Posted on 08/04/2004 8:01:48 AM PDT by ijcr
Your bank is about to make some pretty radical changes to your checking account -- changes that could cost you money in bounced-check fees and limit your ability to fight fraud or errors.
These alterations are so significant, in fact, that it may be time to abandon paper checks, if you haven’t already.
(Excerpt) Read more at moneycentral.msn.com ...
The copies that a bank sends to consumers under a so-called "voluntary truncation" agreement, where the consumer agrees not to get the checks back, do not prove that a payment has been made, and do not trigger your Check 21 recredit right.
I haven't had any problems with payments, refunds or the like in the last 15 years with the bank...
For a few years now, I haven't been able to understand why, with:
1. The ability to pay virtually any bill online, securely...
2. The ability to buy nearly anything with a check CARD (debit card) easily and quickly...
3. The time delays associated with paying by check anywhere in public, ie, must provide driver's liscence, liscense #, Home address, SS#, fingerprint, (admittedly those last two are not all the time but sometimes), and blood sample (ok the last one is a joke, but hey, with all the rest why NOT?)...
4. The fees YOU have to pay to "re order" checks...
...why with ALL that, anyone uses checks with any regularity anymore is completely beyond me!
I've been receiving "imaged" checks with my statement for probably 2 years now. I really don't understand the problem.
Why isn't this proof that you paid a bill? It's certainly been deducted from your account and WHO it's payable to is clearly on the image. Someone fill me in on why this is sooo baaad.
I don't expect this to apply to the "we're going to hold your check deposit for 5 business days" scam.
I do everything online now. It's the only way I can keep up with bills (My nickname is "Little Miss Scatterbrain") Any payments not credited were quicky refunded by my bank.
It took 4 years for me to go through a box of checks.
I won't reorder them.
I can't pay my rent with a check card. Nor can I make my car payment with a check card. Until then, I will unfortunately have to keep a checkbook around.
You have no chance to survive, make your time.
Exactly. There ought to be an extra charge for using a check. There is simply nothing more maddening than standing behind these dummies, scribbling on their checks, then trying to balance the damned checkbook in the express lane with fifteen people waiting!
Didn't I just read somewhere that over 2 million online checking accounts have been looted of some $1200 per account average. That's my reason, I don't trust online security in ANY way. Too many bad guys trying to get at it.
I will keep my checkbook, because someday, I may not want to have internet access anymore, or I may just chuck my computer out the window, or it will break and I won't be able to afford getting it fixed, I may also get rid of my phone....but I will still have bills to pay and things to buy.
I LIKE my checkbook, thank you! I do use my check card in stores so that I don't hold you up. But I want to write checks to pay my bills and I want my cancelled checks back. End of story.
The problem I see with debit cards is that it seems to me that you are more likely to forget to record them in your checkbook or whatever it is you are using to keep tabs than with regular checks and a checkbook.
As for on-line banking, that's for the sophisticated and brave.
Being old-fashioned, I much prefer the current system I have, but its days are numbered, I suppose.
I went and signed up for online access to my checking account about a month ago. Within days, I got a scam email trying to get me to give some type of aaccount info. I reported it to my bank who didn't want to be bothered. I'm convinced that my signing up triggered the scam email. I cancelled it immediately. Maybe I'm too skiddish, but I'm not about to take any chances. I question their security.
I am not one of those folks (I pay cash) but it is maddening to see the cashier ring up the sale and see the customer THEN pull out his/her checkbook. It's as though it's a revelation, "Oh, I have to pay for this."
At the very least, they could fill out part of the check since they should know the date, the name of the store, and their name (signature), leaving only the amount.
I haven't had any problems with online banking. It is wonderful to just log in, click on bill pay, click on an account and type in an amount instead of messing with writing out a check. I average one or two paper checks per month now instead of ten to fifteen.
Things are getting better - HOWEVER - electronic payments have their problems. A few years ago I paid a bill electronically for $1,000. It immediately was taken out of my account . One year later I found out that the intended recipients never got the check and the check (wherever it went) was never cashed. My bank never told me. There was absolutely no mechanism to inform me that the check wasn't cashed or to return the money to my account. It took the bank months to get information about the check and return the $1,000 to my account. Minus interest. They got the float for a year. Had the check been cashed by someone else I'd never even know until I got my next bill.
What are checks ? I pay everything except the church contribution with my Visa check card.
It did. You've likely got spyware on your computer right now that's just waiting to grab hold of a banking cookie.
Invest in a firewall, from ZoneAlarm.com, and get free spyware eliminators from ad-aware.com.
I get almost none of that stuff anymore.
My church takes Visa and MasterCard.
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