Driver's license # on checks

[Alexandra1973]

Is it legal for a cashier to write your driver's license number or Social Security number on your check? I can understand them wanting to see ID when you write a check...but I don't like them writing this info down on my check. My dad once told me they're not supposed to do that...but I'm not sure if he was right or not.

I'm just afraid someone's going to get info on me that they have no business having.

[hegel]

it's only a security precaution. they figure the address you file with the sec. of state is correct.

[Civil Defense]

Is it legal for a cashier to write your driver's license number or Social Security number on your check? I can understand them wanting to see ID when you write a check...but I don't like them writing this info down on my check. My dad once told me they're not supposed to do that...but I'm not sure if he was right or not.

I'm just afraid someone's going to get info on me that they have no business having.

It is no more illegal for them to write your SSN on the check than it is for them to scrawl gibberish all over it. Once you hand it over to them, it is theirs for all intents and purposes, and they can do whatever they like with it.

I just save them the extra step and order my checks with my SSN pre-printed.

[Max Torque]

It's perfectly legal, but I've always wondered why they bother. Seems like every time I write a check, they ask for my phone number, and they write it on the check.

And yet, never have I received a phone call that included the words, "We got your number off this check....". My conclusion: they're wasting their own time. But hey, whatever butters their biscuit.

(they could at LEAST call to find out how I'm doing.....snif...)

[Doug Bowe]

Originally posted by Max Torque
It's perfectly legal, but I've always wondered why they bother. Seems like every time I write a check, they ask for my phone number, and they write it on the check.

--I've found this odd since my phone number is already printed on the check.
So the clerk handwrites my phone number next to my phone number.

[Civil Defense]

I've found this odd since my phone number is already printed on the check.
So the clerk handwrites my phone number next to my phone number.

We're taught to do this to verify that the number on the check is correct, when initialing isn't good enough. If there IS a problem, it saves our menial butts.

[Cheesesteak]

One possible reason management asks the cashiers to write numbers and such on the check is to ensure that the cashier is actually asking these questions and checking ID.

[Ethilrist]

They used to write down credit card numbers on checks, until enough people pointed out that that actually was a crime, so they switched to driver's licenses.

I've probably bounced hundreds of checks, and nobody has ever called me. The first (and only) notice I usually get is some mock-hostile letter from a company saying if I don't pay up, they're gonna trash my credit rating. Take your best shot, guys. If I can't trash it, you can't.

[tygre]

Originally posted by Ethilrist
They used to write down credit card numbers on checks, until enough people pointed out that that actually was a crime, so they switched to driver's licenses.

IIRC, it's not the writing down of credit card number on a check that's illegal, it's charging the card if the check bounces that's illegal since you don't have "permission" to charge the card.

When I worked retail, we were told that the driver's license number was written down for "collections if needed".

[c_goat]

The one retail store I worked at had an old cranky guy that would actually go to people houses if they wouldn't pay their bounced checks. If the address is on the check that is.

That was only after they called the people several times.

A bit of a risk to actually go to someone's house like that, but they usually paid when he did that.

[Otto]

Some stores ask for your DL# because if there's a problem getting an electronic authorization on your check they call people like me, who approve your check over the phone. Our computers (which tap into the databases of a credit bureau) prompt us to ask for information, including DL#, phone#, address, correct spelling of name, routing and account numbers and so on until such time as the computer determines based on its programming whether to approve or decline the check. If the check is approved my company assumes the liability for the check if it bounces. So they ask you because we're going to ask them.

And if a check we approve bounces, our collections dept will come after you like the proverbial wrath of god.

[missbunny]

In MA, it's illegal for a store to require your SSN on a check but they are allowed to ask for your license number, which may be the same as your SSN unless you requested a random number when you got the license. It's also illegal for a store to require a credit card number on a check or to require someone to agree that his CC can be charged if the check bounces. M.G.L. 93(105).