An Introduction to Payment Systems

You gotta be real curious about the world around you to read this book. It is a supplement for a course on the Uniform Commercial Code taught in law schools. However, a curious layman with a sense of challenge would find it fascinating. This book - out of the law school context - need not be read from beginning to end. One can pick and choose the subjects of interest from the table of contents. The law of negotiable instruments is an area of practice that few lawyers understand, but the legal effects of the everyday transactions that we all deal with can be redily understood by a layman. Today we are all steeped in the very transactions described in this book. Did you ever wonder what rights you give away when signing a "negotiable" promissory note, or rights that you have when you purchase a certificate of deposit, receive a bad check, buy a money order or buy traveler's checks? Can you stop payment on an electronic payment you make on your checking account? Sometimes people don't watch the decimal points when paying the electric bill online and order the bank to pay out $23,000 instead of $23.00. Are you responsible for a bounced check to the IRS when the bank's computer screws up? Are you aware that when you deposit money with a bank you are the bank's creditor and the bank is your debtor? What are the legal effects of identity theft? How does your credit card work? When will a credit card issuer honor your objection to a debited item and when will it not? Why should you pay your credit card with a check rather than an electronic transfer? And what are the rights and remedies of the consumer against banks and credit card companies? It's all there for those willing to dig and you don't have to pay $41 to get one. Buy a used one for about $10 and have some fun.