CrossCheck Blog

CrossCheck started in the check guarantee business way back in 1983. Checks ruled at the time, and nearly every merchant accepted them at the point of sale. Back then, in fact, many merchants did not take credit cards at all. This was due, in part, to the high cost of interchange and because processing a card transaction was much more complicated than taking a check.

Merchants had to put a bulky multi-part carbon form in a knuckle-busting sliding imprinter (aka “Zip Zap machine”), and then sort out the forms and send them out for processing. There is a reason why it was called a “knuckle buster.” By comparison, taking a check was pretty easy, comfortable, and familiar to merchants, and consumers commonly wrote them for purchases at the store.

The 2019 Summer Las Vegas Market is a great place for home furnishings dealers to learn about the latest furniture trends of the upcoming season. Discovering what is popular will provide insight when determining the right items to stock and ultimately attract more customers. This year’s summer LVM offers many opportunities and resources to learn about the current industry and acquire amazing furniture for your inventory.

When merchants sell something, they expect to get paid in full right away in order to generate more revenue. They don’t expect to have the payment fail for one reason or another, and never get the money. This seems pretty obvious, but every payment system has failure points, except perhaps the Federal Reserve Wire Transfer system (and even this is not immune from fraud).

In this short piece, we will explore the concept of check guarantee, and how check guarantee providers manage their business to meet predictable targets for payment failure, salvage, and write-offs. Not every business is a candidate for check guarantee, but for those that are, such as car dealers and building supply companies, they can’t live without it!

Here at CrossCheck, I am fortunate to attend a variety of payments industry events, such as the CardNotPresent Expo (CNP) last month, and two previous conferences by the Information Security Media Group, the world’s largest media organization devoted solely to information security and risk management. Seminar sessions are offered at most of these events, and the informational sharing is invaluable.

I thought I had a good understanding of the perils involved in accepting payments, but I was very surprised to learn at the CNP Expo that fraud is now increasing auto dealership risk. If your dealership has not experienced a recent uptick in consumer fraud, you are about to, so you might want to read this.

If you are a merchant, there cannot be too many things that are more aggravating than getting a notice from your bank that you are not going to get paid because a customer put a stop payment on a check written to you.

Your first reaction would probably be surprise, then disappointment, and then anger. “How could they do this to me? … I gave them a good product at a good price and I provided good customer service too.”

As detailed below, there are legitimate reasons for requesting stop payments. On the other hand, writing a check and then stopping payment to avoid getting charged can be considered check fraud, which is a crime actionable at law. Before we get into all that, let’s look at how a merchant-customer relationship is supposed to work.

Recently Facebook made a big announcement. They are launching their own currency, hoping to go live in the first half of 2020. Actually, it is a cryptocurrency called Libra. They are developing a digital wallet to take the currency, called Calibra.

Facebook says that their goal is to bring a new type of digital payment to anyone with a smartphone, which some people say is the functional equivalent of an online digital bank. You buy or cash out your Libra online or at a local exchange point, like a grocery store. You spend it using interoperable third-party wallet apps, or the Calibra wallet that is built into WhatsApp, Messenger, and its own app. The idea is that sending money to friends or paying for something at a merchant is just as easy as sending them a Facebook message.

The MidWest Acquirers Association presents the 17^th Annual MWAA Conference on July 17 – 18 at the Renaissance Schaumburg Convention Center Hotel in metropolitan Chicago. ISOs and other members of the acquiring industry will have the opportunity to participate in a variety of inspirational activities such as seminars, keynotes, networking events, a cyber café, and a tradeshow featuring the latest in payments and value-added products and services.

CrossCheck's National Sales Trainer Todd Little and VP of Partner and ISO Relations Travis Powers are attending the conference to discuss the company’s longstanding tradition of lifetime residuals, upfront commissions and buy-rate programs for resellers. ISOs and other payments professionals may visit them at booth UE75 in the exhibit hall and enter a drawing to win a complimentary bottle of Sonoma County wine.

Returned checks have been a domestic problem ever since checks were introduced in the U.S. by Boston businessmen circa 1681. Solutions vary, including pitches for “free online check verification” or “how to verify funds on a check before it bounces.” The bottom line, however, is that free check verification is as much of a myth as the proverbial free lunch or snake-oil elixirs.

The cure, of course, is to contract a check verification and guarantee service provider.

Acknowledging this fact, there are four general types of merchants who have or need check processing services:

1. Merchants with check verification or guarantee.
2. Merchants who don’t have check processing services.
3. Merchants who want to accept check payments.
4. Merchants with a returned check problem.

Each of their stories is compelling, and each category has valid reasons for functioning with or without check processing services. The variables and outcomes are explored here.

Businesses that accepts checks as a form of payment without a check guarantee service should certainly concern themselves with the question, “Who writes bad checks?” These merchants want to avoid accepting bad checks, and they can decrease the likelihood of doing so by better understanding who’s writing them and which check writer characteristics should be monitored.

Buying a house or condo is the most important financial decision that most of us will ever make. It takes a special degree of commitment, dedication, savings, financial expertise … and luck … to reach that level of achievement. Unfortunately, only about 64 percent of American families currently own homes.

First-time home owners have a whole new list of things to deal with — mortgage payments, property taxes, home insurance, yard work, and who knows what else! Owning a home is not for everyone, but for many people, it is a lifelong dream.

When people buy their first house, they are typically starting with a blank interior canvas. Their goal is to “make a house a home.”