THE PAPER CHASE: CHECKTRONIC IS WATCHING YOU

I Thumbs Up to the “unholy alliance” of Democratic ’Judge Garry Weber and Republican Commissioners Jim Jackson and Nancy Judy on the Dallas County 9-and you’re in trouble. As soon as you pay off the bad check, you become a Code 7-but you’re still in trouble; you can’t write or cash a check at any of those 1600 locations until you prove yourself again. It takes six months of clean banking to earn your way back to Code 3, when most of the stores will start taking your checks again. Some require a Code 2, which takes a full year. How long till you get back to the virtuous Code 1? Not until the legal statute of limitations runs out seven years later. And there are no exceptions, unless there is a provable error by your bank or by their computer.

Local retailers, not surprisingly, love it. “It’s by far the best thing we’ve ever tried,” says J.C. Rutledge of Tom Thumb, which processes around a quarter of a million checks every month through Checktronic. The clients pay on a frequency of usage basis (a few cents per check) and still come out way ahead in terms of bad checks nipped in the bud, not to mention Code 4 violators; the Code 4 system identifies stolen or forged payroll checks, an escalating problem for supermarket cashiers.

If you’re a Code 1, Check-tronic is a consumer service-the fastest check-cashing system in town. But, if you slip once, if you forget to carry that three in your checkbook arithmetic, it’s misery. All the big Checktronic outlets admit to a steady stream of outraged customers who suddenly find themselves blacklisted. But they’re shown little mercy. The Code is the last word.

The blacklist will be growing. With the new limitations being implemented in the credit card business, check-writing is on the rise again. And Checktronic will be watching.