i learnt e checks cost less to process and it eliminates it ones
account being overdrawn.is this true? if the answer is affirmative,i
want a list of stores that sells household utilities that accept e
checks as a method of payment.thank you.

Hi cateye,

Echecks do cost less to process, but they do not provide overdraft protection.

For the payer, the payee, and the bank, echecks cost less, because
electronic communications are cheaper than handling paper.  These
questions and answers from the eCheck Initiative go into more detail
about this.

http://www.echeck.org/overview/q-ab.html#b3

The first few questions there are mostly about time and labor costs. 
Question 3.5 deals with material costs.

http://www.echeck.org/overview/q-ab.html#B35

The cost difference to you as a consumer will depend on the deals you
have with the financial institutions that provide checking services. 
At the least, compared with paper checks, echecks save you the cost of
having checks printed.

I could not find anywhere any indication that echecks keep an account
from being overdrawn.  The echeck.org site emphasizes that echecks
work just like paper checks.

The United States Federal Trade Commission has a web page about
electronic check conversion, which is what happens when you give a
merchant a paper check and he or she converts it to an echeck.  This
page says "There may be no float on your check. That means, if you
write a check today, you need to have funds in your account today to
cover it. If you don't, your check may bounce and you may be charged a
fee by the merchant, your financial institution, or both."

http://www.ftc.gov/bcp/conline/pubs/credit/echeck.htm

This page on Alternative Online Payment Options from the workz.com
small business advice web site says explicitly "Like a paper check, an
e-check may be returned for insufficient funds...".

http://www.workz.com/cgi-bin/gt/tpl_page.html,content=2425&template=15&nav1=1&user=ffffffffffff

Of course, you can arrange for overdraft protection with a bank, just
as with paper checks, but this service is not automatically provided
with echecks.


Search Strategy

echecks
echecks overdrawn
echecks overdraft


I hope this is a satisfactory answer to your question, if not the
answer you wanted to hear.  If you need any further information,
please ask for a clarification.

--efn

---

Request for Answer Clarification by cateye-ga on 29 Jul 2004 01:47 PDT

dear efn-ga,

thanks for the websites you directed me too.i understand how e checks
work now but you failed to direct me to stores that sell household
utilities who accept e checks as a method of payment.i mean i cant
seem to find anyone.thanks.

---

Clarification of Answer by efn-ga on 29 Jul 2004 20:26 PDT

Hi cateye,

I didn't provide a list of stores because your question said "if the
answer is affirmative,i want a list of stores..." and the answer was
not affirmative.

Although the phrase "household utilities" usually refers to things
like gas, electricity, and water provided to a house, I'm going to
guess that you mean housewares, as on this page:

http://www.sterilite.com/Category.html?Section=Household&ProductCategory=61

All the stores I found that take echecks take them from the PayPal service.

https://www.paypal.com/

A section of the PayPal web site called PayPal Shops lists online
merchants who accept PayPal payments.  This section has a Home and
Garden
page.

http://www.paypal.com/cgi-bin/webscr?cmd=_shop-cat-ext&loc=69692

There are links on the left side of this page to more specialized lists.

I hope this meets your need.

--efn