FirstData/TeleCheck Telecheck freezes all of our accounts, even my husband's business account for over a week! Greenwood Village Colorado

I have just been declined twice by telecheck. First at BestBuy and second at a grocer. After calling multiple times I got a person and then a supervisor. I wasn't completely clear how the system worked but here it is.

Telecheck guarantees all checks that it approves. So if a check were to bounce, the retailer would make a claim to telecheck and take no (or a highly reduced) loss.

Telecheck electronically verifies funds for banks that support this. Good for them. My bank happens not to support this so when I was declined on a saturday evening I was out of luck. The reason I was given was that they had no record (good or bad) of me and that account number in their system.

Now, someone tell me, If they are granting credit in the form of a draft guarantee to Meijer and they are relying on my ability to repay (in the form of a balance authorization), isn't that granting credit on my behalf without my permission or my application? That has to be a violation of Federal Banking Guidlines.

I have dealt with credit for many years in real estate and banking. I have always worked in issuing and analysis of business and secured credit so I don't have much experiance in unsecured credit and I certianly don't have any understanding of any specific laws that protect telecheck but technically they are issuing credit to stores based on my personal information without my concent or authorization.

It's fine for a store not to take a check if they want to do that. (None do because it would hurt their business-esp the grocery stores) But if they take a check, they should be held to the rules governing check writing. If they are going to get into the credit business with third party providers like telecheck, they should be held to those laws as well.

I'd love to see a great lawyer get ahold of this because I think there is a real violation of banking law going on. At the very least they are discriminating by selectivly issuing credit to only those with propriatary relationships with banks that have 24 hour verification and authentication technology.

I use credit and debit cards but I don't like the idea that they issue credit to Meijer without my authorizing it and that they do it without ALL check writing clients being informed that this is whats going on.
Any thoughts....

But why is your whole family still writing checks?

Paper checks are an obsolete method of payment. It slows down checkout lines at the store and the shipping of online purchases. It puts your checking account information in the hands of people who don't need it and shouldn't have it.

Your whole family and your husband's business would benefit from using debit cards or credit cards to make purchases.

Debit cards have the same function as a check without the hassle. Credit cards offer rewards for purchases and built-in consumer protections. Both offer freedom from the risk of bounced checks. The advantages are endless.

The only good reason I can think of for using paper checks is to pay companies that charge a fee for electronic payments such as some municipal utilities.

But why is your whole family still writing checks?

Paper checks are an obsolete method of payment. It slows down checkout lines at the store and the shipping of online purchases. It puts your checking account information in the hands of people who don't need it and shouldn't have it.

Your whole family and your husband's business would benefit from using debit cards or credit cards to make purchases.

Debit cards have the same function as a check without the hassle. Credit cards offer rewards for purchases and built-in consumer protections. Both offer freedom from the risk of bounced checks. The advantages are endless.

The only good reason I can think of for using paper checks is to pay companies that charge a fee for electronic payments such as some municipal utilities.

But why is your whole family still writing checks?

Paper checks are an obsolete method of payment. It slows down checkout lines at the store and the shipping of online purchases. It puts your checking account information in the hands of people who don't need it and shouldn't have it.

Your whole family and your husband's business would benefit from using debit cards or credit cards to make purchases.

Debit cards have the same function as a check without the hassle. Credit cards offer rewards for purchases and built-in consumer protections. Both offer freedom from the risk of bounced checks. The advantages are endless.

The only good reason I can think of for using paper checks is to pay companies that charge a fee for electronic payments such as some municipal utilities.

Did you have a joint account with your daughter? If so, it's perfectly legal. Telecheck scans a check with the routing and acct # from a bank and verifies the history of checkwriting from the account holders of that account. If there are any negative remarks or indications of nsf checks, every account holder is held responsible because there is no way for telecheck to verify who wrote the bad check. This is why one should never get into a joint account with anyone else because that other person's financial responsibility/irresponsibility will affect both people.

No ripoff though. Amazon has nothing to do with your daughter's check being returned so there's no need to get angry with them. This is the only method that an online company or store has to verify that the customers they do business with are good, honest, paying customers. It's the smartest thing a company can do, and if telecheck starts making a service for consumers to use when other people give them personal checks, I'll be the first one on board. It's ridiculous that a company gets ripped off because they weren't able to know the person they just sold a gold necklace or diamond too is a deadbeat check fraud suspect. I'm not speaking of your daughter, but in essence, people that kite checks are thieves and shouldn't be allowed priveleges that good people have.