12/19/2007
An NFIB-supported bill to help businesses recover costs for handling bad checks was signed Tuesday by Gov. Ed Rendell. HB 296, sponsored by state Rep. Richard Stevenson (Mercer County), will increase the service charge for passing bad checks to $50. State law previously set the charge at $20. The measure now will be referenced as Act 70 of 2007.
"More than one million bad checks are written every day at a cost of more than $55 million in lost daily payments," said NFIB/Pennsylvania State Director Kevin Shivers. "Currently, the law only allows the business to charge the issuer a $20 service fee. The amount of time and personnel it takes to track down and collect from the convicted issuer is a tremendous financial burden on small business -- time and financial resources that would be better invested in running and growing the business."
Specifically, the measure raises to $50 the service charge that may be imposed by a business following conviction for passing bad checks. If the business victimized by the bad check is charged fees by its bank or financial institution in excess of $50, then the service charge it could recover from the issuer would not exceed the actual amount of the fees.
The change will take place in 60 days.
