Check Guarantee Service
and
Check Conversion Options
For Your Business

In order to offer more payment options and conveniences for customers, most businesses accept checks, in addition to cash and credit cards. Ideally, the more payment options you provide customers, the greater your potential cash flow.

However, a business that accepts checks inevitably has to deal with NSF, or bounced checks. Depending on sales volume, as well as your type of business, this can have a great negative impact. In any case, NSF checks are a huge frustration for business owners.

Check Guarantee Service

Without this service, if a business accepts a check that is returned by the bank NSF for lack of funds, it is up to that merchant to pursue the person who wrote the bad check. These days, most business owners are very busy and simply don't have the time to chase after customers who write bad checks. Not to mention the money lost.

With a check guarantee service, the funds are deposited into the merchant's bank account, with no penalties or delays, and its up to the service provider to deal with these delinquent customers, no matter how long it takes. And the merchant isn't debited back for funds already approved and deposited into their account.

This is all possible because of a federal law that went into effect in 2004, otherwise known as Check 21, which allows banks and other organizations the ability to create electronic images of consumers' checks.

This law was designed to make use of technology to reduce or eliminate the costs involved with paper check processing. For example, the cost of physically transporting a paper check from one part of the country to another is far higher than the delivery of an image of a check across a secure network.

Here's how a check guarantee service typically works: when you accept a customer's check, its input through a check reader and verified against a database, letting you know if the check writer has any previous, outstanding bad checks in the system. If it shows no bad checks, the guarantee company will give you an approval or authorization number, which means you are guaranteed payment for that check. You will then be required to get certain information, such as phone numbers and a driver's license number. Of course, if the verification comes back negative, you would ask for alternative payment.

After approval, the funds are deposited directly into your business' checking account within 48-72 hours, just like a credit card transaction. This negates having to go to the bank to deposit checks.

A POS terminal and check reader is usually required, with the option for an online/virtual terminal, according to your business' needs. There may also be application, signup and/or programming fees to set up the service on the business owner's terminal.

This can be a great solution for any business that accepts checks, as well as those with a history of dealing with bounced checks. If you don't accept checks altogether to avoid bounced checks, a guarantee service can be an inexpensive solution to the problem. Since many customers still prefer to pay by check, you could be losing money in lost sales opportunities. Consider it also if you accept a large number of checks from a varying client base.

It may be worth the peace of mind, not having to worry whether or not you're going to get paid for your products or services.

Check Conversion Service

With check conversion, a business owner no longer has to go to the bank to deposit checks, since they're electronically captured, transmitted and deposited just like a credit card transaction.

A business might consider a check conversion service if they regularly accept checks from the same people, and/or your industry is one where bounced checks are not a major concern. In the event of an NSF, the merchant would be responsible for getting the customer to pay.

Again, the key with a conversion service is convenience: a business owner no longer has to endorse, record and manually deposit the checks they receive.

Fees

If you're having problems with NSF checks, or if you'd like to increase your sales by offering customers the option to write checks, but don't want the hassles. If you're also looking for an economical and guaranteed solution for dealing with bounced checks, then fill out the quote form below. Simply check the "Check Guarantee Service/Conversion Services" box. One of our consultants will be happy to discuss your options with you.