I wrote a check to Shop-Ko in Quincy, IL, for $153.53. I have written checks there before. The check was denied. The only times I have had checks questioned was when they were for large amounts at Wal-Mart after my husband had already written a check there the same day. A manager always verified my drivers' license information and approved the check. However, today Shop-Ko refused to accept my check. I called the Telecheck number to find out why, thinking someone might have cleaned out my checking account since I checked the balance yesterday. I knew I had plenty of money in there. The woman I talked to at TeleCheck had a lot of trouble getting the system to pull up my information. When she finally did get it, she couldn't tell me exactly why my check had been refused. She could only tell me it might have been because of my check number (which was in the 9000s), my check writing history (which is clean as a whistle, not even a math error for years), or frequency (too many checks too quickly). She was able to tell me that earlier today I had written a check to Wal-Mart, and she could tell me the exact amount it was for (over $100). She said she couldn't tell me which of those reasons it was! She could also tell me the reason the check was denied was not because of any "negative information!" I asked if my checking account had been cleaned out, and she said it wasn't anything like that, either! The Shop-Ko manager could see from my driver's license that I was the person on the check, and the information was the same, but she wouldn't approve it because TeleCheck denied it.
The only thing I can figure out is that if you get a stimulus check, don't try to spend more than $100 of it in one day!
I live more than 20 miles away from the store, but they had some furniture my daughter really wants for her apartment when she moves out next month. Since she's just finished 6 months of chemotherapy treatments, I would like to get the furniture for her. So I suppose I'll spend more gas money to go back tomorrow with cash and/or my bank card—which they said they would have accepted if I had had it with me—and I'll buy the furniture. They were reluctant even to hold it for us until tomorrow but finally agreed to do so. But that will be the last time I do business with Shop-Ko for a very long time.
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