Under the federal Check 21 Act, banks will no longer return original cancelled checks to consumers. The federal Act gives consumers certain new rights, including a right to have funds recredited to a checking account when a so-called substitute check is used. However, the proposed federal regulation to implement those rights will make it very hard for consumers to use them. For example, the regulation restricts the new right of recredit only to consumers who have received a special kind of copy of a check called a substitute check, but the new regulation does not require banks to give consumers a substitute check on request, and it does not treat an electronic image of a substitute check as sufficient to trigger the consumer’s rights. Click here to read the comments filed by Consumers Union and other national consumer organizations about the problems with the Check 21 proposed regulations.