How Long can Telecheck list you?

Discussion in 'Credit Talk' started by chelsys, Oct 19, 2002.

  1. chelsys

    chelsys Active Member

    I owe 214.00 to telecheck for a checking acct closure that happened in 1996. I did not realize I owed this until I tried to write a check a couple of weeks ago. I now have a diff checking acct, so I guess they picked it up from my ID # since it was a diff checking acct. I was just wondering how long Telecheck can have me black listed. I am in TX, and I know there is an SOL on checks, but telecheck told me the money owed is from the bank, not any merchant. I think it is coming from NSF fees when the acct was closed. I probably do owe it, though they can not provide any more info, and the bank in question merged years ago with another bank and has no info for me either. I am about to pay the 214.00 but since it was so old, I was wondering did I have any case to get them to simply remove it. It is not on any of my credit reports, and I just realized it because I don't really write checks other than my rent and car note, and use my Visa checkcard 99% of the time to pay for everything. I only wrote a check at the store a couple of weeks ago because i forgot my check card.
     
  2. lbrown59

    lbrown59 Well-Known Member

    I owe 214.00 to telecheck for a checking acct. closure that happened in 1996
    chelsys
    ===================================You need to see the original check before doing anything.
    LB 59
     
  3. thabeezer

    thabeezer Member

    I am also in TX and the same thing happened to me and they said they would leave an NSF check in their system for 7 years...but I made them send me a copy of the check before I paid them...they are a pain in the a**
     
  4. mark

    mark Well-Known Member

    it used to be 5 years, about 2 years ago it changed to 7 years.
    I know this because they had something on me at one point..and I waited for 5 years to be up and WHAM..they changed it to 7.

    anyway, takes an act of congress to get telecheck or any other check-type place to remove things.
    they are not like CA's and CRA's.

    I got mine removed finally when the bank was bought by another bank and the old bank named ceased to exist.

    i think i've posted about this before, but oh well ;p

    It was for like 1 dollar worth of fee's from a checking account I had closed. kept me from getting checking accounts and such for a looooongggg time.

    the bank said they wouldnt remove it from telecheck even if i paid, so I didnt pay it. I won that waiting contest.
    btw, im in TX

    EDIT: I still to this day wonder why telecheck had this listed even though there was no bounced check involved.
     
  5. mark

    mark Well-Known Member

    I guess what I was trying to say in that mess was that there may not be a check involved..it could just all be fees and such with interest over the years that telecheck has you listed for.
     
  6. lbrown59

    lbrown59 Well-Known Member

    but I made them send me a copy of the check before I paid
    thabeezer
    =================
    I made the phone company send me copies of 5 checks they charged me 75dollars in returned check fees on.
    Guess what?When I got them from the phone company they were forged copies.
    How do I know they were forged?I know because I still have the original blank checks.
    NEVER AGAIN will I pay based on a photo copy.
    It has to be the original check or I don't pay.

     
  7. charlieslex

    charlieslex Well-Known Member

  8. BradleyT

    BradleyT Active Member

    How TeleCheck Works

    Here's how it works.

    You go to the grocery store and buy a bunch of alcohol and liquor and of course get $20 or $50 cash back with your check. The cashier runs your check through TeleCheck and get an approval code from TeleCheck. This approval code guarantees the merchant will recieve the amount of the check as long as TeleChecks rules have been complied with (name/address printed on check via computer, D/L number on check, etc....).

    Three days later the merchant recieves your check from their bank saying NSF. Merchant makes a photocopy of your check and mails the original draft to TeleCheck. TeleCheck is now the owner of the check, however most times you can pay it at the place you bounced it at for instant removal from their system(such as a shoppers card that keeps track of check bouncers) and they will call TeleCheck for a "Paid at Store" removal - which will get you removed from TeleCheck in approximately 72 hours.

    So in about 2 weeks (to six months) TeleCheck will send the merchant a check that covers all of the bad checks it had guaranteed. The grocery store I work at gets an assload of bad checks. By March of this year the total was already $22,000 (weekly sales avg ~200K). Anyway TeleCheck had gotten over 6 months behind on payments(to the tune of over $30,000) for guaranteed checks, so the store switched to Check Systems (which uses multiple databases but does not use the D/L - just the check routing/account numbers).

    So....the merchant will only have a photocopy of your check. They HAVE to send it to TeleCheck to get their money for the check.

    Not sure about the SOL on checks, but we've had people come in and pay (this year) bad checks from '96 because the store owners actively pursued these debts and was getting people put in jail for passing bad checks. One guy who came in last month had to spend 30 days in the pokey as well as pay the check amounts + fees for his restitution.

    Bad checks can get you in a lot more trouble than CC debt.
     
  9. shaolin76

    shaolin76 Well-Known Member

    n/m
     
  10. lbrown59

    lbrown59 Well-Known Member

    NM What
     
  11. lbrown59

    lbrown59 Well-Known Member

    Re: How TeleCheck Works

    1*TeleCheck is now the owner of the check.
    However most times you can pay it at the place you bounced it at
    2*So in about 2 weeks (to six months) TeleCheck will send the merchant a check that covers all of the bad checks it had guaranteed
    3*So....the merchant will only have a photocopy of your check
    4*Bad checks can get you in a lot more trouble than CC debt.
    BradleyT
    =====================
    1*&2*So then I get dunned by TellCheck for the check even though I paid the store therefore I wind up paying for the same check twice and the store gets paid twice.Right?
    *** I pay once to the store and again to TellCheck!
    ***The store gets paid by me and they get paid by TelCheck also.
    You pay the store for the photo copies but TelCheck still has the original check so they can collect on it too.
    AGAIN this is why I don't pay for photocopies of checks.No original check No payment.
    3*No I have to see the original check or the claim won't get paid.
    4*Right even if you aren't the one who's in the wrong!


