BANGOR – In the age of the Internet, high-speed computers and enhanced telecommunications, it should come as no surprise that banking also is taking its place in the digital world.

But a new component of the high-tech banking business is making use of a very low-tech financial tool – the personal check.

TeleCheck Services Inc., a 35-year-old Houston-based company that specializes in identifying checks likely to bounce, has developed a new service that scans a traditional paper check and transfers the money electronically from the customer’s checking account to the merchant’s coffers.

The service is designed to eliminate many accounting difficulties for the businesses that use it, as TeleCheck promises to cover the value of any bounced check it approves for processing. TeleCheck also maintains its own collection bureau for recovery of funds lost by bad checks.

When a customer writes a check at a business using the new service, the cashier scans the check, and the customer’s bank account and routing numbers are recorded. TeleCheck computers then access a database of all customers who have written checks at any one of the more than 225,000 member merchants in the United States. The customer’s check is denied if they have issued bad checks at any number of other TeleCheck stores.

If the customer has no history of bad checks, the account number is recorded for an electronic transaction. The cashier then presents the customer with a slip, similar to a credit card receipt, for the customer to sign. The signature allows TeleCheck to convert the check into an electronic transaction. The paper check is then immediately voided and returned to the customer for their records.

TeleCheck spokeswoman Jalina Jones said Friday that the system is designed to ensure that businesses get the money they are promised and also helps to limit the proliferation of bad-check writers who may be deterred by the sight of a TeleCheck computer.

“It essentially converts a check into an electronic transaction at the point of sale,” Jones said. “This brings the world of paper checks into the new millennium.”

Jones said all decisions are based on the customer’s history with TeleCheck, and the company doesn’t have access to a customer’s account balance or credit history. She described TeleCheck records as a “proprietary database.”

“TeleCheck does not have access to account balances,” Jones said. “It is shared information between merchants. Basically, if you have an unpaid balance at one TeleCheck merchant you probably won’t be approved at another TeleCheck merchant.”

Jones also said that the electronic transaction behaves just like a paper check, as the money isn’t transferred for two or three days after it is initiated. “Because it’s an electronic transaction many assume it’s an immediate transaction,” Jones said. “It’s not. It really goes through the whole banking system in the same amount of time” as a regular check.

VIP Discount Automotive, an auto parts and repair chain with 46 stores throughout New England, is testing the service at its Bangor store on the Odlin Road. Michael Marcotte, staff accountant for VIP, said Friday that the Bangor store has used the electronic check verification service since the company opened the branch in June.

“It is a test pilot,” Marcotte said. “It’s a way to kind of experience the pros and cons of the system.”

Marcotte said that combined the 46 stores typically receive a total of 200 bad checks each month, and they are willing to try any program that promises to eliminate an aspect of their business that threatens to eat away at 1 or 2 percent of their annual sales. But Marcotte said that while the service has eliminated bad checks at the Bangor store, it also has prevented some people from using what would otherwise be a good check.

Some banks don’t have the technical capability to respond to the TeleCheck inquiries, said Marcotte.

In those cases, Marcotte said, VIP will deposit the paper checks in the traditional manner, which forces the company to add additional budget lines to its accounting paperwork.

“So now you’ve got accountants managing two different systems, which kind of defeats the purpose,” Marcotte said. “It’s accountants creating an additional step by not being 100 percent. It has been a little difficult to decide to go forward with the other stores.”

But Jones disputes that claim, saying the service is designed to follow the format banks use when transferring funds between each other. “These [transactions] are in a file format that banks use all the time,” Jones said. “I don’t think we have come across a bank that did not recognize this type of transaction.”

Marcotte added that the service is still under review by VIP, and the company has seen dramatic improvements in the number of bad checks passed at the Odlin Road store. He said he recently was reviewing a monthly statement for five VIP stores that listed the number of bad checks deposited at one bank. “I’m looking at my statements and I’m thinking, ‘Why do I only see four different store numbers?”’ Marcotte said.

Marcotte said the service is based on a percentage of the total value of the checks processed in a given month. For example, Marcotte said, for $100,000 in checks processed through the TeleCheck system, VIP sends about $1,000 to the company. By comparison, many merchants pay between 1.7 and 3.8 percent of their revenues from transactions paid by credit cards, Marcotte said.

Sally Sutton, executive director of the Maine Civil Liberties Union, said Friday that she had concerns about any business that compiles information about the financial history of consumers. Any such database, she said, should be made available to customers who want to inspect and correct the information.

“I think any time that there is information being accumulated or gathered about an individual they should know what’s being gathered,” Sutton said, “and have a way to correct it.”

Sutton said she recently had purchased items using a TeleCheck terminal, but had no idea that any information about her financial activity was being recorded. She expressed concern that computer hackers could infiltrate the TeleCheck database, or the database could be sold to marketing firms.

“There is a lot of valuable information being gathered there,” Sutton said. “It’s a record of someone’s buying activity as well, and is that information being used for purposes that an individual might object to?”

Jones said that customers should feel comfortable with the security of the system, and are encouraged to contact TeleCheck if they want to inspect or correct any information recorded about them. Jones also said that the information in the database is the exclusive property of TeleCheck and isn’t sold to or shared with any other company.

Meanwhile, Mary Thompson, a cashier at the VIP store that uses a TeleCheck terminal, said Friday that customers are greeting the new system with mixed emotions. The most common among them, she said, is confusion.

“They don’t know why they’re getting their check back,” Thompson said. “They don’t understand. They sign it, and I don’t think they realize what they’re signing.”