One of the most popular ways for people to pay you when you own a small business is with a check. It’s certainly worth your while to accept checks, since they have lower fees than credit cards and can’t be charged back.
But there are potential dangers to accepting checks, including the possibility of fraud or someone writing a bad check. Bad checks, in turn, can come about because there aren’t enough funds in an account, because the account has been closed or because the individual has put a stop payment order on the check.
While dealing with bad checks can be a pain, there are technological advancements that can make it easier for you to weed out the bad checks before they happen.
The easiest thing you can do that might prevent some bad checks is to accept debit cards. Debit cards look like credit cards, but they pull directly from the person’s account. If they don’t have enough money to cover the payment, you’ll know it because the payment won’t go through.
Accepting debit cards is also a great option because there’s very little danger of a debit card transaction being fraudulent since the person...