Telcheck and BK?

[BKcrazy]

Ok, I don't ever recall dealing with Telcheck (spelling, eh who cares?). But I went to write a check for Tmobile and they declined the check I wrote. Is this because of my BK? I haven't bounced a check, so I'm just curious. Is it worth calling them?

[lrprn]

I think you are referring to Telecheck. It's worth giving them a call to find out why they declined.

Your bankruptcy isn't the reason. Telecheck allows checks through as long as you have sufficient funds in your account, you haven't had a recent check declined for insufficient funds, or you aren't depending on overdraft protection to prevent an overdraft and a certain amount of time passes without you making good on what's owed.

[BKcrazy]

I had more than plenty of money in the account. Haven't had any checks declined for insufficient funds and certainly not depending on an overdraft.

Haven't had insufficient funds in years.

[FreshLikeADaisy]

BKcrazy, I don't know if this has anything to do with Telecheck or bk, but more than once when my credit was perfect and I had cash in the bank (oh, those were the days ) I had a check declined when there was a great deal more than that available in the acct. I always figured it was some sort of bank error, because it would just get redeposited and that was the end of it -- no fees because there was no actual overdraft.

I would also add that back in the day, when I worked retail, Telecheck was informally known by a much earthier name, Telef***, and with good reason. It's not an infallible system at all. To me, you'd be better off calling the bank where the funds are, and asking them if there is any problem or holds on the acct. From what I know (which isn't much, so take it with a grain) Telecheck has no authority in and of itself to decline a check based on information *separate* from that given by your bank; in other words, if your bank acct is good and there are no holds, Telecheck is supposed to greenlight your check, period. Hence the earthy name, because that's not always the way it works out in practice.

In the end, whether Telef*** gets it right or not, it's up to the bank to honor the check or not, so if the bank is good it's probably a one-time glitch completely unassociated with your bk and I would forget it. I would check there first. Good luck!!!

[BKcrazy]

Well, I'm able to take money out the bank all the time. Though I was getting work done on a car today, and their little check machine wasn't going to take my check. I still have an out-of-state drivers license and a state id from the new state I live in. I gave them the state id after and it went through. I'm sure that was because of the different addresses.


Thanks for the info with Tele(theyseemtosuck)check. I didn't want to waste time on the phone with them. This was most likely the first time in years that I've dealt with them.

[vernors]

I worked at a corporate office for a chain of retail stores. Telecheck and the other check verification services use a number of different criteria for approving check purchases. Recent bad checks is of course an important one. An important one is also, are you someone who writes checks at retails stores? If you just pay your bills with them and all of a sudden they see you write a check at a retail store, this causes the system to flag it as higher risk. Did someone steal your checkbook, it may think. It sounds like you moved recently, which probably also raises the risk. Some criteria just seems silly, such as how high the check# is that is on the check. And some businesses, T-mobile probably included, may see quite a few bad checks and tell their service to decline more checks than other retail stores.

They do not use credit reports to decline checks, so your BK or low credit score would not be the cause. Certegy, which was owned by Equifax last time I heard, will occasionally check credit to approve a check. Meaning, if otherwise a check will be declined, as a last chance they will check the credit, and if it is high they might approve the check. But, I have never heard that credit check will be used to decline a check.

[BKcrazy]

Well, it's a different account. And usually I would pay bills online with my debit card or in person. Not sure it's worth a phone call to them.