Business owners must make a decision on how to handle worthless checks and
they have three basic choices: (1) handle the collections
themselves. (2) Outsource worthless checks to some type of
collection service. (3) Ask their local police department or
District Attorney to collect their worthless checks.
Regarding the first option, this may work if you only receive a few
bad checks a year. It is certainly important to know what the
collection laws and procedures are for your state and situation.
The down-side to this approach is that it takes time and is often a
distasteful task.
A second option is turning to a collection agency, a worthless check
collection service, a detective agency, or maybe a collection
attorney. All these services vary greatly in price and level
of service. Some charge an annual fee, a per-case fee, or no
fee at all. For most merchants it is best to find a bad check
collection service, a businesses that specializes in worthless check
collection. One leading provider of worthless check collection that
makes its service FREE is
NorthStar Technologies.
There is also the "District Attorney worthless check program. If you get a lot of bad checks each year,
this choice will likely become cumbersome. If you get only a
few checks, especially if they are large amounts, this may be the
perfect solution for your bad check collection needs. See if
your District Attorney has an
on-line link for worthless checks. If not, call them and request
a packet or information on if and how they would collect bad checks
for your business.
Best wishes in getting your worthless checks collected!
Brad Price