My husband owns his own company (gross pay more than the 6 digit range). I have tried to write a check on 2 different occasions. Once to get gas and the other to Christmas shop. Declined at both. We went to the bank and in fact had more than adequate funds to pay for the items. We called Certegy and they said it was not because of insufficient funds, but for the unusual check writing activity. Who are they to tell me how much money I can spend in a day or how many checks I can write. If I wanted to write 500 checks for $1, I should be able to do so. It is the principle. Our company attorney is looking into this currently, as I type this. The biggest experience for my family is embarrassment. We are well known in the area for our company and this does reflect on our customers (as one was behind me in line). This is embarrasing and needs to be stopped. I will post whatever our attorney finds out and I hope it will be helpful to others.
The complaint has been investigated and resolved to the customer’s satisfaction.
I also have found myself livid... checking acct has more than enough funds, called bank, they have nothing to do with it... checks denied in past 3 weeks from Ashely furniture, Sears, JCPenney, and today Macy's... they all give me a number to call, but if I use my debit card linked to same acct... transaction goes right thru... so needlessly voiding out 4 checks, giving my driver's license number and all my personal information, which should be a part of the so called privacy act... and still the checks are denied... I finally called certegy and they told me go on line, site is secure, and fill out our gold application, which asks all kinds of personal information they don't need to know... I am more than livid and just emailed the company, which will probably not respond to me...
What happened when you used your credit card?
if you had the money in your account, whats the point of writing a check? if u have a debit card? maybe its just me but you could be saving yourself alot of stress.
Three months ago my check was denied while I was at Best Buy purchasing a flat screen monitor. There was over $1000.00 was in my account. I couldn't get any help from the store manager except a phone number to call. I was embarrassed as was my wife and the poor girl waiting on us.
Best Buys loss $259.00, Wal-Marts gain $239.00, since we went there and bought it, guess what my check went right thru!
Last weekend I was at Target purchasing a new PS2 game, Guitar Hero 3 for my kids, and again this company denies my check again! Again, plenty of cash in the account, Targets loss $89.00, Radio Shacks gain, $89.00. I have had this account for over ten years and it is always been in great shape.
There needs to be a Class Action Suit brought against this company. The only worst then this company is the stores that uses them. So lets not only get a suit going against them, but lets also boycott the stores that use them!
As for Len, that said "if you had money in your account why not just use your debit card", all I have to say is that I have a checking account because if I want to write a check I have earned the right to write a check whenever I want to and i shouldn't be put in a negative category because I don't write many checks! I bet Len wouldn't stand for a negative credit rating if he didn't deserve it! Wake up Len, and smell the coffee... this is the same thing, and this company is just simply WRONG!
I too write checks for 2 reasons. 1. I am very uncomfortable carrying too much cash nowadays and 2. the internet has enabled too many people the ability to steal you blind if you use your debit card as happened with T.J. MAXX and my previous bank! AND I also have been denied check cashing randomly by certegy! This company stinks, it embarrasses you because people assume you are a bad person if your check is not accepted! Stores should be ashamed to treat their customers this way!
My check to a shoe store was declined due to Certegy Check Services not insuring the shoe store payment of my check in case of insufficient funds. Later the same day, the same thing happened at my local gas station where I always fill up my car, but in this case I had to get out my credit card, which I don't like to use often, because I had already pumped my gas. Once again Cetergy was sited as the reason they would not accept my check.
So I went home and called the toll free Certegy number given to me by my gas station, to no avail. I wasted about an hour on the phone trying to talk to a human being instead of an automated menu. I got no information what so ever that gave a reason why my checks were denied. Then I googled the company and found this Complaintsboard.com website and started reading every one else's similar tales of embarrassment and inconvenience.
Next I called my bank and got a hold of a manager within seconds and told him my tale. He looked up my perfect history with the bank for almost ten years and was mystified as to why Certegy would incorrectly label me. He had me mail the information my gas station had given me, and tells me we might have to open up a new account on Monday morning. He also checked out Complaintsboard.com and read the same alarming stories I had. I don't know how this will resolve itself, but I am all ready for a class action over this erroneous company that seems to do what ever it wants without repercussion for the harm it causes. I am sending a letter to my gas station and the shoe store asking them to rethink using this company as their insurer for checks. What next to do, I'm not quite sure yet.
Same story on check denied. I wrote a small check of $3.85
It went through. Okay- I thought they're taking my check today. I shop an hour, go to pay and check denied.Same day 2 hour difference. The head cashier and I called different numbers and got the same answer- which was no answer. I had picked out $200.43 of merchandise and I had no Visa card or other way to pay. I asked to speak to the manager but he was in a meeting. Soooo AT THE TOP OF MY LUNGS I SCREAMED "DON'T WRITE CHECKS AT LOWE'S BECAUSE THEY WON'T GO THROUGH WHEN YOU LEAST EXPECT IT" Manager appears. Tells me there is nothing he can do- It's my problem. Now I don"t know
where I can write a check. My bank says everything is in order. MAD
I hate Certegy! I wrote a $60.00 check for gas, somewhere that I always write checks for gas and it was declined! All they could tell me is that for that day for that store it must have fell into the "suspicious" bracket for they monitoring they were doing that day. Hmmm...must not have been suspicious 5 days ago when I wrote it!
I have never written checks before always use the check card. I went to Pick N Save to get some groceries and wrote a check and they said it was declined they could not tell me why. Called the 800 number and the lady said she was a collection agent and this was to collect a debt. I said excuse me. I am calling because my check was declined. She could not find a single thing in their system on me. Well then why the hell are they blocking my checks. I guess I will go back to using the check card and not write checks anymore. It was rather embarassing and terrible to have to put all the groceries back in the cart and have to leave. I guess in the future all people use check cards versus checks. This is a terrible company to deal with
I was just denied the ability to cash a $50 check at Publix (so I went to Kroger with no problem) even though I've written checks at Publix for the last five years. I, too, called the number but never was able to talk to a person on the phone. I have tried several times now so I guess I will transfer all my perscriptions to stores who will honor my checks (and give $25 gift cards for each transferred perscription!). If anyone does get a class action going, please contact me.
I attempted to cash my check from a large business at walmart. Certegy refused to cash my check, they told me my company had to call them to verify the check was not a fraud! My company will not call certegy therefore: I cant cash my check! Certegy told me they dont have outgoing phones and can't call my company!What's a person to do?
I too tried to cash a $92 Federal check at Wal-Mart here in Florida and was declined.
Why are they claiming they can cash checks for $3, but don’t? I gave them 2 pieces of Government Picture I.D’s and my social security card. All they asked me was that if I use another name. I do not. Still no answers but based on everyone’s experience, Certegy Check Services must be a fraud.
I had two new tires put on my car today, September 3, 2009. I wrote out a check from my house account. I have a debit card on my personal account, but I wanted to pay for it out of my house account. The check was denied. I had twenty-five times the amount of the check in that account. I was embarassed. I have been trying to call the 1-800 number for Certergy since five o'clock this evening. I have spent over an hour on the phone holding on and listening to music. You can't even speak to anyone from this company. How does a company like this stay in business? And why do retailers use a company like this? Don't they check out a company before using it?
I too was a victim of Certegy. I agree why is this company allowed to tell me how I am allowed to write checks? With plenty of funds in my account to cover the $174 check I was writing to Target due to the fact that my debit card was damaged and unreadable. If Target thinks this company is doing "asset protection" they are right. They are protecting their assets by keeping them on the shelf by refusing good money!
I work at pick n'save.
When a check is declined, it doesn't say why. The machine we put the check through simply prints "declined".