My boyfriend just got mail from his credit union with the front of the envelope advertising "A Spooktacular Deal for the Holidays" or something along those lines. He assumed it was an announcement of a slightly-higher interest savings account or something of that ilk. NOPE.
Inside is a pre-approved personal loan offer for $3,000 at 14% interest payable over 24 months for "holiday shopping," or vacations or whatnot. The kicker? The bottom third of the page is a LIVE CHECK. It is not restricted to deposit only. The only thing one need do to accept the loan is to cash/deposit the check.
If he had tossed this and someone had grabbed it out of the bin, what would stop them from forging a signature and cashing it? How could we possibly prove that DBF had not received the money? What if we had moved and the credit union sent this to an old address? We could have this debt hanging around and not know about it until/unless we checked his credit report.
Pardon my naivete, but I thought that credit unions were supposed to be the good guys.