I have my renewal meeting tomorrow and the detective told me I need to have a certified check. Can you get those at the bank? Is this common? When I first registered I think I just wrote a personal check. Any insight would be great. This is in Fitchburg by the way.
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LTC Renewal Question
- Thread starter solloron1
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"Certified checks" are hardly ever used. "Certified" is a process whereby the bank stamps your check as "certified" as having the funds, and puts a hold on that amount of funds for that check.
The term is generally, but inaccurately, used for any number of "guaranteed good" instruments. The most common ones are a cashier's check or bank check (a check the banks issues, drawn on its account), available at any bank, or a postal money order. You can also get money orders from conveinence stores as well.
Bank Checks only cost a dollar or two on top of the check amount, except at Bank of America which has a horrendous charge if you are not an account holder.
Towns vary in their policies. Some don't accept cash because they are afraid someone at the station will steal the $$; others accept personal checks since they know they can always pull the LTC if the check bounces.
The term is generally, but inaccurately, used for any number of "guaranteed good" instruments. The most common ones are a cashier's check or bank check (a check the banks issues, drawn on its account), available at any bank, or a postal money order. You can also get money orders from conveinence stores as well.
Bank Checks only cost a dollar or two on top of the check amount, except at Bank of America which has a horrendous charge if you are not an account holder.
Towns vary in their policies. Some don't accept cash because they are afraid someone at the station will steal the $$; others accept personal checks since they know they can always pull the LTC if the check bounces.
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Let's face it, by the time you receive a LTC, there are NO surprises about bounced checks! Being generous, if a check takes 2 weeks to clear and 2 weeks for the PD to give to town treasurer and get cashed, it's still at least another 2-4 weeks minimum before the applicant would be given a LTC!
It's BS just to make it more inconvenient and expensive for a PD (or any town/state body) to demand certified funds.
You can get a bank check at your bank.
No, it isn't. Your licensing officer (or his chief) is being a prick.
Did he tell you which bank had to certify it?
ETA: Not picking on you, just the absurd situation that you found yourself in. Sorry you have to put up with this crap.
Assuming they won't accept a MO or cashiers check, and if the person doesn't have a checkbook (there are people that use their CC or online payments for
everything... I'm close to being there myself), that person ends up having to order and pay for 50-100 checks that they'll never use.
TheGreekFreak
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My local bank allows one free bank check a day to anyone with a free checking account. As others have mentioned, it just certifies that the funds are in your account and won't bounce. I've only used them to pay for online transactions, regular checks for almost anything else.
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One caution with bank checks. With a regular check, if it is lost, you can stop payment for about $25 and that's the end of it. If a bank check is lost, you cannot get your money back until it has gone stale (6 months).
I had a vendor make a big deal out of "food will not be unloaded from the truck if you try to pay with a personal or company check". Fine, I got the vendor a bank check - which he threw out. I took great pleasure in responding to his demand for immediate replacement with "That will not be possible because the bank won't refund the $$ for 6 months - you'll get paid when I get the refund. Of course, if you had not insisted on treating me as a bad check risk, you would already have the replacement check."
They are pretty much obsolete - the bank check serves the same purpose and is much easier.
I had a vendor make a big deal out of "food will not be unloaded from the truck if you try to pay with a personal or company check". Fine, I got the vendor a bank check - which he threw out. I took great pleasure in responding to his demand for immediate replacement with "That will not be possible because the bank won't refund the $$ for 6 months - you'll get paid when I get the refund. Of course, if you had not insisted on treating me as a bad check risk, you would already have the replacement check."
It also means the bank has placed a "hold" on those funds so the recipient can be assured they will still be there we cashing the certified checks.
They are pretty much obsolete - the bank check serves the same purpose and is much easier.
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one-eyed Jack
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Unless they are complete nerds they should accept anything besides cash or personal check. At age 70, you won't need anything. Just wait. Jack.
jaypap
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Did you renew in the same town?
My town said US postal money order only, no other type. Just *******s making you jump through hoops because they can.
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I paid with cash for mine, and got a receipt.
