Huh? This isn't a British vs American thing. UK banks will also charge a stop payment fee, and if your billing company or sponsor is based out of the UK they will also pass that charge on to you (and rightfully so). Some banks (regardless of the country) will waive occasional fees like this if they happen infrequently for personal accounts or whatnot, but not for a large billing company that issues thousands of checks each week. This is just how it works.

I'm surprised this is such a new concept to some of you guys, but there ya go.

If I'm CCBill and I choose to do business with X bank, you're damned well sure they're waiving the fucking fees. lol. :winkwink:

Damn you!

I came in here looking for drama and now I'm hungry. :)

We don't have an expiry date, which is where the heart of the confusion with the UK peeps is coming from :thumbsup I, at least, considered an expired check as a void check that cannot be cashed. Previous posters have said why that's not the case, so in that respect yes, you'd have to cancel the check as in both instances the check is 'live', so to speak :)

This scenario wouldn't arise with a UK check, as it would never expire, hence the slight dumbfoundedness (on my part anyway) as to the whole charging to stop a useless check - which this thread has cleared up is not useless after all. So yeah, US banks are fucked up :winkwink:

Yeah, it is kind of confusing all around.

Also, here in the US not all personal or business checks have an expiration dates, it's not like that is some automatic requirement - it's just something CCBill (and other businesses) choose to print on their checks. A UK company could certainly choose to do this also and some of them do. IMO it's smart policy for CCBill or any payment processor, because of the nature of their business - issuing thousands and thousands of checks to random contractors that may or may not have their shite together.

Those expiration dates aren't even technically completely binding, again any check can be cashed (or not) at the discretion of the individual banks. Back when I worked in the bank loss prevention department I definitely saw "expired" checks that someone let through the process, though of course this usually wound up being a pain in the ass for all involved, so it's in their best interest to pay attention to them.

Actually many banks will hesitate to honor a check that's more than 6-12 months old even if there's no expiration date. And I know for a fact from my previous work experience many UK banks have that policy as well. 6 months is often standard.

Not that I'm defending the honor of the US financial industry by any stretch :1orglaugh Just trying to explain that this practice is maybe more universal than some of you guys think.

Fun fact: CCBill has a 15-20% decline rate on cards.

and a 12% form submission rate cap....depending on who you are you may qualify for the handy dandy 15% form submit cap, but the 12% cap is for VIP's like me:thumbsup

Correct. UCC only allows them to decline stale dated checks. It does not require a bank to do so. Any bank will recommend that you put a stop payment order on any check you do not wish to have paid if presented.

Even the "void after XX days" is just a request, as banks do not have to honor any signature lines. It's like that so that they do not have to worry about a million variables when processing a million checks a day. That and with Check21, many checks are never seen by bank personnel unless it ends up in the exceptions pile.

Do you have a source or evidence for that?

Spot on.

Great question (that won't be answered for sure). :)


That is not strictly true. UK cheques are normally valid for 6 months from the date of issue ie the date you put on it, not when you got the cheque book. I rarely use cheques but still use a book I originally started in 2005.

:winkwink: means you are kidding, right?

I think so. Banks make money on fees.

Tdbank used to organize transactions per day by amount. Example, mortgage payment came out and they would put that first transaction of the day. If that bounced your account they would then out every other transaction after regardless of time.

So it goes like this.

$1500 in account. $1550 was mortgage, then 6 other transactions made with debit card same day. Organization of funds this:

-$50 ($35 fee). 6 other transactions totalling $60 ($210 in fees). Customer just paid tdbank $245 that day.

OR,

They are declining 15-20% of the cards you send them because they are shit, and because they are protecting themselves AND protecting you at the same time.

And the secondary processor picks up most of them just fine… for what reason?

I'm sure CCBill has their reasons for scrubbing so hard, and that's fine, but there's no need to make up a silly excuse aside from "it's their policy." Blaming the client for sending shit sales is absolute nonsense, when again, the secondary picks those sales up just fine.

If you are only using CCBill as your processor, do yourself a favor and add a secondary. You will see that I'm right. Feel free to send me a nice TV for Christmas is a thank you gift. I'm liking the 80" LEDs.

I'd expect higher than that.