Foreign IDs: Why some people are more successful check cashers

A customer walks into your store, hands over his check and matricula consular card and you tell him what?

1. Sorry, I won’t cash your check.
2. Great!  Let me process this for you.

If it’s option 1, you’re probably turning away a lot of customers.

A summary of March 2010 data from AllTrust Networks shows that customers with foreign IDs consisted about 17% of all check cashing transactions nationwide in March.

You’d expect states like California to have a high percentage, and you’d be right, as they clocked in at about 25% of transactions.

States with surprisingly high percentages were Colorado, Utah, and South Carolina, all with about 35% of transactions driven by foreign IDs.

Overall, about 2/3 of foreign ID transactions are driven by Mexican identifications, typically a matricula consular card.

So. . .if you’re cashing checks, do you accept foreign IDs?  Does your check cashing software handle foreign IDs?