Posted on 10/28/2004 7:57:34 AM PDT by SmithL
NEW YORK (AP) --
New federal regulations designed to speed up the processing of checks went into effect on Thursday, and consumer advocates advised Americans to be more vigilant about monitoring their accounts.
The Check Clearing for the 21st Century Act -- better known as Check 21 -- will allow financial institutions to exchange electronic images of consumers' checks rather than transporting the actual paper checks around by air, land and sea.
As a result, checks that consumers write are likely to clear faster than before, so there will be less "float" between the time a check is written and when funds are debited from the account.
And consumers who still get their checks back with their statements -- about 36 percent of bank customers -- are likely to begin seeing images of some checks among the paper ones.
The changes won't happen overnight.
Forrester Research of Cambridge, Mass., estimates that it will take until the end of the decade for banks and credit unions to digitally process checks from start to finish. It said that some major banks won't have fully implemented image exchange processes until about 2008.
Still, consumer advocates warn that if check writers aren't careful, they could easily overdraw their accounts and end up paying late fees and other penalties.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
The end to hundreds of small companies that fly canceled checks around the country in light twins. A blow to general aviation.
I have long ago trained myself to not even WRITE checks, let alone mail them, until I'm dead certain the funds are already in my account and considered "collected."
A day of mourning
As someone who has made a habit of float time..just gotta watch it from now on..esp since my bank charges 29 bucks for a bounced check
The handwriting's been on the wall ever since 9/11.
I like getting my canceled checks back but with this you dont so if you got a problem then good luck proving it
Hey,I didnt sign that!!
Can you prove it?
Bull no more float.... Until a law says they can't hold a check, banks will have float, trust me. Only reason they don't float longer than they do now is because its illegal.
All I want to know is whether banks will continue to put holds for three up to five business days on checks deposited while the banks use your money...with no interest to the depositer by the way!
When I was in college, we referred to them as "airplane" checks.
For us. Banks, however, will still sit on out-of-state checks instead of clearing them faster.
And here's another racket they came up with. When they post transactions, instead of posting them in the order they happened, they re-sort them from largest to smallest - so if you, say, forgot to write down a $200 check and had three debit-card transactions for $20, the $200 would clear first and then the three smaller transactions would bounce, which generates more fees.
"The end to hundreds of small companies that fly canceled checks around the country in light twins. A blow to general aviation."
There will be not only at least 1000 light aircraft, their pilots, mechanics, office personell, etc. put out of work and the aircraft put on the used market but probably 100,000 drivers and their cars that were the courier services that moved the checks from bank to airports across this country. This will take considerable time (years) to totally take effect but it becomes very obvious why the bill was kept almost secret and the date that it became effictive put just before the election so that no one would connect the implication or feel the effects until after the election.
There are over 80 aircraft and all the other affected personell and equipment just at Burbank, CA airport alone.
I was thinking the same thing. Don't a lot of pilots get their career start flying those overnight check runs before moving up to a regional airline?
}:-)4
It seems so, and that is a real shame. The payor will "lose" her money virtually immediately, and the payee won't get her money for days.
And will the godless bankers pass any of the savings along to us? Heck no! And if you try to cash an out-of-town check, they'll still make you wait 10 days so that THEY can float. The Bastiges!!!
Of course you could just cash the checks and then deposit the cash...but still......29 bucks each time you float a check.......Banks are the thing to invest in now!!!!!!!
It is my understanding that checks we write will clear immediately while checks we deposit will still have the 3-5 day waiting period. I don't get it. If the technology is available to clear checks immediately, why aren't deposited checks cleared in the same way. This is going to put the hurt on businesses that understand the principle that the 10th of the month makes the world go round.
Where do you read that in the article? I have already spoken with my bank and, with the exception of the post time, its business as usual.
"Consumer Reports says that means the float time many people count on will not exist anymore. It does not appear that deposits will clear any faster."
That's a load of bullsh!t.
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