If you’re used to using checks to make purchases rather than a debit card, credit card or cash, then you’ve probably come across merchants who use telecheck instead of traditional check-out methods. Telecheck is a Houston-based company that provides check processing equipment as well as information on individuals who have written bad checks in the United States. Although there are great benefits to using the Telecheck method, there are also downfalls.
Telecheck keeps a current file on every person who writes in United. They store the information and provide it to all Telecheck operational customers who use Telecheck at store fronts. When customer receives products or services, the check is scanned in their system using the Check Verification System. This system is linked to a national database of more than 305,000 businesses that accept checks. The trader can then make customized plans to check the bad risk.
For the trader, the benefits far outweigh the risks. Bounced checks have always been a problem for businesses, and Telecheck significantly lowers the probability that a company will receive a bad check. This excludes the costs of return checks and freight that are unpaid. It also virtually eliminates the possibility of receiving a fraudulent check.
Since Telecheck is fully customizable, different merchants have different levels to which they will accept or reject checks. A customer who has written two bad checks thirty years apart may be accepted by one merchant but rejected by another. This allows the merchant to determine how strict their review process will be. However, there is one risk that merchants stand to lose customers who refuse to pay and build up resentment against the store.
For the customer, there are many cases that far outweigh some of the benefits. Telecheck is based on a database that may or may not contain information about a particular individual, and as identity theft becomes more and more of a problem, customers are finding themselves declined due to the payment of a check on information outside of their control.
Here are some questions that Telecheck raises for the average consumer:
1. Insufficient Data. Many customers have never used checks before or have been away for a long time with paying with credit and cash rather than checks. If they try to pay a check at a store that uses Telecheck, they may be declined for payment, even if they have no negative history. I really like this belief in that no story is nearly as bad as a negative story.
2. First check. Some scandals are checked by Telecheck much more easily than others. I ran into this problem a few days ago. I was at a local bookstore and I’d spent nearly an hour choosing $50.00 worth of books. I went to the counter and when I left my debit card at home, I wrote down the check at home. as to my business account. The clerk ran my check through the Telecheck system and handed me a slip of paper that said my check could not be received at the POS at that time. I am furious. The money was superfluous in my case, and I was indignant.
3. Time. People are always short on time. They run into the store, waiting five minutes to read two items, and they don’t leave the store. before thirty minutes had passed. They go against each other, harassed and in need of haste, and their repression declines. As with me in #2, customers get angry when the time is wasted and they have to pay a credit card Cash either before or to make the purchase.
4. Humility There is nothing worse than standing in line to pay for purchases only to find out that “your check is not good”. Even though I have never written a bad check in my life, and my credit is well over 700, and my guard.
I think Telecheck would be easier for everyone if merchants posted signs that they only accept Telecheck. If these things were true, I would avoid them like a pestilence, because I never want to be refused a solution again. I fully support the “sorrying” of those who rewrite the checks, but when it affects the ability to encourage citizens to buy, things have gone a little too far.
However, Telecheck itself is trying to solve these problems on its own website. If you have a bounced check from a merchant that uses Telecheck, you can use the contact information listed below to make an inquiry about the transaction and update your Telecheck records. This, at least, is one way that consumers can reduce the probability that their check will be declined. The system is perfect, yet mistakes are made.
If you want to shop in a shop that only accepts Telecheck, make sure you have an alternative form. reward with you. Make sure you only write checks for which you owe money so that Telecheck does not have a negative file on you, and call the 1-800 number if you are ever denied payment.
Contact Information
Telecheck Services, Inc
5251 Westheimer
Houston, Texas
1.800.366.2425 (Check Information Declined)
When you call Telecheck, make sure you have your driver’s license, checkbook and business number ready, if applicable. You can also call the same number to learn about the Telecheck information on their file.
