Bad Check

[Banrion]

Ah, but you can ask for your checks to start with ANY number, since people are often buying further checks for an old account.

When I was 15, and opening my first checking account, the bank ASKED me what number I wanted to start my checks at. My mom was a joint on the account as I was under 18, but still. I started at 1500 just cause it was nice and big.

[Parts_Drone]

I will be moving to a store in a couple of weeks that has a cashier and a shipper so I will be strictly counter sales thank god

[SuperDan]

It's pretty damn stupid to hold an associate personally responsible for a check that bounced due to NSF. I can understand expecting associates to take some VERY BASIC fraud prevention, such as looking at the check's security features, asking for ID if things seem suspicious, not accepting a check from a man that only has a woman's name on the check, etc. NSF is NOT something that a cashier would know.

At my store, we have a check database for the entire company that is referenced when you scan the check through the MICR. It will reject the check (overrideable by CSM) if the person has any outstanding bounced checks, if the person has not cashed a check with us in the past year, or if the person has cashed more than five checks in the past seven days. New accounts we just check in the old system and make sure they don't have any outstanding bounced checks then overridden, and over 5s usually just get asked for alternate payment then are overridden if they have none, but are asked to wait a while before writing more checks. Bounced checks in the new system or the old means the person is certainly not going to be cashing a check until they both pay it off per an agreement between them and our corporate office (corporate contacts them within a week of a bounce), and even then corporate has the decision on whether to allow them to cash checks again or not.

If you're being held accountable for something you have no control over, make sure it's documented then contact your union (if any) or the Department of Labor to discuss if the company is in violation of any rule (other than maybe the rules of logic). You certainly also can ask to be transferred to a non-cash-handling department if you're worried that this may have negative effects if it ever happens in the future.

[MoonChild2007]

I never understood why it's the cashier's fault that someone writes a bad check?

or a teller's fault. I didn't feel comfortable about a check cause first of all, the check looked computerized, the name of the business was misspelled and the name of the bank looked like it was all typed ( you know how bank checks has the preprinted name of the bank? ) and this came from another BUSINESS. I never in my years saw a check look so unprofessional in my life. It was only 80 dollars but i am just waiting for my manager to come over and bitch to me about how the person who deposited the check is mad at me cause THEY had a return check. I am counting the days.

[Bank Lady]

or a teller's fault. I didn't feel comfortable about a check cause first of all, the check looked computerized, the name of the business was misspelled and the name of the bank looked like it was all typed ( you know how bank checks has the preprinted name of the bank? ) and this came from another BUSINESS. I never in my years saw a check look so unprofessional in my life. It was only 80 dollars but i am just waiting for my manager to come over and bitch to me about how the person who deposited the check is mad at me cause THEY had a return check. I am counting the days.

MoonChild-
If you work in the US, Reg CC can protect you in this situation. If a check looks weird, put a hold on it until it clears. The customer is immediately notified so they can't complain later that they had no idea. Now, maybe $80 isn't important enough for your bank to want to go through all that trouble, but sometimes just mentioning to a customer that you are going to hold those funds can make them take it back if they know it's a fake.

Also you can call the bank the check is drawn off. Though some banks won't verify funds availability, most will verify if an account is legit.

My best advice: Trust your instincts.

[GolfCart34]

MoonChild-
If you work in the US, Reg CC can protect you in this situation. If a check looks weird, put a hold on it until it clears. The customer is immediately notified so they can't complain later that they had no idea. Now, maybe $80 isn't important enough for your bank to want to go through all that trouble, but sometimes just mentioning to a customer that you are going to hold those funds can make them take it back if they know it's a fake.

Also you can call the bank the check is drawn off. Though some banks won't verify funds availability, most will verify if an account is legit.

My best advice: Trust your instincts.

We actually talked about this very thing in our teller meeting today where I work. We get a lot of scams that take place at this time of year, especially with the lottery scam and postal money orders, so we have to be extra vigilant. If I have any questions about whether or not to accept a check, I always take it to the head teller or to the branch manager and ask them. I also have them initial the check so that if something goes wrong they're the one held accountable, not me. And if there is somebody who's persistent, we make sure to get full identification from the person, let the transaction go through, but draw a giant question mark on the back of the check and tell our security officer. We also won't get in trouble for a fraudulent check at that point because we notified security and they're investigating it.

Speaking of somebody trying to pass checks at a store... I was at Wal-Mart one time buying a few things and the woman in front of me was trying to write a check. Naturally, the check wasn't readable by the check reader, so the cashier told the woman that she couldn't accept it. Then the woman said, "Oh wait, I remember, I can't write checks here because you guys supposedly can't read them." I think she was just trying to pass a bad check that time, so she ended up using her bank card instead.

[Bank Lady]

We actually talked about this very thing in our teller meeting today where I work. We get a lot of scams that take place at this time of year, especially with the lottery scam and postal money orders, so we have to be extra vigilant.

We just recently had a woman caught by the "secret shopper" scam. She's out $3200 right before the holidays. Merry Christmas!

