How We Work
CheckAlert’s approach to collection will always be with complete respect for your customers and your customer relationships. We recognize that you want to keep customers coming back to your business and that you hire an agency such as ours not only for results, but to deflect negative opinion of your company and staff. We will treat your customers respectfully, but firmly, and always with the goal of recovering your money in the shortest amount of time.
How We Work
You (the merchant) will sign a Bank Authorization giving your bank instructions to forward all returned checks directly to CheckAlert. We will immediately submit the Bank Authorization to your bank for processing. When the Bank Authorization takes effect, returned checks will begin to arrive at CheckAlert. An acknowledgment of each check will be emailed to you on the next business day after receipt of the check in our office.
Returned checks will be entered into CheckAlert’s main data file. Checks under $2,500 returned for Insufficient Funds (NSF) will be electronically re-presented to the check writer’s account for payment. Checks over $2,500 and/or returned for any other reason will then go directly into the collection process.
The check writer will receive both letters and calls from our team of collection professionals to encourage payment. Stolen, Forged, and Counterfeit checks will be returned to you to be filed with local police as fraud.
CheckAlert will attempt to collect each check using our proven collection methods. If a check is not paid within sixty (60) days from receipt, then it will be sent to the appropriate prosecuting attorney for a warrant of arrest as allowed.
We will send a check for the face value of collected checks and any other funds due to you with a detailed accounting of checks and payments for each of your store locations.
Each merchant is provided with a User ID and a password providing access to the CheckAlert website, www.checkalertusa.com, to view all account activity and check images.
THERE IS NO CHARGE TO THE MERCHANT FOR OUR SERVICE!
The check writer is charged a service fee from which CheckAlertUSA is compensated. We do not get paid unless we collect both the face amount of the check and the service fee – a strong incentive for us to produce results for you as soon as possible!
Verification
ELECTRONIC LOSS PREVENTION: THE CHECKALERT ELECTRONIC CHECK VERIFICATION NETWORK (ECV)
Simply stated, Check Verification is a loss prevention tool offered to our merchants to reduce the probability of acceptance of a potential bad check before the check writer leaves the business.
The CheckAlert Electronic Verification Network is robust and comprehensive. Astute retailers, banks, and offices across the United States consider a Check Approval Network an indispensable tool. Do you know why? BECAUSE IT WORKS!
Better than a Check Guarantee, a localized experience database has proven to be highly effective at reducing bad check losses. Almost all checks can be collected over time, EXCEPT checks returned as Stolen, Fraudulent, or Counterfeit. The CheckAlert Electronic Verification Network warns you when it recognizes the potential for fraud. There is no more efficient way to prevent check loss in a business.
CheckAlert provides electronic equipment in order to collect a driver’s license at the point-of-sale. Participating businesses, like yours, contribute returned checks to the CheckAlert Electronic Check Verification Network and are protected from taking repeated bad checks from the same non-paying check writers. Members access the database electronically via our free equipment, or they may access the network online. For each inquiry the system returns negative or positive data, as appropriate, along with check velocity tracking results. The Merchant can then make an informed decision on whether to accept a particular check.
Each business benefits from the negative (and positive) experience database generated by all participating Merchants. Savings are significant and measurable, and the very fact that a business uses the network is a deterrent to “regular” hot check writers. Collection rates are improved because a large number of check writers pay promptly to avoid being “blocked” on the network.
CheckAlert offers the “Check Velocity” feature to give the merchant one more tool to use in screening potential bad check writers. The merchant sees a display indicating how many times the check writer has written a check in the CheckAlert network within a given time period. The feature can be customized to show velocity within the Merchant business only. This feature alerts the Merchant to check writers who may be writing multiple checks within a store or our network at different registers during different shifts.
Technical assistance, in the rare event of equipment problems, can be received by calling 1-800-264-5910 between the hours of 8:30 AM and 7:30 PM CST Monday throughThursday, and on Friday from 8:30 AM to 6:00 PM CST. If replacement of the equipment is necessary, it will be shipped directly to the Merchant location with instructions on replacement, along with return packaging.
Prosecution
Checks remaining unpaid after sixty (60) days are sent to the appropriate jurisdiction for prosecution under the state hot check statute. In order for a check to qualify for prosecution, it must have the following information printed or written on the check:
- Name and address (street address only – Post Office Box not acceptable for prosecution)
- Driver’s License Number
- Date of Birth
If your staff does not get this information at the point-of-sale, it is likely that your check will not be processed by your Prosecuting Attorney. Train your staff to get this information on every check to protect your business!
Customer Service
Customer service is available Monday – Thursday from 8:30 AM until 8:00 PM CST, and on Fridays from 8:30 AM until 7:00 PM CST. Please dial 1-800-264-5910 to reach the CheckAlertUSA Customer Service team.
Click here to e-mail Customer Service with any non-emergency questions you may have.
DON’T REMEMBER YOUR PASSWORD?
Please call Customer Service at 1-800-264-5910 for password assistance.
