<p>Now instead of him being all grumpy because you didn’t give him another check right away, you can get all grumpy on him because his negligence led to your having to change all of your banking accounts and left you open to identity theft!! </p>
<p>One of my neighbors sent a family member a check through the mail for Christmas. The family member never got the check. Someone stole it out of the mailbox and used the account numbers of the bank account to pay her wireless bill online with the cell phone company. </p>
<p>Pretty dumb…the fraud investigators knew just where to look for the person who stole the check–the person whose cell phone bill was paid!</p>
<p>ldmom - it’s a drip that you have to learn all these lessons this way. You could start running seminars and charge people to attend them, though, I’ll bet. Next time I have a check/banking issue, you’re the one I’ll turn to :)</p>
<p>I use my debit card all the time for purchases; I will say that I always get a receipt for whatever transaction I make, and check them against my bank statement every month. Once I’ve checked and they match up, the ones I got from the ATM, I shred, because they have the last four digits of my card number on them. Several years ago (probably six or seven), I was walking out of a Hobby Lobby on a very, very windy day. The receipt for my purchases was on top in a bag. A gust of wind caught it, and it was gone, way up in the air. Back then, Hobby Lobby’s receipts used to include the full credit card account number, and sure enough, within a couple of months, I had some fraudulent charges to my account. Had to cancel it (was luckily not held accountable for the purchases since I noticed them right away and reported it - maybe because I didn’t lose my credit card itself or have it stolen was I given this leniency), but otherwise got off OK. Every year, I get the free credit report on-line that the three major companies offer; I print it off, and save a copy in my files for future reference.</p>
<p>teriwtt-
That’s the great thing about credit cards- you aren’t liable for the charges. Theoretically they can stick you with $50 worth of charges but honestly, I’ve never heard of a company doing that. I really dislike debit cards. Instant access to your cking account, less protection, doesn’t help you with your credit score, doesn’t give a one month free loan, etc.</p>
<p>Great article in yesterday’s paper about the benefit of credit over debit cards
<p>This guy’s story doesn’t ring completely true.</p>
<p>Unless he already has enough cash in his account to cover the check, no bank is going to cash it for him anyway. Replacing the lost check asap obviously helps him, but it isn’t going to get his workers paid the same day.</p>
<p>And I do think it is a slight red flag that he asks for you drivers license. That might make sense if you were somewhere at a store buying something. But it doesn’t make much sense when the guy knows where you live. Of course, if he were going to identity scam you with it, it wouldn’t have been that smart to ask for the second check. </p>
<p>I think waiting 'til you could check with the bank and charging him for the stop payment was quite fair, and he should be satisfied with that.</p>