Who is Certegy? I've never heard of your company and what right do you have to control my check writing?
Certegy is a check risk management company that provides verification, guarantee and
risk analytics to thousands of businesses that choose to accept checks as a form of
payment for goods or services. Certegy pioneered the check risk management industry in
the U.S., and has been providing services to businesses for more than 45 years.
Who uses Certegy and why?
Thousands of merchants (including big corporations and small companies) use Certegy to
assist them in reducing the risks of accepting checks as a form of payment, as well as
control losses. Although merchants are not required to accept checks as a form of
payment for goods and services, many merchants do accept checks as a convenience to
their customers. As a result of increased losses and rising occurrences of fraud,
merchants use Certegy to assist them in risk management.
Is a listing of merchants that use Certegy available?
Clients who have given Certegy permission to share their location data are included on the Check Cashing Locations tab.
Due to the large number of merchants that use Certegy's services, as well as
merchants' requests for confidentiality, Certegy does not provide a listing of all merchants
that utilize Certegy's services.
How does Certegy assist merchants in reducing the risks of accepting checks?
Certegy uses proprietary risk models for the decisioning process regarding the acceptance
of checks. Certegy's risk models are based upon factors that closely model previous
transactions that resulted in losses for our merchants. To know those factors would give
anyone, including fraudulent and bad check writers, a way to bypass our system. For
those reasons, even our employees are not privy to that information.
Is the decision provided by Certegy based on my credit score?
No, your credit score is not a factor in our risk models or any decision provided to
merchants. Decisions are made based on information in Certegy's check writer database
and a statistical analysis of your check compared to all checks that have gone through our
system.
Do you contact my financial institution to verify the amount of money in my
checking account?
Depending on the specifics of your check transaction, we may attempt to verify funds
with your financial institution. Our ability to contact financial institutions, though, is
dependent upon the time of the transaction (i.e., during normal banking hours) as well as
the financial institution's policy on disclosing account information to third parties. For
privacy purposes, many financial institutions will only verify funds with other financial
institutions or with the account holder.
If a decision has been sent to a merchant to decline acceptance of my check, can
that decision be overridden?
Unfortunately, we cannot override the decision to decline acceptance of your check.
If a decision has been sent to a merchant to decline acceptance of my check, will all
future check transactions be declined?
We cannot predict the outcome of your future check transactions. Every
check transaction is unique and is subject to an approval process. Only 1.5 - 2.5% of the
millions of check transactions we process each year result in a decision to a merchant to
decline acceptance of a check.
How can I see what information is in my file?
You can request a copy of your file disclosure by clicking here and following the instructions provided.