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Porkr- I thought most places ran checks in a way similar to debit cards. ie- they scan it and it puts a hold on the $. I used to think I had a two day period to move funds after writing a check but around 2000 pretty much found out the $ were coming out pretty quick and gave up the practice.
Or is it only large retailers, utilities, etc that do that?
Some places, sure. Walmart I think is one of them. Most small retailers (myself) don't have that option. I even get customers that will tell me they dont have the funds in the bank yet, but will I take a check --- That'd be a negative! As a small business owner I've chased down wayyyy to many bad one's and now refuse them 100%. "Most" people understand. Its also not uncommon to use a small retailer and see a sign posted @ front door, "no checks accepted" ... Seriously, if you dont have the $$, you DONT need it! Dont charge it either. We are in enough debt!
@ SCBeaches - I'm glad your one of the FEW that think ahead when writing a check! Thanks from the guy behind ya in line
The law that covers Credit cards also covers debit cards run as credit, they have the same exact coverage.....
As for you not having credit card debt that puts you and I in the 1% bracket that do not.....
Sure fraudsters will really care how the card is run. Btw, even if you run as credit the money is out of the account unlike credit card is a simple balance. In addition, I don't think you get cash back and some cards are like 5%. There is a reason American Express Centurion card exist (no, I don't have one but that will be my goal!).
This is one of those areas where Charleston is 30 years ahead of the area where I live................ and I hope we never catch-up.
Most Places (I can only think of one that won't- a Chili's about 50 miles from here, and even they will if you push it far enough) still take checks; some will even hold the check for a while (talking a few days) if asked.
Capitalism's downfall is that it allows business to reap rewards asap, but doesn't punish them for poor service, or sometimes even outright fraud.
But anyway, germane to Charleston, one of the stupidest 'rules' of the type we are speaking was the not accepting any cash (yankee currency) in denominations of over $20.00.
I encountered that at a service station (not sure of brand- sign was green) on Hwy 61 three years ago.
I had gassed up and gave the woman supervising the register a $50.00. She said company policy forbade her from taking it. I asked for a sign saying that, she produced a pamphlet from behind the desk (Great place to keep that info). If it hadn't been for a guy nice enough to break it (and only because I was a St A grad- he'd graduated from Midddleton), I don't know what would have been the outcome.
But the alltime best scam on these lines I've ever seen was in La La Land (in 2004), where in order to buy gas you had to have a store card, AND if you purchased said card, you lost 10% of the value of the cash up-front.
Common business practice, you see. And it's no wonder that the use of anti-anxiety meds has increased by 350% in the USA since 1980.
Last edited by Geechie North; 09-02-2010 at 09:28 AM..
Sure fraudsters will really care how the card is run. Btw, even if you run as credit the money is out of the account unlike credit card is a simple balance. In addition, I don't think you get cash back and some cards are like 5%. There is a reason American Express Centurion card exist (no, I don't have one but that will be my goal!).
Without your pin they can only run it as a Credit Card.....
Without your pin they can only run it as a Credit Card.....
Clearly you don't know the pin is actually inside your card and a card reader can read it. Also, that's assuming they really need to take physical possession of the card, if the criminals get a hold of your card information somehow (i.e. a transaction data bank in-route to the origination bank), they can empty your bank account. Of course, it is your money, do whatever you want.
My knowledge of Credit Cards is thankfully limited, but I do know (from experience) that once you leave US airspace, all those safeguards the companies crow about cease to exist.
Clearly you don't know the pin is actually inside your card and a card reader can read it.
That is correct. Our newest credit card reader can do a debit w/o the customer entering the pin. Dont know how it does this??? But it does. It doesn't work on all cards. I'll pay attention next time to the card type that does this.
Re stores not accepting big bills a few years ago, I seem to remember that there was a rash of counterfeit bills in the state around that time. Anyone else remember that? I do remember a lot of stores not taking big bills.
For most of my adult life (51 years old) I have known not to have any bills greater than a $20.00. Many places don't have the change or are nervous about taking bills more than a $20.00. Even in my mid teens I traveled to NYC from Toronto a couple of times and knew to only take twenties.
Twenties were the denomination of choice for counterfitting by the Jamaican mob when the first high-quality printers came out in the mid-90's.
They so flooded the Bahamas, etc, that they were not taken by businesses in that region for over two years.
Which is why our re-designed currency featured a number of failsafes, like watermarks.
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--- That'd be a negative! As a small business owner I've chased down wayyyy to many bad one's and now refuse them 100%. "Most" people understand. Its also not uncommon to use a small retailer and see a sign posted @ front door, "no checks accepted" ... Seriously, if you dont have the $$, you DONT need it! Dont charge it either. We are in enough debt!
