Certegy Check Services

[luvsJack]

Has anyone had issues with this company?

Dh got home very late last night and picked up his check when he got in to the office (they place it in his employee mail box).

For different reasons we have closed our checking account and have not opened a new one yet and the bank the company uses was closedtoday . So, we went to WalMart's Money Center to cash his check. Have done this before for his paycheck and for other checks, like insurance reimbursement checks, etc. and never had an issue except one time when the company's bank's computer system was down.

Today, the paycheck was declined. Walmart uses Certegy Check Services. WalMart could not tell us why but gave us a 1-800 number to call. The first time we called, we kept getting a message that "no operator was available" , I I then called the 1-800 number for the bank the check was written on, they said that they, of course, could not give us information on the account but there should be no reason for the check to be declined. We had somewhere we had to be so we decided to try later.

We went to a different WalMart, thinking something was wrong in the system at the first one. Same thing. So we stayed in the store and called the number. They said the check had been "previously approved", but could not explain why. And they suggested we just take the check somewhere that their system is not used. We tried three other area stores that cash pay checks--found out they all used the same system. All three said they had been having the same problem for the past couple of days and there must be something going on in the system.

I came home and called Certegy again. All they could tell me is that the check was "previously approved". I asked for an explanation of what that means. And all I was told was that it doesn't mean the check has been cashed. Well, obviously, since I had the check in hand. I told the lady on the phone that there has to be someone that can explain what is going on or at least tell me how it was approved. She said that no they couldn't tell me that because there was no approval number????

I spoke to a supervisor. Same run around. So, finally, I asked to speak to who ever was over the supervisor. First she kept saying "it won't do any good, no one can fix this" HUH?? Finally, I told her that I didn't care if it could be fixed, I wanted to speak to someone over her. I got a voice mail

We finally called Dh's employer at home and cashed the check. We met her at her bank, she used her ATM card to withdraw the money and dh signed the check over to her. So, that tells me there is nothing wrong with their account.

So, I was just wondering if anyone else has had this kind of experience or any dealings with them that just didn't make sense.

I will go next week and open a new account somewhere that is open on Saturdays so we won't be dealing with this again.

 

[tvguy]

No knowledge of the company, but I think the lesson is, don't close a checking account before opening a new one.
I got caught the beginning of the month on another financial issue, we have just one credit card, and we had someone attempt to make a fraudulent charge on it....bank closed it, and FedExed me a new card, because I was days from leaving on a cruise and HAD to have a credit card. So I will have to look into getting a second credit card so that never happens again.
And one problem we constantly have with younger people at work is many of them don't carry cash and rely on Debit cards, and there are many instances in our work where you need cash only, usually with little or no notice. When you are on the Interstate, miles from an ATM, and you need snow chains installed, you need $30 cash.

 

[luvsJack]

No knowledge of the company, but I think the lesson is, don't close a checking account before opening a new one.
I got caught the beginning of the month on another financial issue, we have just one credit card, and we had someone attempt to make a fraudulent charge on it....bank closed it, and FedExed me a new card, because I was days from leaving on a cruise and HAD to have a credit card. So I will have to look into getting a second credit card so that never happens again.
And one problem we constantly have with younger people at work is many of them don't carry cash and rely on Debit cards, and there are many instances in our work where you need cash only, usually with little or no notice. When you are on the Interstate, miles from an ATM, and you need snow chains installed, you need $30 cash.

We will at least have a new savings account by next Friday. Normally it wouldn't be an issue, but I had just paid all the bills and bought groceries so we were a bit short. Dh has to keep cash on the road so we really needed to cash the check.

It wouldn't have been so frustrating if someone could have just told us WHY they declined it. Even if it had something to do with the company's check and they couldn't give details, just something along the lines of "contact your employer" would have helped.

I noticed a huge line forming to cash checks while we were calling the company and now I wonder how many people have no money this weekend because of this system and whatever the screw up is.

