By the way, check truncation is closer than you may think: the bill has been passed by Congress and will likely be signed into law today by President Bush. See:

http://biz.yahoo.com/prnews/031028/dctu036_1.html

i pay b of a $1.00 a month and get my checks back.

Having taken a couple of It'l flights sitting next to MileTex up front, the idea would NEVER work. The liberated booze bill alone would sink it in the first month.

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~ Glen ~ sipping bubbly from UA 747-400 exit row 15A near you SOON!

[This message has been edited by ozstamps (edited 10-30-2003).]

re checks:

1. The big banks have different categories of accounts, and return checks for some accounts and not for others

2. Accounts Receivable Conversion (ARC) is rapidly spreading. ARC means that a consumer check that is mailed to a credit card company, utility etc. can be converted into an Automated Clearinghouse item. (An image of the check is retained, and the physical item is retained for 14 days, if i recall correctly, then destroyed.)Thus, even if your bank returns checks, these checks won't come back. The volume of such items grew 87% from Q2 to Q3 of 2003.
3. The recent legislation becomes effective in one year, and will primarily impact non consumer checks, IMHO.
4. Consumer checks negotiated at grocery stores etc. are already being scanned and handed back to the maker in some cases.
5. For all of the above reasons, plus the expansion of e commerce, the volume of checks is finally going down. The Federal Reserve is closing 13 (out of about 45) of its check processing centers over the next year.
6. To tie all of this back to travel, shipping checks is currently a big business. The commercial flights often carry checks as small packages in with luggage (particularly red eye flights); UPS and FedEx carry lots of checks; and there are numerous small jets (Lears etc.) that criss cross the country every night (M-TH) carrying primarily checks.

I get my returned checks from Wells Fargo, Bank of America, San Diego National and Washington Mutual. The extra fee is waived if you keep a minimum balance.

Washington Mutual returns the checks for free on all account types with no minimum balance.

(My apologies for contributing to the digression of the thread)

So this all begs the earlier question, how then does one prove that a check was fraudulently written in the event that one's checks suddenly turn up all over New England as part of a stranger's shopping sprees at K-Mart and Home Depot? (Speaking from experience).

Luckily, the stores faxed me copies of the checks themselves, and the signature was obviously not my own. However, with all of these electronic transfer mechanisms, and automated document distruction, there has to be some electronic verification that should accompany checks. Perhaps requiring entry of a PIN or some other uniquely identifying information.

At any rate, oh, yeah. I think I filled out a check once for a bill while on a mileage run.

(Fixed typo.)

[This message has been edited by RChavez (edited 11-04-2003).]

Westamerica Bank returns my checks for free on my free account. Also, the ATM fee for withdrawal of money in non US countries is only $1.75.

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Free Frequent Flyer Miles

RChavez, the bank may try to weasel out of it, but the liability for accepting a check with a forged signature was 100% on the bank under the law, at least back when I took a few law classes. Maybe someone better informed has an update?

That doesn't mean the bank won't try to beat you down on this; no one pretends crookedness is merely incompetence better than a bank -- unless it's a car rental company.