So long to canceled checks: you should ask for 'substitute checks' as proof you paid.(money)

Get ready for an October surprise from your bank. Starting late that month, as a result of a new federal law, your account statement will come with fewer--or perhaps none--of your canceled paper checks, even if you want them. You'll also enjoy less "float"--that time between the day you write a check and the day the money is removed from your account. And you'd better be fast if you hope to stop payment on a check. However, you will gain the right to quick correction of clerical mistakes. Here's a rundown of the changes.

FEW CHECKS ON CHECKS

The new miles, which take effect on Oct. 28, arise from the Check Clearing for the 21st Century Act, or Check 21 in bankers' lingo. Its aim is to let banks use electronic-check processing efficiencies to cut an estimated $2 billion a year from the cost of moving, clearing, and returning paper checks. Unfortunately, law does not require the banks to pass any of those savings on to their customers.

CONSUMER REPORTS has historically advised consumers to get canceled checks, because they are a legal record of a disputed payment. An original canceled check also provides crucial evidence for experts in forgery cases.

Check 21 instead creates a new legal proof of payment, the "substitute check," a special paper copy, which the bank warrants is an accurate and legible representation of the original. Ordinary check images, which many banks now include in the monthly statement to customers who haven't asked for the originals, are not substitute checks.

The law gives consumers a new right to get speedy credit when the bank double-debits a check of pays the wrong amount. That's similar to protections accorded to debit-card purchases, but those rights apply only if a substitute check has been generated. (See "Did You Know?" below.)

The law, however, does not explicitly require banks to provide substitute checks. Nor does the law limit the fee the bank may charge for producing the checks. Consumers Union, the publisher of CONSUMER REPORTS, and other consumer groups have petitioned the Federal Reserve to clarify consumers' rights this summer when it releases the miles that interpret the law. (For more information, visit www.consumersunion .org/finance/ckclear1002.htm.)