People Who Are Hurting This Community

[froggy]

If businesses should not accept personal checks, why should we persons accept business checks? Businesses bounce checks too. Businesses fail to pay bills. There is no guarantee that even a bank check is any good. They are counterfitted too. Let's not drop off into the deep end because of a few bad apples.

[Dubious]

most online shops dosent deliver, until they have recieved the money

thats why i use a CC, no delay, or payapal

[Bettypooh]

most online shops dosent deliver, until they have recieved the money

thats why i use a CC, no delay, or payapal

CC's and Paypal are no guarantee of payment either as many hapless Ebay sellers have discovered There is a timeframe in which payment can be rescinded and you agreed to those terms when you used their services (it's in the TOU's which almost nobody bothers to read) The difference with a check is that it is seen differently in the eyes of the law- it is a "Promissary note", similar to a contract and your only legal recourse is to file a civil suit to enforce the contract's terms That may take years to accomplish and will certainly take more of your time and money that you want it to. Only the government can prosecute the criminal aspects of passing a bad check in most places and as busy as most DA's are they don't want to mess with them. Better laws are the answer.

I don't know how it is now, but at one time a sentence of 30 days or more in the state of Georgia allowed the county to place you on a work detail- usually picking up trash on the side of the road where every passer-by could see you If you refused to work they didn't have to feed you so after a few days of being stubborn you'd go to work And most counties made sure to place you on a work detail near your own neighborhood- the last place you wanted to be seen at. The standard sentence for passing a bad check in the county where I lived was 30 days too A very clever way to solve a sticky problem and it worked!

As long as you had a local address you could use a check anywhere there, even at liquor and convenience stores! Everybody knew what they'd get for passing a bad check and almost nobody did it. The punishment was appropriate for the crime so the crime rarely occurred That's the way things should be, but rarely are.

That's why so many people will not take your check and why many sellers prices went upon Ebay when they started requiring everyone there to accept Paypal.

Someone has to cover the cost of bad payments and fraud, and unless the punsihment is severe enough to prevent it from happening the people who cover this expense are the innocent- you and me Of course this is not fair, but it's what the people we elect to office give us. Welcome to reality where most of the world sucks and nobody cares anymore.

Bettypooh

[lil'boy]

Make sure your TOU states that the user subjects thenselves to your jurisdiction for any legal disputes, that there is an interest rate on any unpaid amounts (interest should be as high as credit card default rates or the highest rate allowed by law), and that the user is responsible to pay for any fees and costs incurred in collection, including collection agency and attorney fees, and regardless of whether a lawsuit is filed.

Check your states laws on kiting checks. Ours has a penalty that allows the receiver of a bad check to sue and collect 2x the face value. At the low amounts you describe the check maker (writer) is generally only guilty of a petty offence. So there likely isn't much motivation for the prosecutor to prosecute, esp. if the person is out of state.

Good luck.