Banks who send the checks back:
SunTrust - HQ Atlanta
World Savings - HQ Oakland, CA
Republic Bank - HQ St. Pete, FLA

Regarding the FF Attorney, I would LH give some more time. I had done business with them (HQ Cologne & FRA and Tech in HH), they are a little slow, but always very correct. Actually, I would try to get in contact with their legal department (Rechtsabteilung) and explain the situation ... a law suit (in the US!!), bad publicity is the last thing they want ..

[This message has been edited by USAFAN (edited 10-25-2003).]

There is a case from the 70's I believe where a man in New York got a judgement against the former Soviet Union for $25000. When the Soviet Union failed to pay, he got a federal marshall and went to JFK and seized an IL62. The Soviet Union complained to the State Departement but the State Department told the Soviet Union that we have rule of law in the US and that they couldn't do any thing. Shortly, there after, the Soviet Union paid up.

I have heard of ground handling companies chaining up pushback trackers to foreign carrier airlines to force payment.

I know of an attorney who managed to get a default judgment against a major US airline over a frequent flier dispute. He had sued in a municipal court, and asked for the jurisidctional limit. Served the president of the airline. Papers must have gotten lost, airline didn't respond w/in 28 days, got defaulted. Airline couldn't get out of the default, but refused to pay. Atty. threatened to attach the judgment against a jet when it came in to the local airport. Airline paid default judgment.

One you might not suspect: Citibank returns my canceled checks. About every two years they tell me they will "enhance" my account by stopping to return them, and it does require an annoying phone call, but the canceled checks are still coming.

Even if canceled checks are not returned, I believe every bank will do a front and back photocopy on request (for which there may be a fee).

I'm a customer of another big bad bank -- Bank of America -- and they return my cancelled checks every month. Furthermore, I have NEVER been forced to call them to make them continue doing so. Maybe I'm grandfathered in somehow.

I didn't choose B of A, I just ended up with an account there as the result of a couple of mergers (Hibernia Bank -> Security Pacific -> B of A).

A nice feature (fairly new) on B of A online banking is that you can click on a check description to pull up an image of that check. Of course, they may now try to use that as a pretext to discontinue sending me my cancelled checks. We'll see!


Kathy

Thanks to all of you for the leads on banks that still return cancelled checks.

FlyerTalkers are great!

About 5 months ago, J.P. Morgan Chase began sending me a sheet of photocopies with my statement. I called and complained and they now send back my cancelled checks. So you can add them to the list of those banks that will return checks.

The Citibank Private Bank in the US has started doing this as well (not sure about Citibank in general). I don't write that many checks on that account so I'm not sure if they are still sending out the original checks to customers.

Unfortunately, in my experience UK banks do not send copies. The NatWest private bank thought it was quite strange when I requested them and hit me with a charge of something like �2.50 per copy. The Citibank Private Bank here hasn't provided me with copies, either.

RichardInSF,
While perhaps most judges would not allow the seizure of an airplane, wouldn't there be some judges who feel offended that an airline tries to make itself larger than life, and order the seizure of the plane to sort of show that the institution of justice is still the boss? It might generate interesting media coverage also if a commercial jetliner was seized by a local official?

Another bank that returns cheques:

Wachovia

Most small claims cases in California are now heard by anti-consumer bureaucrats called "commissioners," and I doubt it. You know where "People's Court" on TV starts becoming fiction? When the judge opens the trial by saying, "I've read your complaint." Hah, no way!

But the bigger issue is that I doubt if any major airline actually OWNS any planes -- they are leased from financial companies through arrangements that are supposed to, among other things, protect the lessor against bankruptcy proceedings, so they'd probably be pretty darn secure against small claims courts.

I really like the idea of doing something dramatic, but I don't think this would work.

I don't write many checks anyway. I try to use miles/points earning credit cards for everything (as long as there's no fee for doing so), and otherwise, it's auto-draft or online pay from my checking account. So perhaps the cost of returning my cancelled checks to me isn't TOO onerous for B of A!


Kathy

[This message has been edited by KathyWdrf (edited 10-26-2003).]

I went to SCC many years ago and the commissioner first asked both parties' permission for him to act in lieu of a judge. We could have insisted on a real judge, but that would have incurred a postponement. Maybe next time if there ever is one I will insist.

Even the California courts will occasionally render enforceable judgments. My client once won $5000 from Amex. The sheriff went to the local Amex office and asked them nicely to please pay the judgment from the till, they did. Since the sheriff charges $1000 up front to seize a vehicle, you will probably want to tap the till at the airline ticket counter before attempting to seize an airplane. Aside from your possible liability if you seized the wrong holding company's jet, once you have your jet there are pesky things like ramp fees and storage charges that run into the thousands of dollars very quickly, and you will have to hire someone who is properly licensed to taxi the sucker to the parking area.

For those of you who still get your checks and want to keep it that way, you'd better get ready for change. Within a small number of years, there will probably be no option to get your checks back, as they will be converted to electronic form by the depositor's bank.

Note that this is different from the current situation where the payer's bank doesn't return the check. When the payee's bank starts this, there will no longer be an option for the payer's bank to return the check, as they'll never get it themselves.

Also note that this is different than what some merchants such as American Express are currently doing by turning checks into ACH transactions themselves - these transactions appear as totally electronic as far as the banks are concerned.

This new system is called "check truncation" by the industry and applies to paper checks that are deposited for payment. Consumers Union has a good background piece on this:

http://www.consumersunion.org/finance/checkwc102.htm


Check out this information from the Federal Reserve:

http://www.federalreserve.gov/paymen...on/default.htm


Also, here's some information from the National Credit Union Association. What's particularly rich about this one is that the document starts with "After the September 11th terrorist attacks":

http://www.ncua.gov/news/legislation...Truncation.pdf

[This message has been edited by Steve M (edited 10-26-2003).]