•  More than $15 Billion Dollars in return check fees were collected last year.

American Banking Association, 1986, Las Vegas:

$9 Billion in bank returned check charge Fees

Returned check fees = 1/3 of most banks profit

•  Personal Checks are the preferred method for consumer purchases.

National Association of Convenience Stores, 2002

6% growth in use of checks at convenience stores

75.6% accept checks

•  Payments for goods and services by checks comprise 80% of all transactions in the USA.

•  80 billion checks are written for goods and services annually. (NBA 10/24/04)

•  $1.3 Trillion dollars are written in checks annually.

•  2-3% are returned by the bank, marked insufficient funds, account closed etc.

•  Most businesses do not have a bad check collection department.

41.3% of businesses collect checks themselves

•  All merchants that accept checks eventually get bad checks.

•  Only 40% of all consumers have access to credit cards.

•  Accepting checks increases the retailer's average sale.

•  Bad/returned checks are on the increase.

•  Fraudulent checks are on the increase.

•  Counterfeit checks can be made easier on home computers.

•  Businesses are losing more than $700 million a year in returned checks.

•  Returned Checks = Big Business.