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This product lists the questions asked and a summary of the
answers given in a GAO-administered in-depth interview study
with 108 bank checking account customers. These structured
interviews were conducted to assess consumer acceptance of the
check truncation process resulting from The Check Clearing for
the 21st Century Act of 2003 (Check 21), one of the objectives of
GAO’s report on the Act’s effect on economic efficiency and its impact
on financial institutions and consumers. The purpose of Check 21, which
took effect in 2004, was to facilitate electronic check processing by
authorizing the acceptance of substitute checks as the legal equivalent of the original checks.
For the interview study, GAO recruited adults living in or near three metropolitan
areas who were primarily responsible for the main checking account in their households,
who recalled receiving their cancelled checks in their original paper form at some point
beyond the year 2000, who had not participated in other similar studies in a given period,
and who spoke English. Participants were recruited by phone. Apart from these qualifications,
the participants formed a group that was roughly representative of the U.S. adult population on
several demographic characteristics.
One-on-one interviews with the consumers were held in Atlanta, Chicago and Boston in
May of 2008. GAO interviewers asked participants questions about their experiences with
and opinions of different check return practices.
The data collected through our structured consumer interviews are subject to certain
limitations. For example, the data cannot be generalized to the entire U.S. population of bank consumers. Additionally, the self-reported data we obtained are based on their opinions and memories, which may be subject to error and may not predict their future behavior.
While the wording of the questions in this e-supplement is very similar to the
questions we administered in our structured interview, not all introductory or
interviewer instruction text is reproduced, and for ease of presentation the
format of this e-supplement differs markedly from the actual
interviewer-administered paper instrument. For brevity, individual answers to
short-answer text questions and some numeric questions are not displayed.
We conducted all of our work in accordance with generally accepted government
auditing standards. A more detailed discussion of our scope and methodology,
and a discussion of our results, is contained in our report
"CHECK 21 ACT: Most Consumers have Accepted and Banks are
Progressing Toward Full Adoption of Check Truncation," GAO-09-8 (Washington, D.C.: October, 2008).
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