My beef is really not so much with Telecheck itself, because they were very helpful in fixing the situation, although they are a totally unnecessary company, but with the existance of check authorization companies as a whole. I believe that they are illegally accessing people's financial/credit info without our authorization.
Recently, my elderly parents began having their checks refused at Wal-Mart, local gas stations, etc. We went to their bank to inquire about what could be causing the problem as they had ample funds to cover all their checks. The bank told us that when stores ask for your driver's license number when you present a check, that sometimes the cashier keys the number in wrong.
The person who actually owns the incorrect license number may have written bad checks, but now their license number is associated with YOUR financial/credit records until you figure out what is going on, contact whichever check authorization companies might be involved and get the matter fixed.
Now whenever someone tries to authorize your valid, perfectly good check, a red flag is going to wave and your check will be denied. Basically, your checkwriting status is left totally up to the chance that your cashier may or may not punch in the correct number. The only way to insure that this NEVER happens is to NEVER use a check. If the store asks for your driver's license number and you refuse to give it, they refuse service to you. Debit cards would alleviate alot of these mixups, but among the elderly community, they just aren't that trusted.
Personally, I believe that since requiring a driver's license number to accept a check, can cause a customer much more harm than good, that asking for the numbers should be outlawed. Imagine the humiliation a person goes through after ringing up a hundred or two dollars worth of merchandise and then having their valid check denied because some teenybopper is more interested in the bagboy than in paying attention to punching in the license number correctly. Your credit/financial life ends up lying in the hands of total strangers.
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