Coming Soon, Smartphone-Based Banking 187
An anonymous reader writes "Banks will be offering a new service at the end of the year that will let customers take a photo of a paper check and have it be deposited in their bank accounts, making the smartphone one step closer to an ATM."
DUPE (Score:5, Insightful)
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The system still has bugs.
I took a photo of my ass crack using my phone, and the next day I had and extra $10,000 in my account.
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I took a photo of my ass crack using my phone, and the next day I had and extra $10,000 in my account.
If it would withdraw $10k from your account, it would be considered a feature.
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> I took a photo of my ass crack using my phone, and the next day I had and extra $10,000 in my account.
You can achieve the same by just depositing a blank sheet of paper at an ATM pretending it is a 10,000$ check.
In a few days, they will adjust your account ;-))
Note that only the amount you have set as credit limit on your account is available for withdraw in the mean time.
Re:DUPE (Score:5, Informative)
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And has it occurred to you yet that a neat way to embezzle from companies that send you checks is with photoshop?
FTA: "The photo gets sent to the bank through its mobile application. In most cases, funds are in the customers account immediately."
Coming soon: iPhone customers get e-mails of photos of large checks from overseas customers, with an offer of 10% of the check in return for "check cashing services" and wire transferring back the balance.
Re:DUPE (Score:4, Informative)
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And for your going to jail, some guy in Nigeria gets a large wire transfer that went out in the mean time- that's the problem with funds being available in the account immediately.
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AI would assume it uploads a list of checks you've written out, so your financial institution can only allow certain combinations?
Yep - I just posted about this upthread [slashdot.org]
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In this case I propose a career in politics or management.
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And has it occurred to you yet that a neat way to embezzle from companies that send you checks is with photoshop?
Larger companies use something called Positive Pay that prevents this:
ABC Company issues approximately 600 checks each Friday. After the checks are cut, ABC Company transmits to their bank, First Bank, a list of the checks that they issued (check number and dollar amount). This list is imported into First Bank's computer.
Later, when the checks are presented to First Bank for payment, First Bank matches each check presented against ABC's previously transmitted lists. If the presented checks' numbers and amounts appear on a previously submitted list, the check is sent through for payment. If both items do not match, the check is not cleared.
So you'd just be defrauding your own bank that you deposit at, and I think you can guess how that will end.
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Funds are available INSTANTLY- no waiting for the check to clear.
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People are still using cheques, how quaint. I haven't seen one in years.
Do fax me your reply, I'll send something back via telegraph or the fastest Royal Mail steamer.
Re:DUPE (Score:4, Informative)
It's not like it was an article that slipped under the radar, either... it has close to 500 comments. Easily one of the worst slashdot dupes I can recall :)
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In other news - Did you guys hear Corey Haim died?
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Even in the USA ... how popular will this be, really?
I got about ten checks last year. Five were from a place that had the option for direct deposit (but it took a while for it to kick in). The rest were birthday/christmas presents (so it's only 2 trips to the bank).
Anybody getting a serious number of checks won't bother with this service (taking them to the bank is much easier). Only a small percentage will fall in-between, where they get enough checks to make it a feature worth having and not too many
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And the obvious reply is ... who uses cash anymore?
In the end, what one person sees as easy and common another person sees as hard or an inconvenience.
Even though I don't see myself using smartphone banking in the near future, I do see the value of having it as an option.
Don't get checks? Nothing to see here, move along!
Already go to the bank or an ATM? Look! Ponies!
Don't have convenient access to a bank? Don't worry: there's an app for that!
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Most ATMs I see these days don't have deposit capabilities.
Also, the only time I use cash is when I'm bar hopping. Who uses cash these days? Even drive through fast food joints have card swipers on them now.
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Most ATMs don't have deposit capabilities but a significant number actually do. It is quite convenient, especially when you arrive just after the bank closed.
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Even in the USA ... how popular will this be, really?
Perhaps you and your friends don't get cheques often, but a lot of people do. I get cheques from my tenants every month. I have several friends who also own rental properties - they get a few cheques per month as well.
