Would anyone be willing to share their procedures for issuing a VISA Check Card? Thanks

We issue Visa Check/ATM cards to almost anyone (individual) that opens an account. I is part of the account opening spiel. The customer has to request the card by signing an agreement. We are unusual in that we charge $2.00 per customer relationship to have a Visa Check/ATM card. That's one charge for a CIF customer relationship if two cards are issued or if one card is issued there is just the one charge of $2.00 per month.

if you trust the customer enough to open the checking account and give them checks they why not give them a debit card. the bank can freeze the card much faster then stopping all checks written. Then merchants in your community will not be accepting debit card transactions where they might take a check and get it back. with a debit card transaction they know at the time of the purchase

Not necessarily. There is more risk with a debit card as transactions are not always automatically debited from a customers account immediately. And while the merchant is generally assured of getting paid, if there is a problem with collectibility, it falls on the bank.

There are also $0 to $50 liability rules which are more stringent than Reg. Es, further increasing bank losses.

Check cards can be a state issue as it may enter into a minor signing for credit. You may want to check that area as you giving a form of credit to a minor. We discovered this fact from our VISA Represemtative and looking into our state laws found we did have an issue. We do not issue cards for anyone under 18 unless the parent is on the account and signs a form authorizing this action.

I do agree this is not the type of card every customer should receive. We have istituted that the Branch /Loan Officer approves those applications.

Another area is account closure as it can not be immediately completed as it does take time for the credit side transactions to be deducted from the account. You may want to set procedures for that action.

One factor here is whether your system is real-time on-line (or whatever the IT folks call it) rather than a batch processing system. If you are a batch processor then your risk is definitely increased.

It is a given to only issue check cards to eligible adults and not to minors. We are batch and yes, you need a good administrator to properly handle complaints and mis use, we have had very little loss. Most problems can be worked out, use by a family member is the most common and usually when told they have to file a police report, the problem goes away.