Problem: This large retailer allows customers to pay on their retailer branded credit or contractor account in-store. In accepting payments via check, the retailer was not verifying risk associated with cashing the check payment to protect themselves from loss. Due to this, they had received bad checks from repeat offenders paying on credit or contractor accounts at multiple locations. The check payments were used to inflate the credit availability so the person could purchase more products on the account before the retailer realized the check payment was not good.
This caused a significant increase of several million dollars in losses over a few years on payments that were intended to pay outstanding credit or contractor accounts issued by the store for products purchased.
Solution: With the recommendation of Certegy, the retailer implemented our payment on account check verification service that leverages our proprietary risk and fraud management technology in order to determine if the check should be accepted, preventing the loss before it was incurred. In order to ensure program success, the retailer worked with Certegy prior to the solution launch to review past check acceptance and test the verification results. Given the positive results and loss prevention proven in that test, the retailer was fully confident they would gain value from the deployment of this solution.
Results: This national retailer saw a 50% reduction in losses every month since the program started at the end of 2021. The reduction in loss has allowed them to focus their efforts on growing revenue in their stores instead of incurring losses. In addition to preventing losses, it’s bolstered their traditional credit underwriting activities associated with card issuance, continuing risk mitigation after the card is issued.