The poor woman sat at our customer service desk and cried to her mother while they were trying to figure out some kind of loan to pay the bills. I did feel bad for her, but I had to agree with her mom a little bit. Mom kept asking. "why did you think this was legitimate?" People are so quick to latch on to free money that they don't think. That's why these scams work.

[blas]

I'd refuse to sign the write-up.

SuperDan said it best, but I'll elaborate a bit. If we aren't being proactive enough by checking ID, questioning, etc, what are we supposed to do? Judge customers? "You look poor, I'll bet this is bad!" or "You look like a crackhead, no way!"....um I don't think so.

There is no way to tell if a check is going to bounce until it does, if all precautionary measures are taken. If ID is checked, everything looks valid, well then, how is it the cashier's fault? Please tell me!

[IHateStupidCustomers]

I HATE taking checks. There always seems to be some sort of problem.

When I was 16, the first week of my very first job, fresh out of training, I had a check transaction. We have the automatically approval thing on the registers and a screen pops up and tells me to call a number to approve the check. I do what the computer tells me to and the lady on the phone asks for the routing and/or account number. Now...maybe I should have stopped there and told the customer I would have to read the routing and/or account number, but I didn't even think about it. I was just doing what I was told. And this lady FLIPS the F*CK OUT! Yes, I can see why she wouldn't want her account number read off, but I couldn't approve the check unless I did, and she could have been a tad less psychotic. Maybe she should pay more attention to her account so that kind of thing doesn't happen....or not take checks.

You know, I just thought about it, she was screaming that I was reading the account number to someone on the phone, and who knows what that person is doing with it...but if I had been able to approve the check, then the check goes to me right along with the account number on it....

[powerboy]

I never understood why it's the cashier's fault that someone writes a bad check?

I never understood that.

When we take a check, we just type the check number and take it. We haven't had a problem yet when we deposit it.

[VenomX]

Where I work we only take checks from a few people.
To use a check you must bring in your check book and let the owner look at it. He will look at what check number you are on and if its under XXXX he will tell you sorry we cant accept a check from you.

Now and then one of the workers will take a check thinking the name is familiar, only to find out the next day he shouldnt have taken it.

We had this happen the other day, the owner didnt even send it to the bank because the last one from this person bounced. He issued a warnign that if they she came in again we were to NOT take a check. Well she came in and got $10 in gas then tried to hand the guy a check. He refused and demanded cash. She had to call and have someone bring in $10 before she could leave or the cops would have been called.

She called 2 days later and I was the person she talked to. She said my co-worker held her hostage and made her pay in cash. She had talked to her bank and the check was good and her checks shouldnt have been bad. I told her she had to talk to the owner and not me. She yelled she wasnt going to talk to him and that my co-worker owes her $10 and if we dont pay she is going to the magistrate and file charges. I told her she has to talk to the owner and not me and that since she is going to the magistrate I could no longer talk to her, said good bye, and hung up.

I called the owner and told him and he said let her go to the magistrate because he has proof that her checks are no good and that he already had her in front of the magistrate before for the last bad check.

I wish he would just say no checks at all but theres a few long time customers we would lose if he did so hewont do that. We use to have a list of who could use checks but the machine lost all that info so now we go by instinct/memory.

[CorDarei]

i have a questions for the bank types. (sorry about it's off-topicness, but it relates to checks)

i have a side business.

wrote myself a check, which was a large sum. They said that they would put a hold on it. be a cpl days, 5 days max. I was fine with it, wouldn't need the funds until end of next week... So i go and check my business acct, and it shows the funds withdrawn 2 days later. However, i checked the personal acct and it showed as being deposited in there, but not "available"

So i called the banks 800# and they stated that the funds wouldn't be available until today(which they are).... can you tell me any reason why they would take the money out of one account, and show it posting to the other, but not being available?

[wolfie]

The "posted, but not available" bit means that they've processed the deposit, but are waiting a standard delay (5 business days is common) for the deposited cheque to clear (or at least to not bounce - there are a few scams which result in a delayed bounce, so the funds can be withdrawn before the bank finds out about the rubber cheque) before letting you take the money out. It's still there for the purposes of earning interest and avoiding fees by keeping a minimum balance.

If the business and personal accounts are with the same bank (so they know it's actually cleared), they should remove the hold. You might want to go in and ask them to remove the hold manually, pointing out that the cheque was drawn on an account at their institution, so they have the means to find out the status of that account.

[StarsAreFixed]

The cheque policy is so strict here I don't think I can be blamed if it bounces. Customer needs a cheque guarantee card, cheque cannot exceed €130 ($170ish?), cheque needs to be signed front and back and a manager needs to authorise it. There's photocopies of dodgy cheques we have to watch out for in the staff area..

[Primer]

Also you can call the bank the check is drawn off. Though some banks won't verify funds availability, most will verify if an account is legit.

The few times I've had to call in a check, the bank would (usually) say, "That check is good at this time."