An Austin woman says she’s no longer shopping at her local grocery store after it sided with a third-party check cashing company.
“I was fuming. Yes, I was. I was fuming,” said Roxanne Johnson.
Johnson said her nearby bank branch closed its doors. She typically uses the branch to withdraw enough cash to buy groceries and other items.
“I thought ok, I’ll write a check for $200,” said Johnson.
Her grocery store, HEB at Mueller, uses Certegy check cashing services. Certegy declined Johnson’s check. The woman behind the counter passed Johnson a card to Certegy’s customer service.
“They wanted me to give them my social and bank account number. I would have done that for the company, but I for sure wasn’t going to do that at customer service in front of a bunch of people,” said Johnson.
Johnson She called from home, but didn’t get to speak with a person. She wrote, "(Certegy) sent a big long letter talking about how wonderful they were."
They stood behind their denial, saying Johnson didn’t have a history of check-cashing.
“I mean, here I am. I pay my bills on time. On time,” said Johnson.
Johnson made her argument to H-E-B, who agreed with Certegy’s denial. She reached out to the KVUE Defenders for help.
We contacted H-E-B.
“At H-E-B we provide a variety of services to meet our customers financial services needs. [sic] H-E-B utilizes Certegy Check Services Inc. to provide us with a recommendation for approval for cash back based on many potential risk factors, including, but not limited to location, check writing and cashing history, check number, amount, and fraud trends they have seen from other customers. This service protects H-E-B and our customers from potential fraud or losses,” said H-E-B Public Affairs Manager Leticia Mendoza in an email.
Defenders found the company Certegy is part of another company, FIS Global. Requests for comment were never answered.
Certegy has a history of customer problems. In 2013, they were ordered to pay $3.5 million for Violations of the Fair Credit Reporting Act and Furnisher Rule. It was the second-largest penalty for a Fair Credit Reporting case.
“The FTC’s complaint alleges, among other things, that Certegy did not follow proper dispute procedures. The complaint further alleges that Certegy failed to follow reasonable procedures to assure maximum possible accuracy of the information it provided to its merchant clients, as required by the FCRA,” said an FTC press release.
The Defenders also found a long list of complaints listed on the BBB website, but has an A+ rating.
The company offers a VIP Enrollment Form for customers to reduce the likelihood of a check being declined.
H-E-B also offers other solutions.
“H-E-B Business Centers also offers customers another solution to access cash up to $9,500.00 including a fee that ranges from $3.00 to 2% (fee based on amount) from their PIN-based debit card with no ID required,” said Mendoza.
Johnson said she wished someone told her.
“No one ever suggested filling out anything. They just sent out the form letter with no additional information,” said Johnson.
KVUE passed along this information to Johnson. She said she’ll shop elsewhere to never risk the denial again.