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Check 21 is a sweeping new federal law that could eliminate the return of your original paper checks. This law, which goes into effect in late October 2004, gives you some rights, but those rights depend on a variety of factors, including how the merchant and the bank decide to process your check.
The Consumers Union published a list of tips for individual banking customers, recommending ways to cope with the new legislation. Their list of recommendations sounds highly skeptical of how banks will operate under the new law.
The Consumers Union strongly states that consumers should not depend on “float” once the law goes into effect, stating, “Checks you write will clear sooner, increasing the risk that a check will bounce if funds are not in the account when you write the check. Dont write a check unless the funds are already in the account to cover it.”
Read the Consumers Union “Questions and Answers About the Check Clearing for the 21st Century Act, Check 21” by clicking here.