Partial Clark Stinks!
Clark forgot two important items in the discussion about purchasing checks online.
- Read the privacy policy … some vendors capture your into and sell it to mailing lists and/or share with marketing partners. bradfordexchangechecks.com is one (poor) example where they sell your name to mailing lists, and share with their other Bradford Exchange divisions.
With this in mind, it would have been useful of offer a summary of the various vendor’s privacy policies for comparison. - Trackable shipping costs. The article only compares non-trackable “standard” shipping costs. I suggest that many consumers would be also interested in comparing the trackable shipping costs … especially when dealing with hundreds of checks containing important bank account information.
Sometimes, something that appears to be a great value … is being subsidized by selling your personal information. Its ok if you agree with the policies … to gain the discount, but it should be easier for the consumer to view and understand the privacy issues.
Off-topic … but I have seen a reward program for a local car wash that offered a minor discount and a free wash on your birthday … but you had to provide a credit card number you could charge the car wash. In the privacy policy fine print … you were also allowing the processor to download ALL your credit card transactions … not just ones dealing with the car wash.
Beware … are any of these online companies doing the same sort of thing? It would be good to know as part of the comparison across vendors.
Stay safe!
Dave B