Wooden checks: they are scouring the stores of Angoulême and Cognac, what recourse can the cheated traders have?

“She bought me bracelets and fancy earrings for 50 euros,” laments Nelly Gemaux, the owner of the Pinch Perles brand, rue Aristide Briand, in Cognac. “I know she went to a photographer. And that she has 190 euros in debt with the lithotherapist.”

“A wooden check? We know in advance that it is lost for us,” lament several victims, aware that the only way to be truly protected is… to refuse the checks. What is the procedure to hope to get your money back? We asked Christine Charrier, the director of the Banque de France in Charente. First step, she specifies, the amicable procedure. Once your bank has sent you a “certificate of check rejection for lack of funds”, you have 30 days to ask the banking organization to represent it. During this period of time, the merchant “must try to obtain payment by contacting the person who wrote the check”.

To find the person who issued the wooden check, do your best!

Clearly, it is up to the victim to identify the issuer, ask them to fund their account or pay their dues by another means. To find it? Get on with it! His address is on the check but there is no guarantee that it is valid. You have to snoop, call him, write to him, flush him out on the networks. Or even knock on his door. If the amicable approach has failed, it’s time for the “forced” procedure. The cheated merchant can contact a court commissioner to ask him to serve the issuer with the non-payment certificate. “The debtor is then obliged to settle the debt within 15 days.” If the payment is still not regularized, the justice commissioner can “initiate any procedure to force the debtor to pay. A wage garnishment for example.”

The editorial team advises you

Christine Charrier assures us, the majority of disputes are resolved this way. However, victims are reluctant to initiate this long process. Their argument: “All this to recover a few dozen euros”. Especially since, in certain cases, the costs incurred to launch the forced recovery procedure must be advanced… by the merchant. Waiting for a hypothetical reimbursement by the issuer of the wooden check.