Complaint Review: K-Mart

The ONLY way the local district attorney's office will take a hot check to try and prosecute is if the maker's driver's licence is included. Otherwise you have no proof the person actual wrote the check and can claim someone else did. IF you didn't put their driver's license number on the check, they will not take it. I will not take a check of a larger amount, without a driver's license number. If someone refuses to give me their DL, I refuse to take their check. Simple. No rip off. If anything that person is trying to rip me off. Merchants take OVER 30,000 hot checks A MONTH in our county alone.

the reason that they ask for your drivers license number to process the check is to protect them against people writing checks with no money in the bank. It also protects you, because it matches your check. If the wrong one is put in the register, it will not go through, cause the bank has your info and it has to be verified that it is you writing the check.

The reason stores do this is to protect themselves. It's an instant connection to companies such as ChexSystems and Equifax to make sure that the consumer is not one to pass bad checks. You see, when you write a bad check and don't take care of it immediately, the companies then pass your info onto a sort of credit report for bad checks (ChexSystems, Equifax, and a couple other smaller firms). Then, when companies such as K-Mart in your case enter the drivers license number of the consumer into the computer it will instantly tell them if that particular person has a history of bad checks. Believe it or not, when ever you wrrite a check the company is submitting it to these agancies one way or another. They are either scanning the checks with a reader or entering them manually, but they are being checked.

Ginny,

Isn't it a shame? No merchant should ever take a check from any consumer without visual verification of a driver's license. You can thank the identity thieves for that.

Kmart and other retailers zealously guard your personal information. It's the merchants and banks that get left holding the bag financially in the majority of ID thefts. The consumers are simply ruined.

Contact your local Congressman or Senator and ask what they are doing to combat ID theft. What kind of legislation are they currently supporting?

Good Luck!

They have to enter the driver's license or state ID number into Telechek, which is a centralized database that keeps track of potential bad check writers. If the person is in Telechek or other similar databases, it is likely that their check will not be accepted as it is considered too high risk. It is not illegal to do that. However, a clerk cannot legally make you write a social security number or ID number on a charge slip.

If your daughter is so worried about identity theft, why doesn't she get with the times and use one of those checking debit cards you get from your bank. If you push credit instead of debit, you aren't charged a fee and nobody writes down your driver's license number. Why carry around a check book and hold up a line of paying customers, when swiping the card is much quicker and easier. Just a thought.