From: turner@telecheck.com
Date: Wed, 9 Aug 95 17:05:47 PDT
To: Black Unicorn <unicorn@access.digex.net>
Subject: Re: Bank Fees and E-Cash
In-Reply-To: <Pine.SUN.3.91.950809190129.17834A-100000@access5.digex.net>
Message-ID: <9508100004.AA03734@TeleCheck.com>
MIME-Version: 1.0
Content-Type: text/plain



I have no love for most banks, and have experienced your senario on at
least two seperate times...  In fact, I tried to deposit a cashiers
check from another bank to open a CD in one bank, and they had to "hold"
the check for one week.  I can imagine holding it so I don't start
forging checks on a forged cashiers check, but on a 30 day CD?  Ugh.

unicorn@access.digex.net said:
> Banks have gorged themselves on rocketing fees for the last five  
> years.  The result is that typical bank customer currently pays  150% 
> of the amount of interest collected on accounts in a given  year in 
> the form of fees.  My prediction, and my hope, is that e- cash will 
> cut through the pretense upon which the rationalization  of many of 
> these fees is based, and even market itself on this  point- Lower 
> Fees. 

My bank charges me a flat rate of $2/month +$1/month for producing
an image copy of my checks.  It took me a while to find it, but I
did.  Its called shopping.

<snip>

unicorn@access.digex.net said:
> Telecheck will have Bob on the 10 most wanted list for $350.00 in  
> bounced checks.  Bob's check writing ability is about nil in D.C.  
> for the month it will take him to clear it up. 

Not to pick nits, but TeleCheck probably won't get involved until
1-2 months after the checks were bounced (UNLESS the checks are reported
stolen, then we will attempt to shut you down), and usually only if the 
merchants were guarantee customers (we will pay the merchant for
a bad check he/she accepts based on a TeleCheck approval).  Furthermore,
if you write a bad check on a customer of SCAN (TeleCheck's evil
competitor), we won't think twice about you.  

Secondly, most banks will automatically resubmit checks several
times to cover temporary short falls.

unicorn@access.digex.net said:
> I cannot believe that e-cash won't be able to solve some of these  
> problems, and I hope it will limit its own fees to usage.  To me  
> this is a classic argument for small house e-cash shops.  Citibank  
> and Mastercard are going to fight for their fees. 

Unfortunately, what most people term e-cash isn't e-cash.  The problems
associated with bringing up the electronic equivalent of cash are
gigantic.  I for one, have a new found respect for Chaum and the rest of
the pioneers in the field.

Citibank and MasterCard are developing an "internet" ways for you to use 
your credit cards, not e-cash.  Microsoft is developing ways to pipe that
information to them.  These are not going to solve the problem, especially
at 18.9% A.P.R...