Stealth Wealth Are you under the radar?

First off, I don’t see how people write bad checks. I know of many people that don’t balance their checkbook in anyway. The only time they know how much they have in their account is when they get their statement or when they get a call from their bank saying they need $17 in their account by 2pm in order to pay a check that is trying to post to their account.People seem to think the bank is out to get them by charging a $30, but that $30 fee is meant to discourage taking your account into a negative balance. I know of people that are eaten up by $30 fees every month and complain about them, but they don’t care enough to take 30 seconds to write down a transaction after it occurs. Is it too much trouble to at least do it at the end of the day?

It just bothers me when I hear people complain saying “The time between writing a check and it debiting my account is getting shorter and shorter. I have less time to get money into my account!” They are spending money before they even have it and they are complaining about the system getting faster. I don’t know about you, but I’m glad checks are clearing faster because it bugs me to see checks I’ve written hang out there a week or more.

I’m not sure if you’ve heard of Check 21, but maybe if you’ve been to a Wal-Mart lately you may have noticed they give you your check back after you write a check to them. What they do is make a digital image of your check and transmits it to post for deposit into their account. This way Wal-Mart gets the money faster and don’t have to handle all of those checks. I know someone who was complaining that Wal-Mart had no right to take the money from his account that fast. He said “With checks clearing this fast I don’t have enough time to cover the checks I write if all businesses convert to this.” I asked him “well you signed a slip of paper when they did the transaction right?” He replied “Yea, but they still have no right to do it that fast!” I think check 21 is a wonderful thing and keeps the number of checks on float down. These people are trying to beat the system using a week or two for checks to clear. Now the system is catching up with them and they don’t like it that checks are clearing faster.

In conclusion I just don’t understand why people are so lazy when it comes to keeping up with their money and then get fired up when they get penalized for not following the rules that are clearly stated “If your account goes into a negative balance you will be charged $30 for each check that hits.” Be a good steward of your money and don’t try to cut corners by writing checks when you don’t have money in your account.

Here are a few links if you want to know more about check 21:
Federal Reserve Board
Wikipedia*

*Not the most reliable website, but from what I’ve checked out on it I haven’t seen anything that is incorrect on check 21, This site is just explains it in simple terms*