I did a google search of the company and found all kinds of reports and complaints. But, yet a lot of businesses use this service.

 

[Planogirl]

It was likely that the employees you reached didn't have a clue. Also, you asked to speak to someone over the supervisor but you are unlikely to reach a manager just sitting there waiting for a call. It's frustrating but unfortunately how things are in many places. I work for a place with a similar set up.

 

[luvsJack]

It was likely that the employees you reached didn't have a clue. Also, you asked to speak to someone over the supervisor but you are unlikely to reach a manager just sitting there waiting for a call. It's frustrating but unfortunately how things are in many places. I work for a place with a similar set up.

I intend to call back next week, she was out of the office for the weekend. Personally, I think its ridiculous that they decline a company paycheck to be cashed, tell you to call a 1-800 number to find out why and NO ONE can tell you why. They give you a "reason" but cannot tell you what that "reason" even means.

One of the ladies that we took the check to was helpful in that she did say that the same thing had been happening to a lot of people and that the same code was coming up for everyone. But when I asked the person on the phone about that, she didn't say anything except "I am sorry for your inconvenience but we have no further details" and when I asked her who did have the details her reply was "no one" and that the code could not be overridden. I asked if there is someone that could override the code and the answer was no.

Somebody, somewhere put something in that system that red flagged that check (and others apparently) and caused it to be declined or somewhere in that system there is a glitch that is declining checks. I understand issues in a system that can cause things to happen that shouldn't, what I cannot understand is there not being someone in that company that can at least try to find the problem or tell you what the problem is.

I really found it odd that the lady with certegy told me to that I would be able to cash the check anywhere that did not use their system.

 

[happygirl]

Has anyone had issues with this company?

Dh got home very late last night and picked up his check when he got in to the office (they place it in his employee mail box).

For different reasons we have closed our checking account and have not opened a new one yet and the bank the company uses was closedtoday . So, we went to WalMart's Money Center to cash his check. Have done this before for his paycheck and for other checks, like insurance reimbursement checks, etc. and never had an issue except one time when the company's bank's computer system was down.

Today, the paycheck was declined. Walmart uses Certegy Check Services. WalMart could not tell us why but gave us a 1-800 number to call. The first time we called, we kept getting a message that "no operator was available" , I I then called the 1-800 number for the bank the check was written on, they said that they, of course, could not give us information on the account but there should be no reason for the check to be declined. We had somewhere we had to be so we decided to try later.

We went to a different WalMart, thinking something was wrong in the system at the first one. Same thing. So we stayed in the store and called the number. They said the check had been "previously approved", but could not explain why. And they suggested we just take the check somewhere that their system is not used. We tried three other area stores that cash pay checks--found out they all used the same system. All three said they had been having the same problem for the past couple of days and there must be something going on in the system.

I came home and called Certegy again. All they could tell me is that the check was "previously approved". I asked for an explanation of what that means. And all I was told was that it doesn't mean the check has been cashed. Well, obviously, since I had the check in hand. I told the lady on the phone that there has to be someone that can explain what is going on or at least tell me how it was approved. She said that no they couldn't tell me that because there was no approval number????

I spoke to a supervisor. Same run around. So, finally, I asked to speak to who ever was over the supervisor. First she kept saying "it won't do any good, no one can fix this" HUH?? Finally, I told her that I didn't care if it could be fixed, I wanted to speak to someone over her. I got a voice mail

We finally called Dh's employer at home and cashed the check. We met her at her bank, she used her ATM card to withdraw the money and dh signed the check over to her. So, that tells me there is nothing wrong with their account.

So, I was just wondering if anyone else has had this kind of experience or any dealings with them that just didn't make sense.

I will go next week and open a new account somewhere that is open on Saturdays so we won't be dealing with this again.

Did they take your drivers license number and put in the computer? If they did I would guess you have a bad check on system some where? I would call check systems and see what's going on.