Those cheques are generally the only reason I have to go to the bank. If i paid $50 for an app for my phone to avoid those trips, it would be a bargain.
Other people that would like would be perhaps private daycare places - 8-10 cheques per
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The reason, they explained to me, is that in order to qualify for the "photographic" (scanned image, or iPhone app) deposits, you must have (or qualify for?) three specific services with them including some type of line of credit, insurance, and something else. If you're non-military,
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My grandfather was a Navy officer from 1936-1942 (medically discharged after Pearl Harbor), and my mom's dad was in 75th infantry. Neither my father nor my mother were in the military, but qualify for USAA, and I qualify for USAA, too... and they constantly try and sell me services. So they take grand kids, too.
Alliant Credit Union (Score:2)
Tangential rant: I am in the same situation as you. USAA burned me on the Deposit@Home service with their misleading website. I opened a USAA credit card *solely* to satisfy the "line of credit" requirement for D@H (yes, the site said a
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Mod parent up... oh and the USAA app supports Android too.
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I feel like I've lived through this deja vu moment before.
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And Android phones.
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Well, be fair - it makes up for all the Iphone dupes we get about things that other phones have been doing for years and years...
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You know what though? Remember years ago, when Slashdot used to have some dupes? And then it got pretty bad for a while and was like a total joke? I remember once seeing the same story twice on the homepage, about 4 stories apart. And it would've been so trivial to implement a dupe-checking system--search for stories by keyword and URL and a couple other things would catch 99% of them. Anyway, this is, I think, the third dupe I've seen in... six months? I don't know but it's been a LONG while since the bad
deja vu (Score:3, Insightful)
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That just reminded me of xkcd explained over and over and over again [tumblr.com].
They've already offered similar to businesses... (Score:2)
Re:They've already offered similar to businesses.. (Score:2)
Seriously.
This is just a more mobile version of a scanner.
http://www.depositnow.com/check-scanners.html [depositnow.com]
Ditch checks! (Score:4, Insightful)
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If I buy something from someone impromptu for greater than the amount of cash I carry, I can always use a check. Wirelessly, No internet required. Not everyone has a smart phone and can log in to PayPal or their bank anytime they want to send money.
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If you dupe the articles, I'll just dupe my comments.
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Checks are "free". Debit cards are $2 (minimum) on up.
And 'with' me means it's in my glove box. I had a batch stolen once and it was easier to deal with those than it was to deal with stolen credit cards.
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So is the $4.50 transaction fee my power company wants to charge me for an online credit/debit card transaction. A check costs me 44 cents to mail.
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Re:Ditch checks! (Score:4, Informative)
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My bank is 2,500 miles away. And I don't see the problem with having $1,300 in cash... it's not like you can't take it home with you and leave it there for when you need it.
I only have one room mate and I trust her 100%, so that's not something I would worry about.
I have a check book somewhere... I think it's at the bottom of a drawer in my office room. I grew up in Europe after they'd stopped using them, and now I'm in a country where I'm surprised to see
Re:Ditch checks! (Score:5, Informative)
What happens when you charge a $1300 macbook pro to your credit card for someone else, and then need compensation for it?
This objection comes up in every discussion of cheques/checks with Americans. Let's make this clear - the issue you're discussing is a solved problem. All over the rest of the world, you can just transfer money between bank accounts for free.
Here in Australia, when I need to pay my housemate my share of the rent, I log in to my online banking, select 'pay anyone' from the menu, select her name from the list of people I've paid recently (the site autofills her BSB [wikipedia.org] and account numbers), I enter how much I want to give her and it's in her account the next morning. This service is free, works between all banks, credit unions, and building societies, and bounces money back to your account in the event of number and account name mismatch. It is essentially the same as wire transfers, but less complex and without the insane fees for shovelling some bits from one account to another. There is a system of checks (not cheques) and daily limits that keeps fraud from being any more of an issue than in the US.
