by I think the original poster is correct that this may belong in a legal
newsgroup....so for people not interested.......this is OFF TOPIC. I think
you are correct about a creditor having to accept any form of payment
offered. You're post reminded me of a news article I read a while back
about a man who paid his last alimony check to his ex-wife with a plain
white T-shirt. He simply drew a picture of a check on the T-shirt,
including his bank transit routing number, his account number, a check
number, and the amount to be paid on the T-shirt. Someone took him to court
over it (I can't remember if it was the woman, her lawyer, or her bank) and
he won because all of the required information was on the T-shirt. He wrote
in large letters at the top of the shirt "THE SHIRT OFF OF MY BACK." The
judge ordered the party receiving the shirt to take it to the bank, and
ordered the bank to honor it. I guess a retail establishment can get around
this requirement by using their "right to refuse service to anyone" and that
is the reason they are not required to accept a certain coin or bill that is
legal tender. But it seems like to me, that if a clerk at a convenience
store had reason to believe a coin or note was counterfeit, they would not
be obligated to accept it. Again, I don't know what the law is, but I hope
someone who does will let me know, because I find it interesting.
Dustin
> > I don't know for sure, but I don't think any retailer is required to
> accept
> > any currency they don't wish to (for example, mail order companies can
> > require a credit card to be used, although many people would like to pay
> by
> > other means.) Another example is a convenience store that won't take a
> bill
> > larger than $20. A bank on the other hand should gladly exchange a
Susan
> B.
> > for a paper dollar, and a damaged note can be mailed to the Treasury
> Dept,
> > where they will destroy the damaged note and mail you a new one.
> But ive heard many stories of people paying for tickets, fines, etc. with
> pennies - I think perhaps that a convenience store or any other commercial
> establishment can refuse to accept your $20 because they don't have to
sell
> to anyone if they don't wnat to (unless it can be shown to be
> discriminatory) But when someone is trying to collect on a bill / fine/
> whatever, (again IM GUESSING!) I think they might have to take your
> pennies, or even bills as long as the whole face on the bill & at least
two
> corners are present (this last bit was told to me by a teller - I mean
what
> makes a bill legal tender - not who has to accept it. (As a juvenile, I
> had fun torturing a particularly tight friend of mine by slowly shredding
> a $20 - just enough of it that is)
> ian