CrossCheck Blog

There are three main providers in the check guarantee business. All have been in business for many years, have seasoned and mature products, and a large book of business that covers the entire country. Naturally, merchants want to know how the top check guarantee companies differ from each other.

Obviously, I cannot speak for the other two providers, but I can offer general information about the industry. While we all provide similar services, the business model for each company is different (see below for "Company Differences" and "The CrossCheck Approach").

The fundamental differences are how the product is sold, who the target market is, how the pricing is determined, the types of hardware supported, how authorizations are handled, how claims are paid, and how responsive customer service is to the merchant.

We get calls from merchants who want to know the difference between check verification and check guarantee. The typical scenario is that the merchant takes a bad check, tries to collect on it themselves, and discovers how difficult it is to do that. Other times, a check is missing from a bank deposit, or the merchant is just tired of taking an hour off to go to the bank every day. They have heard about check service companies and now they want to know how they can benefit from using one.

Article Summary

• Check Verification Versus Check Guarantee
• Basic Check Guarantee
• Electronic Check Processing
• Some Merchants Prefer Checks
• How Check Guarantee Helps Protect Merchants
• How Check Guarantee Helps Consumers
• Additional Protection for Merchants

There are two time-tested ways to deal with this. They are check verification and check guarantee.

The CrossCheck website receives a lot of queries: “Is this a good check?” … “I need to verify a check.” … “I received this check in the mail, is it real?” … and a dozen variations on a weekly basis.

The marketing team responds as follows (or something similar) if the message is from a consumer:

“CrossCheck provides check guarantee and other payments-processing services to merchants via monthly service agreements. We suggest you discuss the situation with the issuing bank. Thanks and good luck.”

Sometimes the messages are disheartening: “Just got burned by a bad check.” If it’s a merchant, we explain that we can’t do anything about that particular check, but we can guarantee future checks to mitigate their losses.

The expected clear skies and 63-degree days make February a great time to be in Las Vegas. Beyond the great weather, 70-plus golf courses and unlimited entertainment, auto dealerships have found a more urgent reason to visit – the 2020 NADA Show. But what exactly are dealers looking for besides a mirage in the desert? The answer is a competitive edge in an industry with ever-increasing challenges.

Some auto dealers bring “a shopping list” because they know exactly what to look for, but others hope to discover any type of advantage that presents itself.

NADA, the National Automobile Dealers Association, is fully aware of the challenges, and has responded with four days of educational programming, a multi-venue exhibitor showcase, franchise meetings, and fun networking events. The 2020 NADA Show takes place Feb. 14 – 17, 2020 at the Las Vegas Convention Center. Those attending the tradeshow include auto industry leaders, manufacturers, exhibitors, experts, and auto dealership management.

“Dealers need to provide customers with a consistent, relevant, seamless experience throughout each stage of purchasing, including the dealership website.” – David Boice

Recently, I attended a webinar given by David Boice, CEO and founder of a company called Advid. It was titled, “Lessons from Amazon Prime: evolving the consumer experience in the digital era.” I thought Mr. Boice had some important things to say about what consumers think and feel when they start their search for a new car, and I wanted to share this with our readers. To understand his message, we have to start at the beginning of the consumer buying experience.

If your business sells building materials to the construction industry, then you already know that it takes a long time to get paid. It doesn’t matter what you sell — lumber, dry wall, plumbing supplies, roofing materials, flooring — the contractors who buy from you have cash-flow issues that they deal with every day.

The 2019 National Construction Payments Report, a survey conducted in collaboration between Levelset and TSheets by Quickbooks, concluded that getting paid in the construction industry is slower than just about every other industry. How slow? The average time to payment is 83 days!

What do Formula One auto racing and CrossCheck have in common? The answer is, “quite a bit.” Some explanation is in order.

Formula One (aka “Formula 1” and “F1”) auto racing is one of the most exciting sports in modern Western civilization, with all the ingredients for a fabulous experience embedded into it.

Article Summary

• Why is Formula One a fabulous experience?
• Who owns Formula One?
• What are the common denominators between F1 and CrossCheck?
• Why do auto dealerships prefer CrossCheck?

Recently, some of our merchant dealers have been asking us about artificial intelligence – what is it, how does it work, and most importantly, can artificial intelligence help auto dealerships increase revenue? To answer those questions, let’s start with some background.

In 1950, Alan Turing wrote a paper titled “Computing Machinery and Intelligence.” His idea was: “Humans use available information as well as reason to solve problems and make decisions, so why can’t machines do the same thing?” The problem back then was that computers could not store enough information, or process it fast enough, to add value to the procedure. We needed more processing power, new software, and ultimately putting the GPU in the cloud. This took a few more decades, plus the power of Moore’s Law, to be viable.

There’s an old saying in business, “Nothing happens until somebody makes a sale!” This is true, of course, and so is this corollary: “Nothing happens with cash flow until the building materials customer pays the bill.”

Cash flow is the lifeblood of the building materials industry. Sometimes a business with a full order book and a large accounts receivable position will be forced to close its doors because there wasn’t enough cash on hand to pay the bills that are due now.

This is why it’s just good business to have a company credit policy at a building materials center. As somebody said, “If there’s no plan, there’s no hope for survival.” This raises the question: how do you create a credit policy?

The 2020 NADA Convention & Expo is an excellent opportunity for auto dealerships to increase their business skills while attending the expansive NADA Exhibitor Showcase and participating in workshops, interactive learning sessions, and peer-to-peer learning events. The ultimate goal, of course, is for auto dealerships to increase sales and mitigate risk while saving time and money.

Attendees and presenters are composed of a highly qualified mix of industry leaders, manufacturers, exhibitors, experts, and of course, auto dealership management.