Newspaper Page Text
The Red and Black • Thursday, August 3, 1969 • 3
Students leave bounced checks behind
By ELIZABETH GRADDY
Staff Writer
When students leave the University at the
‘ears end, many leave more than their Athens
" dresses behind. They leave bad checks at the
M ,UH ' nesses they have patronized.
Margo Domingos, a customer service rep-
'< .tentative at Bank South-Athens, said the
number of dishonored checks she sees increases
dram.tic.lly at the end of ench year.
• he number also goes up at the end of each
• »arUr, but she couldn’t give exact figures,
Horn ingot said.
I would definitely sny it’s mostly students,"
Domingos said.
Dee Lavender, branch operations manager at
Citizens and Southern National Bank, said she
agrees with Domingos’ assessment.
"1 don’t know whether a lot of them don’t stop
to think about it or not,” Lavender said.
lavender believes most people who bounce
checks don’t mean to, that they just make mis
takes, she said.
“If you take 100 people who have bounced
checks, I would say youll get the money out of
most of them," she said.
Ron Hargrove, manager of The Grill, said re
turned checks are a problem he encounters at
every quarter’s end
"We do get a good bit of them back," Har
grove said.
Jo Hartman, manager of information serv
ices at Golden Pantry Food Stores, said the
stores receive considerably more returned
checks at the end of each quarter and year
"June has been our worst month this year,"
she said. "June was double what we usually
have."
John Jordan, manager of Drug Emporium,
said he encounters the problem. But he couldn’t
give statistics on it because the Athens store’s
checks are handled through Drug Emporium's
Atlanta office
Merchants take action against bad checks
By ELIZABETH GRADDY
Staff Writer
Faced with an increase in re
turned checks at the end of each
quarter, many Athens merchants
have found ways to deni with the
problem, Margo Domingos, a cus
tomer service representative at
Bank South-Athens, said Monday.
“A lot of them will really go the
whole nine yards,” she said.
But different merchants take
different steps to retrieve their
money, she said.
Dee lavender, branch opera
turns managei at Citizens and
Southern National Bank, said
some businesses use collection
agencies.
These agencies, which are “nor
mally” g(x>d at getting money back,
usually operate by charging a per
centage of the amount returned.
However, some agencies charge a
flnt fee for their services.
irgro>
Grill, said the restaurant uses the
Check Control Center.
"They see that we’re re
imbursed,” he said. 'Tor a fee."
Gregg Hudson, manager of
Guthrie’s of Athens, said Guthrie’s
also uses a collection agency, which
stays busier at the quarters end.
‘They see that we’re
reimbursed. For a fee.’
—Ron Hargrove,
manager of The Grill
“It’s not so much that we have
more then," Hudson said. ‘They’re
just harder to track down. Every
body’s moving and everything."
But not everyone goes the collec
tion agency route.
Jo Hartman, manager of infor-
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mation services at Golden Pantry
Food Stores, said, “We’re one of the
weird companies in that we do not
use a collection agency. We handle
it ourselves."
Golden Pantry has a complex,
formal check retrieval system
“First, we run them through (the
bank) twice," Hartman said.
If the check is returned the
second time, the person’s name is
put into a computer, which sends
the person a letter, she said. The
letter states that the person has 10
days to pay the amount of the
check, plus a $15 returned check
charge.
If the person pays, his name is
taken out of the computer,
Hartman said. If not, the computer
issues another letter as final no
tice.
The person then has five days to
pay the amount of the check plus a
$20 returned check charge, she
said.
’We do take them to court if we
can’t collect," she said.
A bad check writer faces serious
penalties if taken to court.
Someone who writes a bad check
for $500 may face up to $5000 in
fines and up to 12 months in jail,
John Michael Coleman, Athens
Magistrate Court judge, said.
Writing a bad check under $500
is a misdemeanor, he said. The
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‘We do take them to
court if we can't
collect.’
—Jo Hartman,
Golden Pantry Food
Stores
penalty is full restitution for the
amount of the check, plus a $50
court coet. Then comes a fine of not
less than $50 and not more than
$5000, depending on the circum
stances.
A judge also may sentence the
offender to a maximum of 12
months in jail, Coleman said.
Someone who writes numerous
bad checks may have to serve sen
tences and pay fines separately for
each check, he said.
Writing a had check for $500 or
more constitutes a felony, he said.
To avoid the trouble of taking
cases to court, some merchants
have become very creative.
Carl Smith, manager of Bar
nett’s News Stand, said the store
simply stops accepting checks a
few weeks before the quarter ends,
then starts beck at the beginning
of the next quarter.
THE LIFE OF A CHECK
Bob's Bank
Federal Reserve
Fred's Bank
Fred writes a check to Bob, and Bob's bank sends it to
the Federal Reserve Bank. The Federal Reserve Bank
oversees the whole process and they forward the check
to Fred's bank. If the check bounces, it goes back
through the system to Bob, who has to collect from Fred
himself. If the check is good then the funds are
transferred back through the Federal Reserve Bank to
Bob's bank and to his bank account.
Hawaii Far*/ T ‘« Rid and Riach
Honored checks
have all the funds
By ELIZABETH GRADDY
Staff Writer
Once a typical check leaves the
hand of its writer, it begins a long
journey through the banking
system, Dee Lavender, a branch
operations manager at Citizens
and Southern National Bank, said
Tuesday
• When someone deposits a
check at a bank, that bank sends
the check to the Federal Reserve
Bank to be honored.
• The Federal Reserve Bank
then sends the check to the bank
whe f e the check writer has his ac
count (the bank printed on the
check) to be honored
• If the check writer has suffi
cient funds in his account to cover
the check, the check writer's bank
honors it with the Federal Reserve
Bank.
• The Federal Reserve Bank
then honors the check with the
other bank.
• If the check writer doesn’t
have sufficient funds to cover the
check, his bank usually won't
honor the check, and returns it to
the Federal Reserve Bank.
• The Federal Reserve then will
refuse to honor the check, re
turning it to the bank where it was
deposited
• That bank will then return the
check to the depositor (the person
who received the check originally),
whose account is debited for the
amount of the check.
Then it's up to the depositor to
get payment for the check from
the check writer.
There are instances where the
check writer's bank will cover his
check, in spite of insufficient
funds.
Lavender said Citizens and
Southern National Bank some
times decides to honor bounced
checks, depending on the check
writer s record with the bank.
That record depends on, for in
stance. the length of time the
person has had the account and
how well it has been maintained
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