Many small businesses and eBay sellers prefer this method of payment to any other for obvious reasons - it's free, it's reliable, and minimises effort for all parties.
I'd never used or considered using cheques until I lived in the States. I'm really, really glad that I don't have to keep using them.
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"he scans it and gives it back to me"
In other words, the check was a pointless part of the process. He could as easily entered the numbers from the front of your debit card. Or you could have used a different debit card for the same account (exactly the effect of scanning the numbers on your check).
Completely inaccurate, not even sure where to start. In the US, most debit cards are Visa or MasterCard (and that's what numbers would be on the front), but even 15 years ago when they would have been 'ATM'-type cards not on the Visa/MC networks those numbers are not the ABA (routing) and account numbers from a check.
When someone takes a check from you and scans it like that, it's handled it one of two ways in a "back-office conversion"-
1) Conversion to an EFT and processed on the ACH network under NACHA [wikipedia.org] ru
USAA (Score:4, Informative)
And this will be called... (Score:3, Funny)
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Chexting? ;-)
"Chequexting" in Europe and Canada.
Checks?! (Score:3, Funny)
You're taking the piss. (Score:4, Insightful)
No? Really. Taking a photo of a cheque?
Writing out a cheque, then taking a photo of it? No. You're pulling my leg. And this is an advance?
Why not just transfer the money using the phone?
We can do it here in Europe. They can do it in India and Africa for goodness sake;
http://europe.nokia.com/ovi-services-and-apps/nokia-money [nokia.com]
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Do you get a paper check from your employer?
We do use direct deposit a lot here in the US, but some people just prefer checks.
Just because checks are available it does not mean that the other options are not available.
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No
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Do you get a paper check from your employer?
We do use direct deposit a lot here in the US, but some people just prefer checks.
Just because checks are available it does not mean that the other options are not available.
A staggering number of people don't have a place to get direct deposits sent..
The Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation (FDIC) released a survey on American households that are “unbanked” - have neither a checking account nor a savings account, and “underbanked” - have a checking account or savings account but rely on alternative financial services. Alternative financial services can include using a non-bank check cashing service, non-bank money order service or a payday loan service.
There is an estimated 9 million households that do not have a checking account or savings account which is 7.7 percent of U.S. households.
In addition to the unbanked households, there are an estimated 21 million households that are underbanked which is 17.9 percent of U.S. households
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Reduce costs of toady s operations by enabling e.g. mobile prepaid top up transactions
lol. I did however like this statement. If it goes through a spell and grammar checker it must be right.
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This isn't for people in the modern age that transfer money to others.
This is for people in the modern age that still get checks from people who would rather avoid electronic methods for whatever reason.
Is transfering money over the phone the only way you can make a purchase in Europe and Africa? Whats that? You guys have checks too? No shit? So this is probably something that'll happen there too?
God, when will people like you realize that now days every place on Earth is more or less the same as ever o
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Writing out a cheque, then taking a photo of it? No. You're pulling my leg. And this is an advance?
No, not writing out a cheque and taking a photo of it.
Receiving a cheque from a third party, and depositing it via a photo.
For someone so high tech, you might want to work on your comprehension skills.
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Other tha
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You must be really lazy or your bank is very far away.
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An Amish geezer? Like you've sold him a horse shoe or something? I guess it could happen...
Well, it's a little stupid to just transfer money into the grandkids account for their birthday present. More fun to give them a check...
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Some reasons that come to mind
- Transferring money money > $100 from/to someone over 50 will likely be a Check as they don't get computers or smart phones
- Some small businesses refuse to do direct deposit since the banks charge a premium
- Debit often can't be used for large purchase because of daily withdrawal limits that are part of fraud protection measures
- Some people with bad credit can't get credit cards
"making the smartphone one step closer to an ATM" (Score:2, Informative)
I have some questions (Score:2, Interesting)
Can you deposit a money order or cashiers check?
Is there a fee? I'm sure there is.
How long is there a delay between submitting and getting your money?
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Do you know if they do any matching of the signature to the bank account the personal check comes out of?
