Thursday, September 04, 2008

Mrs. Curley wants to know ...

... why they put braille on the DRIVE-UP automatic teller.

A week ago Mrs. Curley came home from shopping at um, eh, Wal-mart with some astounding news. It used to be that you could simply sign your check and hand it to the cashier. The register would automatically type in the store number and the amount. Then you would get your check back and sign an electronic transfer authorization.

Now you don't even have to sign your check or give an ID. They take your blank check, run it through the machine and hand the check back to you. Mrs. Curley was perturbed. If your credit card gets stolen, essentially you are not liable for fraudulent charges. But no one is going to refill your bank account if someone steals money from it-and now Wal-mart has just made it easier-you don't even have to forge a signature-you just have to be in possession of the check.

Even though last week was the first week of the new policy, Wal-mart personnel told Mrs. Curley that already people had bought things with other people's stolen checks. Unbelievable! And what does Wal-Mart care (or the bank for that matter)? This doesn't effect them at all.

Oremus pro invicem!

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Dear Mrs. C.,
Drive-in ATMs are often used as walk-up ATMs by many people including blind patrons,
Re Walmart - I remember being told by a cashier, maybe at Walmart, that I didn't need to fill out the check. I replied, "Yes, I do" and completed filling in all the relevant spaces and signing my name at the bottom. I don't remember if the check was returned to me or not. But, by filling it in, I helped protect it in so much as any check can be protected at this point. At least there's no blank check flying around trying to get into my many millions!
Love, Frances