You know the gold foil holograms on some of our Canadian currency? These are a built-in security feature, among others to help protect against forgers. Some have seen a similar hologram on cheque stock and equated the same sense of security with cheques as with currency. These people would be mistaken.
Here is the MYTH: These holograms (or in some cases simply gold looking labels) are added on the cheque stock using a simple process. They are stuck on using heat or in some cases, they actually are stickers and simply applied to the stock. In this respect, they actually provide zero added security to your cheques.
Here are a few other reasons why they aren’t necessary:
- The CPA (Canadian Payments Association) does not require these to be on your cheques. In fact, with the new cheque image standards of the CPA, they prefer them not to be there as they increase the file size scanned and show up as a large black square on the images.
- The Banking Association does not require them.
- The clearinghouses that process your cheques do not require them.
- The added security you get with them is minimal at best, as any printer in the world, honest or dishonest, can add them to any cheque or paper, for pennies a page.
- They are not regulated or controlled in any way, and anyone can add them to a cheque.
- Because they are simply “stuck on”, there is no guarantee that they won’t come off in a laser printer. Some are applied with heat and can come off with the heat of certain printers.
- Some printer manufacturers may not honor a warranty or service if these holograms/stickers have come off inside the printer and damaged it in any way.
If cheque stock security is your concern, start using Cheque Print today for all of your cheque needs. Here is why:
Cheque Print Solutions Inc. offers one level of cheque stock – the best. We offer this at no additional charge to our customers. DocuCheck® Impede, complete with Toner fuse is the most secure cheque stock available on the market. You can read more about the security features on our stock security sheet in our Cheque Security section.