     
  12. chelsys

    chelsys Active Member

    Re: How TeleCheck Works

    thanks for all the advice. where I am confused is about the fees. The checks themselves have been paid back to the merchants back in 96. I made sure to pay those back. What Telecheck seems to have on me is the NSF fees that the bank charged for the checks being returned. no merchant turned me in, but the bank turned it over to telecheck for the fees when they closed the acct. the bank no longer exists, and was called first interstate, but are now Wells Fargo. If the period is 7 years, then I am almost done because this happened in march of 96. I had completely forgotten about it until I tried to right a check in the grocery store a couple of weeks ago. After the SOL is it automatic that they drop off?
     
  13. BradleyT

    BradleyT Active Member

    Re: How TeleCheck Works

    Situation simplified:
    A. You bounce a check for $75 at store
    B. You get a nasty letter from TeleCheck two weeks later
    C. You pay the store the NSF amount + 25 fee = $100
    C.1 - BE SURE TO GET A RECIEPT FROM THE STORE - THIS IS YOUR PROOF YOU PAID!
    D. The store calls TeleCheck for a "Paid In Store"
    D.1 The store removes you from their "in-store" check writing system
    E. TeleCheck removes THAT listing from their system within 72 hours.
    F. The $100 you paid is given to TeleCheck(not actually...what actually happens is that amount is Deducted from your Guaranteed Check that the merchant recieves every 2 weeks).
    G. 3 days later you should now be able to write checks at any merchant that accepts TeleCheck.

    When you pay a store for the check, they get to keep a small portion of the $25 fee (about $1), but it's faster than mailing TeleCheck - AND you get taken out of the stores "non-check cashing system" immediately.

    If you were to send in payment to TeleCheck it would take say 5 days to get there. Then it would take another 72 hours to clear their system. You come back to my store to write a check(which requires a "store card") but we have you in the system as "code 55" which means you've bounced a check here. "Oh I paid TeleCheck" you reply - yeah like we don't hear that one every time. We don't remove you from our in store system until A: we get notification that you did pay TeleCheck (which can take up to 2 weeks - sometimes longer) or B: we get our check from TeleCheck which has your check covered. So paying TeleCheck means it will be up to 3 weeks or more before you can write a check at my store. Paying my store means 3 days.
     
  14. BradleyT

    BradleyT Active Member

    Re: How TeleCheck Works

    You don't pay twice - you either pay the store or TeleCheck. If you pay the store - they forward that money to TeleCheck on your behalf and it's a much faster "recovery" period.

    If you pay TeleCheck it's a much slower process and the store misses out on the $1 from the $25 fee.

    On a side note.........at our store it would cost $.08 per check to get a TeleCheck approval for groceries. Checks written at customer service cost $.48 for approval and required a D/L number be input. And people wonder why we charge $1 to cash a $50 personal check with no purchase - half of that $1 is already eaten up in TeleCheck fees - the other half goes to cover non-compliance checks where TeleCheck doesn't cover the check for some lame reason such as "Check date is 10/17/02 - endorsement date is 10/18/02....or written DL # is not readable, etc..."
     
  15. NannaM114

    NannaM114 New Member

    Re: How TeleCheck Works



    I am fed up with Telecheck. They are electronic bullies who outsource their "customer service reps." In 2005 I removed my child from KinderCare because she was soon starting kindergarten. (I paid KinderCare weekly via check.) I planned to pay them on my child's last day but they did not have my total due and said they would bill me. That bill never came so I called KinderCare. They were in the middle of a merger and still did not know how much I owed them (it would be app. $50.) Two months later I wrote a check at a store and my check was denied via Telecheck. The merchant gave me the rejection code and I called Telecheck. Telecheck told me, TOLD ME, via phone that I owed them app. $150. They could not identify the original payee (KinderCare.) They wanted me to pay them based on their verbal "bill." I insisted on an itemized statement with the name of the original merchant included. Nothing came. I called again, went over the spiel again and this time they mailed me an invoice, if you want to call it that, with only the total on a piece of paper - no details of any kind. We played this cat and mouse game once more, then I let it go. Soon after, a bookkeeper on the other side of the U.S., from the company KinderCare was merging with, returned my call. AHA, now I knew where the Telecheck mess was coming from. She told me that I owe Telecheck app. $150 and verbally itemized the charges. Our totals did not match because 2/3 of the charges were bogus. (They were charging a new enrollment fee and another fee that were both inaccurate.) She said the debt was now due to Telecheck because my check did not clear. I NEVER WROTE A CHECK. I checked with my bank to see if any kind of debit had posted - nothing. Okay, so this got old fast and I was soon going through a divorce. My ex husband and I declared chapter 7 bankruptcy in 2006. The bankruptcy attorney advised listing Telecheck with him to get rid of it. Bankruptcy was finalized in 2007. Any time since then that I have tried to write a check, guess what is still there? So I started calling my attorney so he could call off the hounds. He never would return my calls! I went by his office numerous times all to no avail - he was never there and would not return my calls. I checked with my state and U.S. bar associations and they said there was nothing they could do - that I could not actually prove he had done anything wrong or was dishonest. So I would have to get another bankruptcy attorney to go after the first bankruptcy attorney...all for a $50 Telecheck debt. I am now 7 years post bankruptcy and looking to open a new checking account today. And I have a bad feeling.
    Does anyone know...what are my options at this point? I would pay the entire debt for them to go away but I do not trust that they will erase the debt, since it was not even legally collected in the first place! How do these *******s get away with this crap??!! Thanks in advance for any help!
     
  16. jam237

    jam237 Well-Known Member

    It is better to start a new thread, than to post on a 12 year old thread.
     

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