Beware of Floating Cheques...

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-06-2003
Beware of Floating Cheques...
11
Mon, 08-02-2004 - 9:20am
I just read this report and I thought it best to share it with everyone.

http://moneycentral.msn.com/content/Banking/Betterbanking/P90617.asp

Kassandra

Kassandra

"It is said that life has its peaks and valleys.  The challenge is to accept them equally and experience them

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iVillage Member
Registered: 04-02-2003
Mon, 08-02-2004 - 10:30am
This is true. I work in sort of a banking situation and we are already seeing a small bit of Check 21. They are not expecting banks to be fully ready for Check 21 for about 7 years. Many of the smaller banks will not invest in the equiptment for a while. They will let the larger banks test it before they will invest.

You will probalby start seeing some Image Replacement Documents or IRDs start coming in place of your canceled checks. That is what I am seeing with our checks at work. It should pick up more in October. Bank of America is going to be piloting a test before then and I am sure the other large banks will be also.

I don't float checks by how long it will take to cash, but I do sometimes float by how long it will take a bill to arrive through the mail (like I may mail something on Wed. knowing I get paid of Friday, if it is going out of state, it should not be able to arrive and go through the banking system in two days).

Kathie

Avatar for cl_beckymk
iVillage Member
Registered: 03-19-2003
Mon, 08-02-2004 - 10:36am

This has already happened with credit card payments!!!

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-02-2003
Mon, 08-02-2004 - 11:40am
Wal-Mart has been turning checks into electronic payments here for a while. Alltel is also doing it, but of course since I use online bill pay, I never knew that until I was in a meeting at BOA about Check 21 and someone mentioned it. It will not be much longer before there are no more checks, which is fine with me (except for the fact that I am incharge of the check division in my office and eventually I will not have a job! We will need one person to hit a button to process all the electronic payments! I have been told that when checks are all gone, I can be the one to press the button and still have a job!) LOL!

kathie

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-22-2003
Mon, 08-02-2004 - 1:08pm
I just received notice from my bank about this, too. They already had available the electronic images when banking online. I don't know if I"m going to like that or not. I like having hard copies.
iVillage Member
Registered: 04-02-2003
Tue, 08-03-2004 - 9:43am
I don't get hard copies at all. I thought I would not like it, but as unorganized as I am, I don't know if I could find the copy I need when I need it. I have only had one instance when I needed a copy so far. I bank with BOA and they have the images online, well it just so happened that they started the images just after the check that I needed cleared. I was able to order a copy of the check I needed free of charge (I think they give 2 or 3 free each month) and received it in the mail in just a couple of days. It was a lot easier than I thought it would be!

Kathie

iVillage Member
Registered: 07-26-1999
Tue, 08-03-2004 - 2:17pm
Hi Kassandra,

Is this happening in the Canadian banking system? I don't write cheques, but my mum does and she would be shocked to learn that there is no more float time, though I don't think she ever relies on that anyway.

I don't do much without a debit card or credit card, but I am turning more to cash again anyway. Just curious.

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-07-2003
Tue, 08-03-2004 - 3:04pm
If it isin't happening already, I'm sure it will eventually. I only write one cheque per month anyway - my rent. So I'm not too concerned. Seems everything is going paperless these days. Good for the trees, but not for the technologically-challenged folk out there!


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iVillage Member
Registered: 07-06-2003
Tue, 08-03-2004 - 10:12pm
Hi Rebecca,

We have yet to see this is Canada but like Unicorn said, we aren't that far off.

Our banks still employ a 3 to 7 business day hold on people who deposit non-wage cheques to allow them to clear unless the account holder is in very good standing with their bank.

For the person who wrote the cheque, the funds will be taken usually within 1-2 business days of the cheque being "cashed".

True example: I gave the rent cheque for August to the owner on Saturday afternoon, he went to deposit it on Monday at his bank, it cleared my account at 12 a.m. Tuesday morning! If I had been counting on floating it I would have been screwed :)

Canadians adopted the debit (Interac) card system faster than any other country to the point where within 5 years of launching Interac, more of our "plastic" transactions were being done via debit cards rather than credit cards.

Kassandra

Kassandra

"It is said that life has its peaks and valleys.  The challenge is to accept them equally and experience them

iVillage Member
Registered: 04-07-2003
Wed, 08-04-2004 - 11:18am
I've been seeing that kind of speed too - I dropped off my student loan payment (a cheque written on my BMO account) to the CIBC bank at noon on Friday. On Monday, I checked my balance and the cheque had already gone through! Now, Monday was a holiday here in Canada, so that transaction had to have taken place literally within hours of me dropping off the cheque!


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iVillage Member
Registered: 08-13-2004
Sun, 08-15-2004 - 3:56pm
OMG thanks so much for posting that!! I had a nasty habit four years ago of floating checks and also ending up bouncing them because of it; I nearly ended up in jail over a bounced check (one check I bounced was for $152.84 on groceries, and at that time more than $150 made it a felony charge!! I wasn't arrested, but when the judge gave me probation, restitution and court fees it changed one $152.84 check into nearly $2,000.00 of fees and did you know in FL for probation you have to pay a monthly monitoring fee?!!).

We have been in tight spots again since I have been SOOO very tempted to just float a check, but I've kept that memory of going down to the jail to be registered as a felon for bouncing a check, and that keeps me from floating!! It had been so easy to say "Ah, I'll write it, they won't process it until tonight, it won't go to their bank til tomorrow and it won't hit my bank for two or three days...we should be fine!!!"

This will be one more thing I can use to keep myself from touching that checkbook (which is ONLY for paying bills with now!)

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