Lock Box Services How does a lockbox work for a bank customer? There are several advantages that are available with a lockbox system, including being able to access funds more readily, and for a business it means getting checks into accounts seamlessly and quickly, and earning interest on payments made by check that would otherwise be waiting for the checks to clear.

Wells Fargo lockbox service

The Wells Fargo bank launched a pilot lockbox program in the early 2000's that allowed certain banks to process checks electronically. It was an innovative electronic process that was designed to be a simple way to offer "flexible remittance processing" that offers the following services: a) it reduces outstanding sales for any given day; b) by automating manual processes the threat of theft, error and fraud is reduced; c) from a person's laptop or desktop computer, account information is readily available; and d) a lockbox improves the cash flow situation by speeding up remittances (Wells Fargo).

Meanwhile, in 2003 Wells Fargo announced that its lockbox conversion service was available to all corporate customers across the county. The first Wells Fargo banks to over the check conversion / lockbox service were located in Chicago, Denver, Dallas, Los Angeles,...

In an article published in the peer-reviewed journal, American Banker, the service was described as taking paper checks and converting them through a clearing house to "automated…debits" in businesses where consumers send check to large billers.
"Conversion means faster collections," according to the journalist Steve Bills, writing in the American Banker journal. Converting paper checks into electronic funds paves the way for "lower deposit fees, and often higher collection rates on checks returned for insufficient funds" (Bills, 2003, p. 1). At the time this article was written Wells Fargo was converting "…more than a million checks a month" following the initial four-month pilot rollout. In the four-month initial launch Wells Fargo was handling 150,000 paper check payments from 330,000 of its own credit card customers (Bills, p. 1).

Two days after publishing the preceding article, Bills wrote about how Wells Fargo's lockbox service can be a tool against fraud. Besides converting checks to automated clearing house debits, the Wells Fargo lockbox system gives companies "…earlier notice of non-payments," in particular with credit card customers, which gives credit card companies notice that credit…