xrayzebra
09-29-2004, 01:30 PM
Some of you may want to pay heed to the following
little article:
IF CHECK IS IN THE MAIL, $$ BETTER BE IN THE BANK
By PAUL THARP
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September 28, 2004 -- Say goodbye to writing a check a day or two before you actually deposit the money to cover it.
A new law taking effect just before Halloween to speed paper checks clearing among banks will erase our time-honored "float" forever — meaning funds will be withdrawn from your account in a matter of hours, not days.
And the change is expected to trigger millions of bounced checks — costing customers up to $30 apiece — according to banking regulators and consumer advocates.
"You need to have enough money in your account when you write a check or run the risk of having checks bounce," warns a consumer bulletin from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which helps regulate the nation's banking system.
Although the law permits immediate account withdrawals, it doesn't require banks to post deposits to your account any sooner than before, often as long as five days for out-of-town checks.
Also, all those canceled checks you had once received with monthly statements will disappear under the law, in hopes of saving as much as $2 billion a year that bankers spend in shipping paper checks to each other.
In addition, forged checks will be impossible to detect because originals will be destroyed under the law.
The new rules start Oct. 28 under the Check Clearing for the 21st Century Act, which was signed into law by President Bush as a national security measure.
Regarding security, the FDIC acknowledged in a recent bulletin to banking CEOs: "The potential for false consumer claims and check fraud will continue to exist after implementation of the Check 21 Act . . . . Additionally, a new potential risk of double posting will be created [i.e., both the original check and the substitute check entering the processing stream]."
The law requires banks to destroy the original checks to keep them out of circulation and replace them with a legal "substitute," a downsized version of the original, with a barcode.
Banks also can provide a cheaper digital version of your original check, which can't be used in legal disputes.
The American Banking Association says it intends to avoid any nightmares for customers and will take the conversion slowly, with many banks using pilot programs.
The law also could be a new profit center for banks. It doesn't prohibit banks from charging fees for providing legal copies of checks, which they must keep for up to seven years.
The law also allows banks to sell information to marketers from images of your checks, including what kind of things you buy and where you shop.
==============================================
I really like the last paragraph. More junk in the mailbox.
:wtf :wtf :wtf
little article:
IF CHECK IS IN THE MAIL, $$ BETTER BE IN THE BANK
By PAUL THARP
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
September 28, 2004 -- Say goodbye to writing a check a day or two before you actually deposit the money to cover it.
A new law taking effect just before Halloween to speed paper checks clearing among banks will erase our time-honored "float" forever — meaning funds will be withdrawn from your account in a matter of hours, not days.
And the change is expected to trigger millions of bounced checks — costing customers up to $30 apiece — according to banking regulators and consumer advocates.
"You need to have enough money in your account when you write a check or run the risk of having checks bounce," warns a consumer bulletin from the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., which helps regulate the nation's banking system.
Although the law permits immediate account withdrawals, it doesn't require banks to post deposits to your account any sooner than before, often as long as five days for out-of-town checks.
Also, all those canceled checks you had once received with monthly statements will disappear under the law, in hopes of saving as much as $2 billion a year that bankers spend in shipping paper checks to each other.
In addition, forged checks will be impossible to detect because originals will be destroyed under the law.
The new rules start Oct. 28 under the Check Clearing for the 21st Century Act, which was signed into law by President Bush as a national security measure.
Regarding security, the FDIC acknowledged in a recent bulletin to banking CEOs: "The potential for false consumer claims and check fraud will continue to exist after implementation of the Check 21 Act . . . . Additionally, a new potential risk of double posting will be created [i.e., both the original check and the substitute check entering the processing stream]."
The law requires banks to destroy the original checks to keep them out of circulation and replace them with a legal "substitute," a downsized version of the original, with a barcode.
Banks also can provide a cheaper digital version of your original check, which can't be used in legal disputes.
The American Banking Association says it intends to avoid any nightmares for customers and will take the conversion slowly, with many banks using pilot programs.
The law also could be a new profit center for banks. It doesn't prohibit banks from charging fees for providing legal copies of checks, which they must keep for up to seven years.
The law also allows banks to sell information to marketers from images of your checks, including what kind of things you buy and where you shop.
==============================================
I really like the last paragraph. More junk in the mailbox.
:wtf :wtf :wtf