Prepare for the “check guarantee sales pitch.” Common check guarantee presentations often go something like this:
Use our “check guarantee service” and you will be SAFE from bad checks.”
You may also hear this one: “Stop bad checks NOW by guaranteeing your checks!”
Although is what a lot of check guarantee services often market themselves as a way to safely take checks and avoid bad check losses, they are not nearly as safe and good as often claimed. Stated another way, be aware of the “check guarantee” hype. Remember, if it “sounds too good to be true, it probably is.”
A merchant who uses the services of a national check guarantee service once confessed to me: “not all my bad checks are guaranteed from my check guarantee service.” This business owner learned a valuable lesson about check guarantee services the hard way. He finally realized check guarantee services make a lot of promises, but are rarely the best choice for most companies. Too, check guarantee services will not fully eliminate bad checks.
If you sign up with a guarantee service, part of the “fine print in the guarantee contract” says YOU must insure certain items are listed and or examined on accepted check. If you omit one of the specified items, or do not fully follow the procedure exactly as described, and the check is returned, the check guarantee promise is null and void (i.e. you will not be paid for the value of the check). Not only are check guarantee services very expensive, the guarantee is only honored if you and your employees follow all the rules.
When your business is in the midst of “high traffic hours,” employees may not always check every single item. That process takes time and customers are not always patient. Employees sometimes forget to follow each part of check approval process, and sometimes new employees are not aware of what needs to be done.
Before signing on with a check guarantee service ask if you really want to have to verify various items on every single check you accept? If you look into check guarantee services very far, you will find they are generally a major source of irritation for both business owners as well as customers. No business wants to unnecessarily aggravate its customer base. A better solution for bounced checks is a FREE bad check collection such as NorthStar. You may read about NorthStar’s services using the links to your left.
If you are currently using a check guarantee service and you have checks that were returned by the “guarantee company” unpaid, I can help your business. The checks your guarantee company refused to honor can be handled by another agency–a national agency–that specializes in recovering bad checks. Not only does NorthStar work to recover checks that fail the guarantee promises, NorthStar’s recovery efforts are FREE!
NorthStar will work to return the full face value of checks that are rejected by a “guarantee service” PLUS pay you a bad check rebate of approximately $6.00 per check. You may sign-up for free bad check collection by visiting my website at www.collectitquick.com. If you find that NorthStar does an outstanding job and would like to one day drop your check guarantee and all the related costs, I would be glad to help you in that way too!
