need cheque guarantee enlightenmentz

S

smiley2004

Guest
My card & chq book were nicked by my ex-flatmate while I was on holiday. I was mega overdrawn but he got away with using up to 13 chq leaves in 3 stores leaves. The bank say there is noting they can do as it wasn't reported lost or stolen.......I ask this, If one has no money in their a/c and have paid for goods in shops with a couple of chqs, can't the bank, POS system or the retailers refuse your chq guarantee payment when you're overdrawn???

What details then do retailers get when one pays with chq guarentee?? I was of the impression they check to see if you have suffient funds..and if not the payment is refused?? pls can someone enlighten me...
 
> The bank say there is noting they can do as it wasn't reported lost or stolen......

Sounds a bit iffy to me. The original cheques should end up back at your bank and they should be able to examine them to determine that the signature is not yours (unless it's a good forgery) meaning that you did not authorise payment and perhaps giving you a better case for compensation? Check the terms & conditions of your account to see what, if anything, it says about this sort of scenario.
 
Smiley....

I cant believe this !

Is this sort of thing normal with flat mates ?

Howsoever & notwithstanding my sheltered life you should consider the topics of fraud & theft and the activities of you ex flat mate.

Dont know if the force would be interested. Suppose they should as if its theft.

You might be safer living in a cardboard box



Phew
 
What details then do retailers get when one pays with chq guarentee?? I was of the impression they check to see if you have suffient funds..and if not the payment is refused?? pls can someone enlighten me...
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The retailer gets no details. The cheque guarantee card system pre-dates on-line banking. The whole objective of the card is to guarantee payment of the cheque to the retailer, regardless of the balance on the account, provided (and here's your angle) that the signature on the cheque matches the signature on the card.

Request copies of the cheques from your bank and check out (no pun intended) the signatures.
 
cheers all

Thanks Rainyday for that advice. So if the chq system pre-dates online system why do they swipe the card then?
Surely if one reports the card stolen it can be stopped by the retailers point of sale system with info they will get from the bank. Or is chq guarantee different?? If so it would explain how my ex-flatmate got away with using 17 leaves from the chq book......
 
Re: cheers all

You should also report it to the Gardai. It might help your case with the bank if they know the Gardai are involved. Also, a visit from a burly Fraud Squad detective might 'encourage' your ex-flatmate to repay the money. Having a fraud/theft conviction is not something I'd like to live with.

Sluice
 
Re: cheers all

So if the chq system pre-dates online system why do they swipe the card then?
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I didn't know that they did swipe it, to be honest. It is many years since I used a cheque guarantee card in a shop. It is possible that the technology is involved somewhere along the line now - but I'm not familiar with this.

If no-one else can answer the question here, try asking your bank this question, and please do come back & share the answer here, so we all learn from your experience.
 
Re: cheers all

Haven't paid by cheque in a while now but last time I did they just looked at the cheque guarantee card (or not usually!) to verify the signature. Otherwise how do they know what it should be. Unless by swiping you mean that your flatmate actually used your Laser facility or something like that to get cash back in which case they would have swiped the card and (ideally - but often not actually in practice in my experience) checked the signature on the Laser docket with the one on the card.
 
Smiley,

Don't want to sound too nosey but how much did the 13 (unlucky) cheques total?
 
Experience shows that many shop assistants will swipe anything that has a magnetic strip on the back. Just in case.

Also, a lot of the tills out there still aren't integrated with the Laser and credit card clearance systems, so the assistant will swipe your card once on the till to get the information recorded on the till and once on the credit card terminal (which is not necessarily attached to the till) to get the clearance.

As outlined above, the "guarantee" bit of the cheque guarantee card is to ensure the retailer gets their money. As far as I remember the process involves the retailer writing the card number on the back of the cheque to indicate that they have physically seen the card. If they have seen the card and written the number, then the assumption is that they also checked the signature. The card holder is only covered to the extent that they can prove they didn't sign the cheque - a blatantly false signature is an indication of this, but a good match would be hard to repudiate.

I reckon a call to the Gardai would be in order as you do appear to have been robbed.

z
 
SOme shops may still have cc tv evidence that it wasnt you signing the cheques as I imagine the tills are the focus of a lot of cameras. And your friend may change his/her tune in relation to paying you back the money if he/she hears about the video evidence of their crime.
 
chq update....

No problem sueellen. The chqs were between £55-£100 so I would say an average of £75 per chq leaf........which would total about just over £800. Oh yes the bank are looking into it but taking their time!!!!
Well at least we all learn one thing out of this.....NEVER TRUST ANYONE.......
Oh didn't I mention my ex-flatmate in now happily residing in Canada!!!!
My belief is that he planned it from the start and since I would meet his absence on my return from holiday, he'd be long gone.......which he is.
 
Smiley,

Sorry to hear that you are at the possible loss of this large sum. Hopefully things will work out for you in the end.

Hope some of the advice here helps.
 
Oh didn't I mention my ex-flatmate in now happily residing in Canada!!!!
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Don't assume that the Gardai and/or the Mounties won't be interested, just because he has moved country. You need to make life as difficult as possible for him - Pursue this with the Gardai and push them to work with the Mounties on this.
 
the shops dont give a This post will be deleted if not edited to remove bad language about chqs for that amount if a laser/chq guarantee card isused because the bank cannot bounce a chq under 127euro as when it shows up on system day after its presented there is no way to know if chq guarantee has been prsented or not! serious loophole that bank hasnt closed yet. also n matter how overdrawn your laser card is it will never be refused once you stay under a 1500 euro limit every day, another loophole..

that is why when one applies for a lser/chq guarantee card it is treatd same if not more seriously than a loan app
 
signatures

There have been numerous UK TV programmes where they went in and signed donald duck and micky mouse on false cards and nobody checked
 
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