“Use cash. Problem solved.”
Agree. The last time I was at Sam’s, I spent $500 buy some of my usual doomsday supplies and my check wasn’t accepted. Considering that I had at least $8k in the bank at the time (and no pending transactions), I was a bit ticked. It seems that they use an outfit called “Telecheck” which uses metadata, or some crap like that, to develop a customer profile and then determine whether the check is good or bad. They don’t seem to have access to the actual account info, as they tried to get me to punch in my account and security info at my bank (over the phone when I called them later), so they could hear how much was in it. I punted on that request. Now, I’ve been going to Sams for at least 20 years, and they know everything that I’ve bought (at least $50k), and they know my history with checks (perfect, of course). But I guess none of that matters now - if I don’t fit Telecheck’s criteria, I’m SOL, regardless of what’s in my checking account and whether they can IMMEDIATELY debit it (and whether I have proper ID, which of course I did).
In any case, considering that I’ve never been robbed, I have good hiding places, and bank interest rates are essentially zero percent, the only logical thing to do is remove a couple of k’s (in addition to my doomsday cash) and store them for Sam’s Club, or other places where I shop. I don’t really have the time to load up a shopping cart just to get rejected at checkout for no valid reason.
That happened to my wife. She ended up talking to some Indian (dot not feathers) and found out that someone had used her driver license number to cash a bad check. She got it straightened out but it is a miracle that the local Walmart wasn’t picketed.