MSGID: 1:153/757.21@fidonet 068a7e69   
   REPLY: 2:292/854 19051e5f   
   PID: OpenXP/5.0.57 (Win32)   
   CHRS: ASCII 1   
   TZUTC: -0400   
   Hello Ward!   
      
    WD> What I intended to say is ... this requires manual   
    WD> intervention, it's a person's job and his/her/its salary   
    WD> is paid by whom/what? That makes banking more expensive.   
      
   Well.. it's their system, and that's why banks figured out they     
   needed to charge for each and every banking activity to pay for     
   their inefficiencies. I'm surprised they haven't introduced an     
   admission/turnstile fee for walking into a bank akin to     
   attending an arena or concert.   
      
   I have seen the system that prints the cheque amount on the     
   bottom of each cheque.  It's a completely manual process. A     
   human has to compare the amount that is written in words to the     
   amount written as numbers to validate.   
      
   I had written one cheque as "Fifteen Hundred --98/100" and     
   "$1500.98" once, and it cleared as "$15.98"   
      
      
    WD> I haven't used cheques for a payment since ... can't   
    WD> remember. At least 25 years.   
      
   I would prefer to avoid them too.  But some businesses are not     
   setup for 100% electronic payments.  Some businesses are     
   offering eTransfer options, which isn't bad.  But eTransfer     
   here has a maximum daily limit as well as a maximum monthly     
   limit which would many times be insufficient for all my     
   payments.   
      
      
    AA>> Wrt cc cards being re-activated every 6 months - I never heard   
    AA>> of that. Perhaps your source of information is outdated.   
      
    WD> My source of information is pretty current.   
      
   Ok.. but in Canada there is no 6-month renewal process. Credit     
   cards simply expire on the date that is printed on the card -     
   and often that is many years into the future.   
      
      
    WD> When I travel to the US (not Canada) my first transaction   
    WD> needs to be through a bank-ATM to verify my presence in   
    WD> the country. If I go eg to an airport-diner without   
    WD> passing via an ATM first, the transaction will decline.   
      
   That's your bank's requirement then. But what's stopping a     
   thief to go to the ATM instead of you?  If they succeed at the     
   ATM, the card will be "verified".  It doesn't prove it was you.   
      
   --    
     ../|ug   
      
   --- OpenXP 5.0.57   
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