Check 21: Quicken agent told me that banks won't accept non-compliant checks after January 31, 2006. True or False?

Not sure about whether or not Intuit is trying to hide its call center location, but why does her name cause you to think this? Is there a law that women in India can't be named Margaret?

I live > I just tried to reorder wallet checks from the Quicken web site, and I

TALK to your bank. They ought to be able to give you the straight scoop.

Regarding "Margaret": A few months ago, 60 Minutes did a story on how Call Center operations for MANY companies have been outsourced to India. It showed how the employees there work hard to lose their accent (Some are more successful than others) and also how they are encouraged to assume American names when on the phone lines.

Quicken is far from alone in this regard.

If you really want read an eye-opening book that covers this sort of thing (among others), check out "The World is Flat" by Tom Friedman. You'd better get used to dealing with someone in India for Customer Support - no matter what the company.

I will. But doesn't anyone in this group know for sure?

What Intuit was obviously trying to do is pressure me into an upgrade to Q2006, having scared me into buying Check 21-compliant checks.

By the way, what is the difference between a non-compliant and a compliant check?

ILOO

Re: your original question -- I would think that the deafening silence speaks volumes.

Re: compliant v non -- that NOT a short answer. It primarily has to do with fonts used and placement. I'd suggest that you check out the Fed (FRB.gov) or google "check 21" for a complete answer.

Dan

Hi, BRH.

I haven't read that one, but I read this one about 5 years ago: The Death of Distance: How the Communications Revolution Is Changing our Lives by Frances Cairncross

As I recall, Ms. Cairncross is an editor for The Economist. Her ideas were eye-opening then, and are becoming more pertinent with each passing year. The book has two copyright dates, 1997 and 2001; I'm not sure which edition I read.

I also recall a Reader's Digest story several years ago about a Japanese student's struggles, working very hard and overcoming serious obstacles, to prepare for a career in the IT world. I told my son, who was majoring in Computer Information Systems then, that it was not enough to do better than his classmates here in the US. "You must prepare to deal with that guy, and with millions more just like him in many countries around the world, who will be competing with you for the computing work that you hope will provide you with a lifetime income."

Complacency has brought us this far (down), and it will take us further (down) unless we wake up. Competition is not bad. It's good. And we must compete if we expect to win - or even to hold our own.

RC

If this is supposed to be directed to me; you are inventing things in your mind. I am voicing my opinion; if you think that is "controlling" you've got a lot to learn.

I did not tell you what to think; if you don't understand what I say, ask me. Don't make up your own meanings. One thing you can bet your life on: I will voice my opinions.

You take one lousy week off to join Thorax at the Elvis concert, and this is what happens: BRH writes on Wed, 07 Dec 2005 20:20:59 -0500 in alt.comp.software.financial.quicken :

And it is starting to include the drive through at McDonalds.

-- pyotr filipivich Next month's Panel: Graft - Boon or blessing?

This is the OP again.

Well, I just got off the phone with my bank (Citibank). I got a very nice support guy (Citigold Services) who was clearly stumped by my questions. He told me he _never_ gets questions like mine.

He went offline once to check internal resources - came up blank. He also called Quicken in Mountain View. (their WW HQ). No real info from them either. Then he went so far as to call the same Quicken 800 number that I had called to order wallet checks. After a few minutes he came back on the line and told me that he spoke to an order agent who had not told him anything about a January 31, 2006 sunset for non-compliant checks.

So my takeaway is that I got an overzealous agent.

I had my doubts about this "story" from the get-go. How could all banks refuse to accept non-compliant checks without giving consumers __years__ of warning? With lots of publicity. I think if I had gotten anything from Citibank along with my monthly statement, I would have remembered,

Case closed. (I hope).

Exactly. See my followup to my own earler posting.

Short answer: there is no such sunset for non-complant checks any time soon.

Dan,

Can you at least describe the format and fonts, etc, of a compliant check?

Doing a Google search was hopeless. Way, way too many hits.

On the NY Fed's web site, I got 2242 hits for "check 21." After about

The "smug" part comes from other people, really - not you, in this newsgroup, who declare that India "won" and there is no reason for any of us in the USA (or other Western societies) to have any issues or concerns.

ILOO

You take one lousy week off to join Thorax at the Elvis concert, and this is what happens: "R. C. White" writes on Thu, 8 Dec 2005

Short form of "The World is Flat" is that even in Timbuktu, they have Internet access. Thanks to that high speed fiber optic network, small ER's can ship the X-ray to some part of the world where it is "normal hours", a radiologist already "at work" can look at it, and make the diagnosis; rather than the ER have to wake one up and have him come in. Ex.#2 :Your Toshiba laptop has problems, you call Toshiba. They tell you send it in by UPS. UPS picks it up, takes it to their hub, fixes it, and sends it back. Yes, UPS has the Toshiba Laptop repair service contract, located near their shipping hub. Toshiba is "outsourcing" their repair services. And in 2004, the Bank of India outsourced their back office to HP.

The downside is that these same technologies allow for the malevolent to apply them to their ends as well. [snip]

And not just the Japanese, but everyplace else with reliable electricity. There are more Chinese students of English than there are native English speakers in the US.

First, we're going to have to recognize that the train wreck in on the way. Grad students in the Sceinces are not made their senior year of undergraduate work.,, They are made in the 4th, 5th & 6th grades, when kids lay down the fundamentals of math & science.

-- pyotr filipivich Next month's Panel: Graft - Boon or blessing?