State Programs

• Every state has enacted laws to protect merchants from customers who write bad checks. Most of those programs include criminal prosecution and civil restitution. However, merchants must follow notice and complaint procedures to recover the funds.
  
  

Private Collections

• Several private companies offer check restitution assistance. Such companies are essentially debt collectors. Given that states have well-developed programs for collecting from and prosecuting fraudulent check writers, the expense of hiring a private debt collector is usually unnecessary.
  
  

Banks

• Some banks also offer bad check recovery programs. These programs are generally focused on reprocessing the check several times prior to returning it to the merchant and little more.