Sunday, May 20, 2007

Another Angry Letter

"C" sent me the following testimony to Certegy's fraudulent business practices:

"I have been doing a lot of reading about certegy since Wednesday evening when 2 of my checks were denied at Target and Best Buy. I have been writing checks for over 20 years,have never bounced one, have a credit score in the 800s,and have more than enough money in the bank to cover these checks. None of that matters when dealing with Certegy. I went in and talked to my personal banker on Friday. I wanted to know if I had unlimited check writing. She looked up my account and assured me that I did. I told her about certegy and how they wanted me to fill out an application for gold status so I could write more checks and she was shocked. She has never heard of them. I gave her a copy of my denial ticket to show her boss. I am so angry. I have been firing off emails to Target,the BBB,FTC,etc...What I don't understand is one of their excuses for not taking a check is that it may be stolen so why is it I can hand use my credit card immediately after my check is denied and that is ok? Why can't the sales person just ask for another form of ID with my check? Why can't they use electronic checking or something? Why does applying for their Gold account make me able to write more checks? It can't be a stolen check if its Gold Status? I REALLY like how they can charge a fee in the gold status if your check is denied when THEY are the ones doing the denying. What the hell is going on here? Please tell me that there is something we can do about this!"

You're right about them charging a fee if your check is denied, when they're the ones who deny it to begin with. It's about an obvious a scam as you can get.

Wednesday, May 16, 2007

Certegy Violates the Law (Again)

"A client has a Certegy “open account” for a returned check. In violation of the 2006 Credit Reporting Manual, they do NOT report the account as collection and they do NOT identify the original creditor."

Read the whole story at: 2006 Credit Suit

Friday, May 11, 2007

Well, At Least They Don't Discriminate...

It doesn't seem to matter what your credit is, how your check-writing history looks, or even whether there's enough money in your account to cover a check. Certegy goes after everyone!

Emails like this one tell the story much better than I ever could. "J" writes:

"Well Im glad Im not alone in this. I was so embarrased today at Macy's. A store I frequently shop at.

While trying to purchase a designer handbag, certegy "declined" my check. I have written other checks at Macy's, no issues. I checked my bank account from my cell phone, and it was good. The clerk tried again, they still said code 2, decline. The clerks supervisor was so rude to me, and treated me like a criminal or something. I spend about $1000 a month there on purses and makeup, so they know me, or at least thier commission checks do. She did not even offer me another way to pay, she gave me a paper with certegys number and code 2, and told me to call. I was so embarrased I cried all the way home. If she would have asked nicely I would have paid with my debit card or credit card, or cash.

I was even more devastated when certegy gave me the same line about them trying to protect everyone from ID Theft, and Fake checks, and since my check was flagged by thier computer(which we know computers are always perfect, yeah right) they cannot overide anything, and declined it. But the clerk told me it was " in no way a negative reflection on you, or your bank account, we are doing this to protect you". She also added it had no reason whatsoever due to any negative history .She said the check still would not be approved if I had a million dollars in my account.

After telling her they violated my civil rights, and the FCRA and FTC laws, she transferred me to a manager.The manager had to have been brainwashed, telling me one minute they were trying to protect me from fraud and ID theft, the next minute trying to get so much personal information from me to approve me for thier "gold status account", so I would never have an issue with them again. I even thought he was going to need my fingerprints,name of my kindergarten teacher, and DNA sample.I refused to provide this over the phone or in writing, telling him either the money is there or it is not. I will not deal with thier communist way of dealing with how to verify a check is good or not. The manager then told me I was "flagged" from EVER writing a check to any merchant using thier system. I told him this is not lawful, if my check is good, and passed thier algorithim.He said calling them a communist agency was a threat, and I am now flagged.

So they again asked if I wanted to fill out a gold membership to get around this. They basically bullied me to try and scare me into providing needless information to them. I told him I was not living in Nazi germany, and told him Hitler was dead, thier company needed to be also, telling him they will be shut down for this. He then hung up, which I am glad he did.

I filed a complaint to the FTC, and BBB, and verbally called the local manager at Macy's who also had her check decline there, and told me it happens to at least 90% of thier regular customers. She said she would offer me 20% off my next purchase for my embarrassment. I also called Macy's corporate customer care, and they offered me a discount also. I explained I do not want a discount, they need to stop using certegy. They never responded to that.

It is embarrassing to me, a professional who by day tracks down criminals and thiefs to basically be treated like one. ( I am an ID Theft investigator of all things). I never bounced a check in my life, and hold a platinum checking and savings, which means $10,000 are always in my accounts.My credit is good, I recently bought a house. So certegy's reasons are bogus.

I can certainly understand not having a check approved because you have had proir NSF's or you do not have funds in your account according to your bank. However, we do not fit these categorys.I would like to assist you and whoever else is out there with the same problem to help get these people to act within the law. Maybe the problem is we need to change the law to protect us?

sorry for venting, but certegy needs a "reality check"

I couldn't have put it better myself! "Either the money is there or is not." Isn't that, plus the fact that you are the actual owner of the account, the only thing that really matters when writing a check? It damn well should be! Thanks, J.

Sunday, May 6, 2007

Saying NO to Certegy's "Gold Membership"

Pat writes:

"I just got caught in the Certegy trap. This is what I am doing/did.

Contacted the company and was told that they had no information on me BUT if I would fill out thier Gold form I would not have that problem in the future.

Read the form and decided that I certainly wasn't going to hand over my personal information, including SSN to an unknown company.

I'm a member of a senior, world wide organization. I contacted them and gave them the general info with the hopes that they will publicize it on their website. (Now that I found this site, I will pass that informtion on to them).

Sent a complaint into the FTC.

I will be contacting my Congressional Representative; sending emails to everyone I have in my large email address book; contacting local tv stations to see if they might be interested in this problem; contact a lawyer friend to see what else is suggested; more as I think of it.

This needs to be stopped ASAP."

Way to go, Pat! Everyone who gets burned by Certegy should take these actions!