Most places to have faith in these even to the point of gas stations accepting checks (which is unheard of here in MD). -Ron
review@drutx.UUCP (05/22/84)
[] I don't know about other states, but Target stores in the Denver aria don't require ANY id when writing a check. They just enter your check number into the computer and unless the computer flags the check, that's it! Not even a drivers license. Sure is a nice change from Kmart. (I never did like to have my picture taken, especially when writing a check!) Brian Millham AT & T Information Systems Denver, Co. ...!drutx!review