 

[happygirl]

https://www.askcertegy.com/faq.jsp

You might get the answer to your ?? here

 

[Coconut36]

It was likely that the employees you reached didn't have a clue. Also, you asked to speak to someone over the supervisor but you are unlikely to reach a manager just sitting there waiting for a call. It's frustrating but unfortunately how things are in many places. I work for a place with a similar set up.

The company I worked for (credit card) always had at least a few upper level management on hand for escalation issues. To me a good company would make sure there was at least someone that it could escalate up to even if that person didn't officially have the title of manager but had the ability to approve things or more extensive product knowledge for just such a situation.

We had an issue with them (I think it was them..the name seems familiar) a long time ago before debit card use was common in stores. We went to write a personal check in a store to pay and they declined it. We did the whole song and dance calling them to be told "we declined you because you aren't in our system". I asked how would be get in the system and they said "when you write a check". I explained I did that and they declined it because I wasn't in the system. The response was along the lines of "too bad for you" (not those words but the gist) and that really wasn't their issue. So to get in the system you have to write a check but to write a check and get it approved you have to be in the system?!?!

We ended up going elsewhere and writing the check (a store we shopped in more often) than used a different vendor I guess with no issues and I called the store and let them know the issue as well since at the time it appeared other vendors were out there and if this vendor was declining people that could impact their business.

 

[luvsJack]

Did they take your drivers license number and put in the computer? If they did I would guess you have a bad check on system some where? I would call check systems and see what's going on.

https://www.askcertegy.com/faq.jsp

You might get the answer to your ?? here

Tried the website didn't help at all, gave me the same answers in their onsite automatic system. Most of the answers in the FAQ are dealing with someone writing a personal check for payment to the merchant. We weren't doing that. They did take dh's dl number and ss#, but this was a paycheck not a personal check.

 

[luvsJack]

The company I worked for (credit card) always had at least a few upper level management on hand for escalation issues. To me a good company would make sure there was at least someone that it could escalate up to even if that person didn't officially have the title of manager but had the ability to approve things or more extensive product knowledge for just such a situation.

We had an issue with them (I think it was them..the name seems familiar) a long time ago before debit card use was common in stores. We went to write a personal check in a store to pay and they declined it. We did the whole song and dance calling them to be told "we declined you because you aren't in our system". I asked how would be get in the system and they said "when you write a check". I explained I did that and they declined it because I wasn't in the system. The response was along the lines of "too bad for you" (not those words but the gist) and that really wasn't their issue. So to get in the system you have to write a check but to write a check and get it approved you have to be in the system?!?!

We ended up going elsewhere and writing the check (a store we shopped in more often) than used a different vendor I guess with no issues and I called the store and let them know the issue as well since at the time it appeared other vendors were out there and if this vendor was declining people that could impact their business.

Sounds like they just answer in circles.

I read on another site that they will decline a paycheck because its more than other paychecks you have cashed, because you are trying to cash it on a different day than you normally do and all kinds of crazy stuff. I could understand it to a point, but telling you to call a number that can give you no answers is beyond frustrating!!!

 

[happygirl]

Tried the website didn't help at all, gave me the same answers in their onsite automatic system. Most of the answers in the FAQ are dealing with someone writing a personal check for payment to the merchant. We weren't doing that. They did take dh's dl number and ss#, but this was a paycheck not a personal check.

It doesn't matter you can't cash or write a check if you are on there system. So my guess is either you guys have bad check out somewhere, or the company that your hubby works for has a bad check out there somewhere.

 

[Northstar]

The problem is that you are not their client. You don't pay them any money. They have no incentive to keep you happy. They really don't care if you can't cash your paycheck; it's not their business.

The clients are the check-cashers.... Walmart, in this case. Walmart pays them to reduce the number of bad checks they end up cashing. Walmart does not make money from this service for customers; they provide it hoping to lure more customers into the store.Walmart (as a corporation paying for this service) would rather have them red-flag perfectly acceptable checks than let through bad checks.