That would be up to the bank who the check is drawn against.. (i.e. the check writer's bank)
It's not as if USAA (or any other bank) has some global superdatabase of everyone's signatures.
In terms of automated services, I think you vastly overestimate what goes on when you deposit a check presently via an ATM or something. It's 99% automated..
I went to renew my subscription... (Score:2)
I went to renew my subscription to a magazine on the Internet. Guess what? Cost me $2 to do it that way. No dice. Wrote out a check and mailed it in.
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I went to renew my subscription to a magazine on the Internet. Guess what? Cost me $2 to do it that way. No dice. Wrote out a check and mailed it in.
You can thank exorbitant credit card interchange fees on the part of the Visa/MasterCard member banks for that. It costs pennies to process a check of virtually any size, but 1.2 - 3.6+% to accept various credit cards.
Get off your arses and go to the damned bank (Score:2, Insightful)
Seriously, there are just so many more fraud opportunities dues to sheer bloody laziness on the part of the banks and their customers. Identity theft? Couldn't happen so readily if the banks would only make you come in there with your driver's license or passport before they go issuing credit cards. The same goes for government institutions.
This idea sounds like it'd make it easy to copy a cheque, Photoshop it and bank it. You wouldn't even need to steal it. Just snap a quick shot with your iPhone and then
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I love all these posts that think making me show a driver's license is the ultimate answer to everything. Here's a different solution. How about holding the banks liable for everything beyond the first $50 of fraudulent transactions, like the law requires, and quit burdening the rest of us otherwise law-abiding citizens with showing ID cards that wont prevent the fraud anyway.
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Convenience provides better jobs...take the grocery store self-checkout example. The engineers who make that stuff make way more money than a cashier. By using those automated services, we create a demand for professional engineers and software developers, which have higher wages, which in turn provide more tax revenue which is supposed to make society better (that part is debatable but sounds nice in theory).
In any case, this is an old argument I've never believed in. I grew up in Oregon where you can't pu
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I see your point. However, I think a bank teller and a gas station attendant are equally important as aerospace and software engineers.
And that's where the larger part of your disconnect from reality begins.
http://site.despair.com/images/dpage/potential03.jpg [despair.com]
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By not using those automated services, we create demand for actual clerks and it creates jobs for others.
If you really believe that this is a good thing, please tell me you hire others to do all your remaining work: shopping, cooking, cleaning, driving, yard work, posting to Slashdot, etc.—everything but your own day job. If not, just think of all the jobs you're failing to create!
For that matter, just consider how much automation is involved in posting to Slashdot—and how many jobs "would be created" for the same task if society rejected that automation, vs. the number which have been created beca
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The thing is, it's in the Bank's interest to NOT have you go to the bank. If they can come up with ways of having you do your banking online, by phone, or by post, they can close branches, save money and no-one will care.
Here in Australia, the big four banks actually charge you a fee if you want to do something actually at the bank.
Mind you they charge you a fee for just about everything...
pay day loan! (Score:2)
I'll just take several pictures of the same check, and by the time they figure it out, I'll have my pay day loan (i.e. already spent then over-drafted). Woo hoo! Rent-town-USA here I come!
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not quite how it works...
First guy deposits cheque...all is well.
The second guy deposits the cheque via photo...his bank goes to the bank the cheque is drawn on, and they see it has already been cashed. Guys account is debited the amount of the cheque within a couple of days. If it is a sufficiently large amount or not the first occurrence, an investigation will probably take place and the second guy (and maybe the first) will end up in front of a judge.
Come out of that cave already! (Score:2, Informative)
We do things completely electronic here, by direct bank transfers. No need to take photographs of a paper cheque. In fact, I haven't seen a cheque since childhood (when an aunt from Australia sent one. We had a hell of a trouble cashing it).
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Seriously, that's because that's your default response due to your (IMO mistaken) belief that the way Europeans do anything is automagically superior to anyone else's way of doing things. And you'll tell that you anyone who stand still long enough to listen.
