Community Chat

[Mmsfoxxie]

This morning, I went to the grocery store to get a few things.  My bill was $78 and change and I wrote a check.  I was turning to leave when the clerk said "just a minute.  Your check didn't clear yet".  She tried several times before saying she was sorry, the check was declined and did I have another method of payment.  Luckily, I did and paid her cash.  I asked her what happened and she said she didn't know.

Wow, there were people in line behind me and I was soooo embarrassed!  Never in my life has this ever happened to me.  I went over to customer service to see if they could tell me something.  She gave me the number to Telecheck because she said they were the source of the denial.

On the way home, I stopped at my bank since I had to go past it anyway just in case there was something wrong with my account or there had been sabotage to my funds.  The bank manager said that just yesterday another customer came in with the same problem.  I cashed my check at the bank and came home.

So my question is....has this ever happened to you dealing with telecheck?  Is it worth even calling?  I've been on so many calls the last couple of weeks dealing with insurances, I really don't want to deal with being put on hold for 20 or 30 minutes.

[viva923]

i have had this happen with checks and even debit card. plenty of funds but still a denial. why???????????????????  have no idea.

i have been told once a while ago, when those check clearing places get over whelmed they can sometimes go bonkers and hit a clinker note. maybe that happened.  i doubt if you will ever know.

I would try to write a check again to see if it happens again, if it does I would call telemarketers.

[ChynnaBlue]

As long as your bank says your account is fine, I would not call, but I would carry extra cash in case it happens again and THEN I would call if it happened a second time.

I don't know anything about telecheck because I write maybe 1 check a year. Cards can be declined for many reasons and I've learned not to be embarrassed when something gets declined because I think most people are aware that it's often caused by anything BUT being overdrawn. I've had some stores say my card wouldn't go through and then I called my bank and they said nothing was wrong. I went back into the store and tried with another card reader and everything was fine. I've had cards declined because the bank issues a fraud protection warning when they thought there was unusual activity on my card and froze it. I've also been to stores where the internet connection went down or something else prevented ANY cards from going through.

[kranee]

I worked for TeleCheck many years ago. I don't know if they still follow the same process. It used to be that checks were only declined if the check writer's data somehow matched something in their database (name, address, DOB, driver's license number , etc) for a bad check. Again, I don't know if they still follow that process. Based on this I would

definitely call them to make sure that your data is not in their database due to some error.

Hope this helps

[Mmsfoxxie]

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@viva923 wrote:

i have had this happen with checks and even debit card. plenty of funds but still a denial. why???????????????????  have no idea.

i have been told once a while ago, when those check clearing places get over whelmed they can sometimes go bonkers and hit a clinker note. maybe that happened.  i doubt if you will ever know.

I would try to write a check again to see if it happens again, if it does I would call telemarketers.

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The thing is viva, I've written checks there before but with my other bank account.   They don't even request my driver's license except the first check that I wrote.  And this was a Thursday morning at 10 am.  It was busy, though....a big grocery chain; Strack & Van Til in the midwest.  Big in the midwest anyway.  Now, Im afraid to make a large purchase.  Guess I can always whip out the credit card if necessary, lol.

[Mmsfoxxie]

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@kranee wrote:

I worked for TeleCheck many years ago. I don't know if they still follow the same process. It used to be that checks were only declined if the check writer's data somehow matched something in their database (name, address, DOB, driver's license number , etc) for a bad check. Again, I don't know if they still follow that process. Based on this I would

definitely call them to make sure that your data is not in their database due to some error.

Hope this helps

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No, definitely wasn't a bad check...wrote one in the 70's by accident.....thought my paycheck would beat the store getting to the bank...today it's instant.  The other thing I thought was that because this was drawn from a different bank, it might have messed things up.  Thanks

[homedecor1]

Our local Publix uses this same method I think.    I was there recently with a friend who wrote a check -- came back declined. (As everyone else has said more than enough funds).

She contacted Wells Fargo (her bank) they told her she had written several other checks and this was the reason her check was not accepted through their checking clearing house (telecheck).

Apparently, she had written checks to drs. office, WalMart and Publix all in the same few hours. And the retailer uses the telecheck system  -  declines the transaction.  

I'm thinking this may have been what happened to you as I do not write checks frequently and since all the problems with BOA debit cards I am into using CASH and I'm seeming to spend less!

[chickenbutt]

I'm not familiar with 'TeleCheck' but I can relate on the embarrassment level.

One time, probably some 25-30 years ago, I had gone to CSAA to get some traveler's checks just before going on a vacation.

If you had CSAA (which we did - auto insurance and the card), you could write a check for the travelers checks (this was before debit cards were an automatic issue with checking accounts).   

Ok, no problemo.  So I write it out for $2,500 worth of travelers checks and, as I was waiting, with quite a few other people in the room, she came back and declared, much too loudly I might add, that the check was not good.

Needless to say,  I was PROFOUNDLY embarrassed that everybody in the room had to hear that.  But the reality was that there was much more in our account than the measly $2,500 I was writing.

I had to end up calling the bank and having her talk to somebody who said the check was good and when she was called the first time (back then people called the bank to clear a check) was wrong.  I was then given the phone back and the person at the bank was pretty much like 'hahaha oh well - just a mistake'.     Seriously - she laughed!!  

Imagine my ire because, um, really?  No apology??  I don't ask for anything from anybody but I DO know when an apology is in order.  Anyway, the travelers checks were issued and it ended up fine but I did complain that when the bank was called the first time she made a massive error and declined the check and didn't even apologize. 

I would have apologized PROFUSELY if I did that sort of thing to somebody.  I could very easily get over the mistake if the person had apologized.  THAT was the part of it that really made me angry, not the error.  We all (well, most of us. ha!) make mistakes.  It's how you handle the mistake that matters the most.

[Mmsfoxxie]

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@ChynnaBlue wrote:

As long as your bank says your account is fine, I would not call, but I would carry extra cash in case it happens again and THEN I would call if it happened a second time.

I don't know anything about telecheck because I write maybe 1 check a year. Cards can be declined for many reasons and I've learned not to be embarrassed when something gets declined because I think most people are aware that it's often caused by anything BUT being overdrawn. I've had some stores say my card wouldn't go through and then I called my bank and they said nothing was wrong. I went back into the store and tried with another card reader and everything was fine. I've had cards declined because the bank issues a fraud protection warning when they thought there was unusual activity on my card and froze it. I've also been to stores where the internet connection went down or something else prevented ANY cards from going through.

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Makes sense.  Also, thanks Chynna, for your help, along with dodbdoo, with the "how tos" of navigating these boards.

[surfk]

I don't have any experience with Telecheck. But why would someone even use it? It seems that the process to clear a Telecheck goes on as long as just writing a check off of your bank account directly.

Why would you want an in-between service then? Especially one that doesn't require any ID to cash (if it goes through). That would seem to make you (and your monies) more vulnerable than necessary.

Why not just write a check from your bank account directly? I really don't much understand the larger benefit/s of doing it through Telecheck when the funds come out of your regular banking account anyway.