CU*BASE Stop Payment Features

Non-Monetary Transaction Records of Stop Pay Activity

Whenever stop pay orders are created, changed, deleted, or expired, CU*BASE automatically will create a zero-dollar transaction record with the appropriate description. The secondary transaction description will show the check number(s) stopped.

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·HINT: Use the History feature in Phone Op to see the secondary description; it will also appear on the member's statement.

Fee Waiver Controls

The stop payment processing screen allows a user either to charge the regular stop pay fee, or not to charge it at all. A configuration option is also available so that you can decide to allow the fee to be changed at the time the order is placed. This was designed especially for credit unions that charge a different fee depending on the situation, such as a special fee for business accounts.

  • This change is made as part of the Dividend Application configuration for each individual share draft product type (Tool #777: Savings/Checking Products Config). Contact a client service representative if you would like assistance changing this flag for any of your checking account products.

By default the flag will be turned off, which means staff can still waive the fee, but will not be able to change the fee amount. Regardless of the setting of this flag, the stop pay system will write out a record to the fee waiver information file whenever a fee is changed or waived, to allow you to track stop pay fee activity. (Use the Fee Waiver Information Report (Tool 371) to review these waivers.)

“Suspect” Stop Pay Processing for Share Drafts

In the past, if a stop payment record was created with both a draft # and an amount, the system would only stop the draft if it came in for that exact amount. Now share draft processing will be able to stop an item that is a “suspected” match to a stop payment record.

This means that if the stop payment record has either a draft # or an amount, instead of posting it, the item will be stopped and marked as “suspect” on the share draft exception report and included in the exception list.

Suspect share draft items will be displayed on the exception screen with code 34. Items with this code can be force-paid using the G code (a non-return fee will NOT be assessed for these items).

In-house Checks via Teller Posting

When a check is cashed using the in-house checks feature in either standard Teller Line Posting or Xpress Teller, a stop pay will be honored only if there is an exact match to the check # on the stop pay order. Since there is no mechanism to deal with “suspect” stop pays in the teller workflow, stop pay orders that do not contain a check number are ignored by teller in-house checks.

Therefore, if a member wants to stop payment on a physical check that someone could potentially carry into a CU lobby, the stop pay order must include the check #. If desired, a second stop pay order could be created just for the dollar amount, to flag that as a suspect hit should the item get converted to ACH and be presented that way, but usually even those do include the check #.

ACH Stop Payments

ACH processing will monitor the following ACH standard entry class codes and verify incoming items against ALL CU*BASE stop pay records. (These include stop payments on any incoming request presented through the ACH system (including stop payments on draft items.)

For incoming items it is possible to create a stop pay record with simply the amount. For any of the monitored standard entry class codes, ACH processing will check against all stop pay records (including check requests, with and without a draft number) and will stop any incoming item that is a “suspected” match. Read the following examples for an explanation of what would be considered “suspect”.

Example 1: A stop pay order is an incoming ACH payment request for the amount of $125.00. Incoming ACH debits with one of the monitored standard entry class codes will be handled as follows:

  • If the item comes in for the amount of $125.00, it will be stopped and marked as “suspect” on the ACH exception report.

  • Suspect items that turn out to be valid can be force-posted to member accounts using an account adjustment against the ACH suspense G/L, as usual.

Example 2: A stop payment order is created for check # 1234 for the amount of $150.00. Incoming ACH debits with one of the monitored standard entry class codes will be handled as follows:

  • If the item comes in with check # 1234 and the amount of $150.00, it will be stopped.

  • If the item comes in without a check number but the amount of the item is $150.00, it will be stopped and marked as “suspect” on the ACH exception report.

  • If the item comes in with check # 1234 but for an amount of $160.00, it will be stopped and marked as “suspect” on the ACH exception report.

  • If the item comes in for the amount of $150.00 but with check #4321, it will be stopped and marked as “suspect” on the ACH exception report.

Example 3: A stop pay order is for a check for $125.00 with no check number. Incoming ACH debits with one of the monitored standard entry class codes will be handled as follows:

  • If the item comes in for the amount of $125.00 but no check number, it will be stopped and marked as “suspect” on the ACH exception report.

  • If the item comes in for the amount of $125.00 with any check number, it will also be stopped and marked as “suspect” on the ACH exception report.

  • Suspect items that turn out to be valid can be force-posted to member accounts using an account adjustment against the ACH suspense G/L, as usual.

IMPORTANT: To keep your list of “suspect” items manageable, we still recommend you NOT enter an amount for any checkstop pay records unless it is for an ACH item where you do not have a draft number (usually just WEB or TEL items, or for a pre-authorized draft).

Stop Pay Comments

The member account comment is created automatically whenever a stop pay order is placed. This comment will include both the check number(s), if available and the comment from the stop pay record. If a Company name is entered when the Stop Pay is created, a second comment line will list the company name.

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Default Purge Date

The default "Purge date" that is calculated when entering a stop pay is calculated using the number of months entered in the "Purge stop payment records after xx months" field on the Teller Member Workflow Controls screen.  This number of months can be changed manually by adjusting the date when adding the stop pay is entered.  Tellers can always change this to 99999 (never purge) when creating the request.

Stop Pay Duration for Online Banking

A configuration option is available to allow you to set a different expiration period for stop pay orders placed via online banking. The expiration period can be specified in either days or months. For example, you can have these stop pays use a 14-day expiration window instead of your standard period (such as 6 months).

If you would like to change the expiration period for these stop pay orders, or if you do not currently offer stop pay processing through online banking and would like to start, please contact a client service representative. Self-processors can make the change using OPER Tool #5356 ARU/Online Banking Config)

If your credit union policy requires that members come in to sign paperwork in order for the stop pay order to be in place for the standard term, you would simply update the stop pay request to use a new expiration date.

Remember that online banking will also alert the member of the fee amount and the calculated expiration date when the stop pay order is confirmed.