And then, like the hypocritical bastards you are, you'll whine when anyone else does the same thing.
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Repeating ignorant bias doesn't make it the truth.
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Even here in Australia, the state of wait a while have given up on paper cheques. Everyone charges extra for a cheque now because no one wants to issue them, faster and easier to sign a declaration and get it wired into your bank.
MAKE BIG BUCKS NOW! (Score:3, Insightful)
With automatic electronic transfers between banks, which do not verify the validity of the original check, the person who's going to be screwed by this is the one whose account number is on the fake check. Right now washing out a check, putting in new amounts, and presenting it for cash is a little bit more time-consuming (plus the check is gone) than just photoshopping a check image and scanning it on a phone, or several. The only small deterrent is that the checks are deposited, not paid out in cash immediately. Simple enough to hit up a few pensioners while there's still a bit in their account (or businesses that don't reconcile accounts frequently), wait for the deposits to clear, and clean out the temporary deposit account.
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"The only small deterrent is that the checks are deposited"
That's not a small deterrent, it's a huge one. Opening a bank account at a bank that will accept RDC will take more than your fake ID, whereas passing a forged check to a merchant takes nothing more than your fake ID.
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... wait for the deposits to clear ...
I think I've found your problem... The whole point of cashing a fake check is that you don't need to wait for it to clear.
Slashdot to offer new similar service (Score:2)
Wow, this is just too advanced... (Score:2)
Dude.... USAA (Score:2)
I love my bank (USAA). They have been providing this for like 2+ years now.
On their online banking website they have an option to credit a check into your account with a scanner.
It downloads a Java app that controls your scanner directly.
Its so great. Even the money is in your account and usable immediately the check has been scanned in.
Coming soon? (Score:2)
My bank is offering it to me for months!
But it’s not as if I were stupid enough to use it!
Needs a whatcouldpossiblygowrong tag.
Ugh have new club! (Score:2)
Club made from silicon!
Seriously. Using a cellphone to fotograph a fscking check? And that's called "smartphone-based banking"? I've been able to do my banking over the internet for almost a decade now, and I'm a late adopter. And the last time I had to use a check was over twenty years ago.
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I thought it was because check fraud is hilariously easy to catch?
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But then, I've heard you need a taxman or special software to do your taxes, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised.
Only if you have insanely complex tax history. Or are a lazy mofo. I've always done them my self.
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Here in Australia the ATO (Australian Tax Office) publishes it's own tax return submission software, E-Tax free of course for anyone holding an Australian tax number. This program is the only means to submit personal tax returns electronically, this is mostly for security reasons.
The bog standard paper TaxPak is still available and so are accountants, who will just use E-tax anyway.
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Here in Australia the ATO (Australian Tax Office) publishes it's own tax return submission software, E-Tax free of course for anyone holding an Australian tax number. This program is the only means to submit personal tax returns electronically, this is mostly for security reasons.
You mean like freefile here in the states? [irs.gov]
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because only in america could something as simple as a money transfer be so completely ridiculously involved.
Wait, what? I thought the whole point of this is to make depositing money more convenient. Take a picture and it's deposited. How is that "ridiculously involved"? It's not really any different than the current ATM scanner that just scans the check and deposits it (other than it keeps the check, and that you have to go to an ATM to do it).
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RTFA: "The photo gets sent to the bank through its mobile application. In most cases, funds are in the customers account immediately."
Soon to come- android and iphone customers are bombarded with spam containing the pictures of check of large amounts, "to be deposited and wired back to us for a 10% check cashing fee". None of which are any good.
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You must still be using checks, why else are you going to the bank now days?
Way to douche it up.
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Does anyone know the statistics on how much mail goes missing compared to going through? I'd hate to send in a cheque for $1000 just to find out the cheque never made it. Especially since that cheque is the ONLY COPY!
If it really concerned you, you could just make a copy (like a regular photocopy) of it before you mailed it off.. your bank would be required to honor this copy of it provided it meets some simple guidelines you can google.