The problems you ran into are really typical for people who don't have easy access to a bank. One more of the obstacles faced by someone in poverty: even if you land a job, just getting the money from your paycheck can be a hassle.

That was good of your employer to make sure you got the cash. Glad it worked out.

 

[kellyg403]

While I don't know if this is helpful information for you in this particular situation but....

I work for a company that uses another system. Checks get declined, we at the store don't know why so we have the customer call the number. Since it is a payroll check, it is not actually your account so those places will not give you any information about the account itself. As for being previously approved..normally with payroll checks, your dh and probably someone else had a check in the exact same amount. This sends a flagto the system. We have had payroll checks from big box retailers that were declined because of overlimits. Meaning, so many people have cashed checks with our company for cash back. The amount has reached the limit set up by our company and the check system. Its a security measure, as nowadays you can hit Office Max, buy some checks and defraud companies really really easily. In 2007, before setting up in this system, our company lost 10 million dollars..yes 10MILLION..from fraudulent checks. Sometimes, a company check will be declined because of negative activity that includes an issue with their bank.

I hope that you are able to speak to the supervisor in charge. It is strange that there was not someone that could explain to you why they could not fix or override it, but I understand partly why they wouldn't. In this instance they are saying the check was previously approved according to their system and has already been cashed. Until they can verify that is incorrect, they won't take the chance of you having found or somehow got the check again. (Please know I am not saying you are not the original holder of the check..just how it appears on the their side with a computer screen already showing 'approved') For all they know the check was cashed and by mistake you were given the check and the cash back and were attempting to try and cash it again. I know this is not your case, but a possible reason why this couldn't be overridden by their system. Basically, its BEEN approved..that check number and can't be undone until they can verify with that company or bank.

While the check system is a PITA for people, honestly, its great for companies. Last couple years we have had less than a million fraudulent checks pass through the system. Its a win for the company in general. I hope that you are able to solve it. The owner of the company or their payroll rep that deals with the company will honestly end up being the ones who will call and get things changed. Depending on their contracts together, they may be the only ones who can really get any information or change they way their contract is set up to avoid these types of issues. Then again, It could honestly be a fluke that never happens again since it seems there was several people having to call. Everything thing lives and dies by a computer screen these days. Its all electronic..one blip and all sorts of problems!

Kelly

 

[kellyg403]

The problem is that you are not their client. You don't pay them any money. They have no incentive to keep you happy. They really don't care if you can't cash your paycheck; it's not their business.

The clients are the check-cashers.... Walmart, in this case. Walmart pays them to reduce the number of bad checks they end up cashing. Walmart does not make money from this service for customers; they provide it hoping to lure more customers into the store.Walmart (as a corporation paying for this service) would rather have them red-flag perfectly acceptable checks than let through bad checks.

The problems you ran into are really typical for people who don't have easy access to a bank. One more of the obstacles faced by someone in poverty: even if you land a job, just getting the money from your paycheck can be a hassle.

That was good of your employer to make sure you got the cash. Glad it worked out.

Very true. Even if you can find a way to open a savings account and direct deposit to it, you are better off. Most companies have a limit on the amount of the check, the fees....blah. I feel badly for those who have to pay so much to cash a check. Going to the bank the company writes the check from is a better alternative. Normally the fee is somewhere in the 3.00 range if you are not an account holder its not tied to the amount of the check vs the fee. Our fee goes up every 100.00 capping at a check cashing limit of 800.00. Some places are really fly by night and will charge up to 1/3 of the check to cash it. For them, the smaller places, the fee they charge is to help cover any fraudulent activity that comes around vs what a contract costs them with a place like Telecheck/Certegy.

Kelly

 

[luvsJack]

It doesn't matter you can't cash or write a check if you are on there system. So my guess is either you guys have bad check out somewhere, or the company that your hubby works for has a bad check out there somewhere.

We don't have a bad check out anywhere. We have no checking account. And I very highly doubt the company has one out anywhere.

