MSGID: 1:153/757.21@fidonet 068a7e69
REPLY: 2:292/854 19051e5f
PID: OpenXP/5.0.57 (Win32)
CHRS: ASCII 1
TZUTC: -0400
Hello Ward!

 WD> What I intended to say is ... this requires manual
 WD> intervention, it's a person's job and his/her/its salary
 WD> is paid by whom/what? That makes banking more expensive.

Well.. it's their system, and that's why banks figured out they  
needed to charge for each and every banking activity to pay for  
their inefficiencies. I'm surprised they haven't introduced an  
admission/turnstile fee for walking into a bank akin to  
attending an arena or concert.

I have seen the system that prints the cheque amount on the  
bottom of each cheque.  It's a completely manual process. A  
human has to compare the amount that is written in words to the  
amount written as numbers to validate.

I had written one cheque as "Fifteen Hundred --98/100" and  
"$1500.98" once, and it cleared as "$15.98"


 WD> I haven't used cheques for a payment since ... can't
 WD> remember. At least 25 years.

I would prefer to avoid them too.  But some businesses are not  
setup for 100% electronic payments.  Some businesses are  
offering eTransfer options, which isn't bad.  But eTransfer  
here has a maximum daily limit as well as a maximum monthly  
limit which would many times be insufficient for all my  
payments.


 AA>> Wrt cc cards being re-activated every 6 months - I never heard
 AA>> of that. Perhaps your source of information is outdated.

 WD> My source of information is pretty current.

Ok.. but in Canada there is no 6-month renewal process. Credit  
cards simply expire on the date that is printed on the card -  
and often that is many years into the future.


 WD> When I travel to the US (not Canada) my first transaction
 WD> needs to be through a bank-ATM to verify my presence in
 WD> the country. If I go eg to an airport-diner without
 WD> passing via an ATM first, the transaction will decline.

That's your bank's requirement then. But what's stopping a  
thief to go to the ATM instead of you?  If they succeed at the  
ATM, the card will be "verified".  It doesn't prove it was you.

-- 
  ../|ug

--- OpenXP 5.0.57
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