San Diego, CA - Rarely has there
been a consumer product marketed as a "convenience" become
so inconvenient and even troublesome as the so-called
"convenience checks". These official looking paper checks,
imprinted with name and address, often arrive in the
mailbox of credit cardholders without them even being
requested. New cardholders get them within weeks of
opening an account and most cardholders receive them
around holiday shopping seasons.
Credit card issuers on the surface want you to think of
them as good as gold, however, there are often conditions
for acceptance as pointed out in the small print of
cardholder agreements. Conditions like your credit report
may be looked at to determine if a cardholder has gone on
a spending spree or has defaulted on an agreement with
another creditor before the issuer will accept and process
the check.
According to a Dallas TV News report called "7 on your
side", consumer reporter Michael Finney explained an
unfortunate situation with a Mark Boileau who bought a
Toyota Prius, with a convenience check issued by his
credit card company, Bank One, to make a one thousand
dollar down payment on the car. Mark told the reporter
he's used credit card convenience checks many times. "I've
used them for everything, including a down payment on a
house during close of escrow," he said.
So Mark gave the Toyota dealer his check and drove off
with his Prius. But three weeks later, Bank One called
Mark and said it was going to decline his check. "I was
devastated. To me this was bouncing a check to the car
dealer. I had taken possession on it, I didn't know where
else I was going to get the $1,000. I had miles on the
car, my old car's gone," Mark lamented to reporter Finney
on camera.
Mark said he was baffled - he was within his credit limit.
He'd never made a late payment. So why was Bank One
pulling the plug? Mark said "You have sufficient credit -
more than enough to cover this check, however Bank One
told him: "We're just not comfortable with your using this
high of a percentage of your available limit."
Bank One had apparently pulled Mark's credit report and
decided he was using too much credit. In fact, in Bank
One's customer account agreement, it says it can decline a
convenience check "for any reason." And Bank One's not
alone - other banks say they may do the exact same thing.
They can also lower your credit limit or decline credit
card transactions, if they deem necessary and then tack on
the appropriate over-limit fees too.
Beware, convenience checks are a favorite target of
thieves too, who often steal them from unlocked mailboxes.
Convenience checks are much easier to use than a credit
card and they are added to a cardholders' account balance
instead of being deducted from a checking account.
Therefore they qualify for the highest interest rate
applied to cash advances, according to many cardholder
agreements, which makes their use very expensive. Even
when a member of the household utilizes one, the
cardholder agreement says the cardholder is responsible
for the entire amount of the check, unlike the $50 limit
of liability on a stolen or otherwise unauthorized use of
a credit card.
Few, if any, security measures are in place for those who
receive convenience checks in the mail, such as a newly
issued credit card, which requires the user to call a
toll-free number to activate the new card, in addition to
a letter to the consumer alerting them that the cards have
been mailed. ICFE has determined that American Express
requires a telephone activation of convenience checks.
Stopping the flow of those checks to your mail box can be
difficult too as Lynne Durrant with the University of
Arizona Cooperative Extension in Tucson recently told the
ICFE. She said "They are a nuisance to me because I always
have to dispose/shred them carefully. However I am
concerned that they are a great temptation for others to
sink further in debt. I tried to opt out of receiving them
last year from an account I had opened a few weeks
earlier. I was informed they would do the paperwork, but
it could take as long as 90 days to stop receiving them
because it was already 'in the system'. However when
months went by - at least 5 or 6 - and I was still
receiving them I called and canceled the account itself.
Voila! The checks stopped coming immediately."
BankRate.com warns their web site visitors about being
careless with convenience checks this way. "If you use
them, it will cost you. If you lose them, it could cost
you even more. When it comes to convenience checks,
there's plenty to be wary about. They come with hefty fees
- as much as 5 percent of the check amount - and steep
interest rates - often 20 percent or more."
If you receive unsolicited and unwanted convenience
checks, ICFE advises they be put through a crosscut
shredder immediately. Also contact the issuers and ask
them to stop sending them. Should you decide to keep them
for possible future use, put them in a very safe place and
don't tell anyone you have them. Remember, just because
they were sent to you and there may be an available credit
line, there is no guarantee they will be accepted when
eventually presented to the issuer.
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