Even if that is the case, there really should be an alternate explanation than "the check as been previously approved". This explanation comes from a specific code and from what the lady at one place said, that code had been coming up all day.

The purpose for MOST companies in giving you an 800 number to call is so that you can find out the problem. Obviously not the case with this company.

 

[happygirl]

We don't have a bad check out anywhere. We have no checking account. And I very highly doubt the company has one out anywhere.

Even if that is the case, there really should be an alternate explanation than "the check as been previously approved". This explanation comes from a specific code and from what the lady at one place said, that code had been coming up all day.

The purpose for MOST companies in giving you an 800 number to call is so that you can find out the problem. Obviously not the case with this company.

I dunno but I have worked for Walmart and that 99 percent of the time why a check is rejected, bad checks. You don't have to have an account to have an old bad check. Anyway I hope you get this figured out.

 

[kellyg403]

We don't have a bad check out anywhere. We have no checking account. And I very highly doubt the company has one out anywhere.

Even if that is the case, there really should be an alternate explanation than "the check as been previously approved". This explanation comes from a specific code and from what the lady at one place said, that code had been coming up all day.

The purpose for MOST companies in giving you an 800 number to call is so that you can find out the problem. Obviously not the case with this company.

While frustrating, you really are the middle man here. The 1-800 is really for your company who issued the check to call and get information, not the person who is trying to cash the check.

It would be similar to you writing a check to someone and they tried to cash it at Walmart. It was declined, 1-800 given. They won't be able to get any information because it is YOUR check. You would have to call and find out why they are decling your checks. Its privacy and security, and yes a pain, but necessary in this day and time. We never know how useful something like those measures are until we need them to protect us.



Kelly

 

[Northstar]

I dunno but I have worked for Walmart and that 99 percent of the time why a check is rejected, bad checks. You don't have to have an account to have an old bad check. Anyway I hope you get this figured out.

Happygirl, this would apply if the person is trying to cash a check, or pay with a check, on their own account.

But the OP was trying to cash a check from an employer. If the check bounced, it would be because the employer was writing bad checks. Nothing to do with the OP's checking accounts.

 

[kwelch10377]

It doesn't matter you can't cash or write a check if you are on there system. So my guess is either you guys have bad check out somewhere, or the company that your hubby works for has a bad check out there somewhere.

This is not always the case. The company I work for uses Certergy and there are a lot of times when a check is declined because their isn't a check wirting or cashing history on file with Certergy and the intial check that is being written or cashed is too large for them to want to take the risk.

 

[Planogirl]

The company I worked for (credit card) always had at least a few upper level management on hand for escalation issues. To me a good company would make sure there was at least someone that it could escalate up to even if that person didn't officially have the title of manager but had the ability to approve things or more extensive product knowledge for just such a situation.

We had an issue with them (I think it was them..the name seems familiar) a long time ago before debit card use was common in stores. We went to write a personal check in a store to pay and they declined it. We did the whole song and dance calling them to be told "we declined you because you aren't in our system". I asked how would be get in the system and they said "when you write a check". I explained I did that and they declined it because I wasn't in the system. The response was along the lines of "too bad for you" (not those words but the gist) and that really wasn't their issue. So to get in the system you have to write a check but to write a check and get it approved you have to be in the system?!?!

We ended up going elsewhere and writing the check (a store we shopped in more often) than used a different vendor I guess with no issues and I called the store and let them know the issue as well since at the time it appeared other vendors were out there and if this vendor was declining people that could impact their business.

I guess that the difference with us is that the front line people have a lot of leeway when it comes to escalations but there is only so much they can do. Our supervisors are in endless meetings and likely wouldn't do any more either. People like to be told no by someone in authority though. In our case, the public isn't actually the customer either but they think that they are.

I know of one company where it's just another employee at the same level who pretends to be a supervisor. That same company also had their letters signed by someone who doesn't actually exist.

Back to this check cashing situation, this is a mess. I hope that they just have a computer glitch or something like that. Those things are often virtually impossible for front line people to see.