CrossCheck Blog

Even while employing the services of check processing companies that verify and guarantee checks, auto dealers often find themselves having to decline a down payment check on the recommendation of the check processing company.

There are inherent risks associated with accepting a check for goods or services, which is where check guarantee services come in. However, not all check guarantee services are created equal when it comes to risk aversion and often will decline a check - particularly for large-ticket items - as the risk increases with the dollar volume.

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!

At CrossCheck, our primary business is helping merchants make a sale when a consumer is standing in front of them. Since the completion of a sale often hangs by a thread, this sense of urgency is the inspiration behind our Plus Sales service — the place where the proverbial “buck stops” in the realm of check guarantee. Let me explain. If you have ever worked in retail, you know that you generally have only one shot at making the sale. If the consumer says, “I’ll be back later,” well, as we say around here, “The be-back bus doesn’t stop here anymore.”

A day in the life of a CrossCheck field sales person sometimes mimics the fast pace of a certain counter-espionage series that dominated television for a number of years. That one-hour program always began with the words, “the following takes place between 10:00 AM and 11:00 AM” or whatever particular hour was being framed during the episode. CrossCheck field sales representatives don’t carry weapons, but they are armed with the latest information about check guarantee services.

There are guarantees in life and then there are guarantees. It’s all about where the emphasis is placed, and in some cases, the person or organization vowing to the fulfillment. CrossCheck’s Plus Sales Check Approval Service falls into the second category because it goes above and beyond where no check guarantee company has gone before.