Have you ever stopped payment on a check? It is rarely necessary for most of us, but the average person probably assumes that once a stop payment request has been submitted and the fee has been paid ($25.00 in this case), the bank will do its part by refusing to honor the check! It seems a safe assumption, especially in these days of instant electronic communications.

Think again! Read the story below. And don't assume your bank's policy is better. Although a dozen or so national and local banks with which I checked in the course of my research denied that this scenario could ever happen at their bank, Chase Manhattan agents told us the same thing! It took almost four months and a lot of persistence to get a clear answer as to what went wrong.

It all started Friday, April 22, 2005. A teenager knocked on the door of my 88-year-old aunt in Texas with a plate of delicious fruit. After offering some tasty samples, she asked if Aunt M. would like to buy some fresh fruit and vegetables. She said, "Sure!" The girl said her mother was just down the street and would come by in a few minutes.

About the time that the mother arrived, a TV repairman showed up and had to be shown the problem with the TV and set to work. By the time Aunt M. got back to the door, the fruit lady had unloaded seven boxes of fruit and vegetables in her driveway. "That will be $700.00," she said.

"We can't eat all of that! There are only two of us!" Aunt M. protested. The woman suggested she freeze it or give it away, and impatiently held out her hand for payment. Aunt M., flustered and somewhat intimidated, wrote the check.

After a sleepless night, Aunt M. called in a stop payment early the next morning, Saturday, April 23. She was assured the check had not been cashed. Monday morning, April 25, she went in person to the bank to make sure all was well. She was assured that the stop payment was in effect and the check would not be cashed. That seemed the end of it. The vendor could return for the boxes of unwanted fruit.

The check was mailed back separately mid-month, stamped "Payment Stopped. Do Not Represent." On the back was a date, 4/25/05.

The monthly statement did not include any information about the check. A $25.00 stop payment fee had been assessed. But something was strange. On May 2, an unexplained "forced debit" was listed for $700.00.

When Aunt M. inquired at the bank, she was told the $700.00 had been taken to cover that check. Stop payments, she was told, were not guaranteed for 24 hours. (Note that the stop payment was placed on the morning of April 23 and the check was brought to the bank the afternoon of April 25, more than 48 hours later.) The people at the branch were uncooperative and unapologetic, despite the fact that my aunt and uncle had banked there for several decades!

Months later, my poor aunt was still so frustrated and upset (mostly with herself) that she was losing sleep. I assured her that people are scammed all the time, even people who think it could never happen to them. The problem, from my perspective, was the bank! Why hadn't they stopped the payment as requested?

I checked the JPMorgan Chase web site and called 212-270-6000. A friendly and sympathetic customer service agent called bank officers and relayed that in the past there had been a 24 hour provision on stop payments, but that hadn't been the case for some time. She was not aware of any written policies and did not know who would have authority to help other than the (most unhelpful) local branch. A letter to the bank manager went unanswered. Visits to the branch got us nowhere. In August, my aunt received a form letter from the bank offering assistance with any problems, any time. When she called the telephone number listed, no one had heard of the person whose signature was on the letter!

Eventually, in September, persistence paid and I reached a cooperative manager who read me the following written policy from the Deposit Account Agreements and Disclosures, Part III: General Rules and Regulations of the Bank, Item 13 on page 7 (in "small print" of course)!

Stop Payments. The Bank will accept from you a stop payment order on an Item against your account provided the Bank has a reasonable opportunity to act on the order. You agree that one Business Day to act upon a stop payment order is a reasonable amount of time.

Saturday is not a "business day", although the bank is open. Sunday is not a business day. Monday at 10:00 begins a business day and Tuesday at 10:00 is 24 hours later. So as long as the scammer cashed the check by the close of business Monday evening, the bank holds itself harmless for lack of "reasonable opportunity to act on the order." The manager informed me that although Chase Manhattan is merging with Bank One, the policy will remain the same.

The moral of the story: Be aware this nightmare can happen and check the small print! Unfortunately, Chase Manhattan doesn't seem to care about even longstanding customers in a situation like this, not even enough to supply clear written answers to persistent queries and letters.

A final note: To be perfectly fair, I must give the bank credit for "forgiving" the $25.00 stop payment fee.

May he give you the desire of your heart, and make all your plans succeed. Psalm 20:4