Did you all read about the new law (popularly "Check 21") which allows several kinds of checks to clear electronically almost as soon as they are received and which allows recipients to send you a "substitute check" instead of your original document? Right away, this means that float is eliminated, or you have to have the money to cover the check without allowance for snail mail, and that mistakes with the amount of the check are inevitable with only a few weeks to contest any error. Nasty new game for the big guys and against the little guys. Seriously, I am not bluffing.

This has been happening for a long time, Tsaeb. It's common practice in many kinds of retail establishments, such as supermarkets. The law is only to stop people from fighting it when their checks bounce because they tried to float.

I remember seeing this on Snopes actually. Might answer/clarify some stuff, too.

Maybe it's just me, but I got the impression from the snopes info that it was more of a helpful thing than a bad thing.

Consumers benefit, because generally they will feel that most checks will be received and documented a lot earlier than before. Consumers, for a long time, will be guinea pigs if the wrong amount is documented. Maybe in time whoever gets to keep the actual check will turn it over with its fingerprints on it so that identity theft will lessen, but we haven't come to that . . . yet.