Certegy Check Verification Process and Check Approval Policy Explained

Certegy is a risk-management company for businesses that accept checks. Its services help merchants determine whether or not certain purchasers may pose a fraud risk. Thousands of merchants use Certegy to reduce risk in accepting checks as a form of payment.

Certegy Check Verification Process

When you present a check at a register, the cashier will run it through a Certegy-provided scanner that communicates with the company’s database. Certegy runs various pieces of information through its suite of analytics, which compiles your individual risk profile. Certegy then provides the business with an immediate “accept” or “reject” decision regarding the check.

Verification Requirements

Certegy provides few details about its verification criteria and what goes into its risk analysis framework. The company states that your credit score is not a factor in the risk model; the decision of whether to accept a check or not is based on a statistical analysis of your check compared to all other checks in the Certegy system.

Certegy also says that it may try to contact your bank to determine whether or not you have sufficient funds in your account. To protect your privacy, Certegy does not provide the merchant with any of your personal information when it declines a check.

What Should I Do If Certegy Declines My Check?

Certegy processes millions of checks per year, and only about 1.5% to 2.5% are declined. Certegy cannot override check rejections; however, each check transaction is unique, so previous rejections do not necessarily mean that Certegy will decline your checks in the future.

If you believe that identity theft might have played a role in your rejection, you should file a police report, so you have evidence of the suspected theft. When challenging an aspect of your Certegy report related to identity theft, you should provide:

• An original, notarized affidavit with your signature, which you can download from Certegy’s website; See our previous research for information on where to find a notary.
• A legible copy of your driver’s license
• A copy of the police report (if available)

Requesting Your Certegy File

The Fair Credit Reporting Act requires Certegy to provide you with a copy of your individual file once during a 12-month period. To request a copy of your Certegy file, you can call the company at (800) 237-3826 or write to:

Certegy Payment Solution, LLC
P.O. Box 30046
Tampa, FL 33630

Additionally, you can request a copy within 60 days of receiving a notice that your check was declined. To view further details of your rejected transaction, you can use Certegy’s online check lookup service.

Merchants That Use Certegy

Certegy does not provide a full list of its clients due to confidentiality requests and the fact that a large number of merchants use its services. However, companies that have given Certegy permission to share their location data are included on its website under the Check Cashing Locations tab.

Our previous details the list of places that don’t use Certegy, as well as some that do.