American Samoa's Treasurer, Magalei Logovii, says its only temporary that the customs office is not accepting personal or company cheques to settle excise taxes and other customs fees.
The policy went into effect on last Wednesday without any prior notice to the business community.
Mr Logovii says there's about 50,000 US dollars in bad cheques which the government has been trying to collect.
So, he says for now he's requiring that companies pay with cash, cashier's check, money order, debit card or credit card.
He says for now he will assess the track record of companies and those who do not have credit problems will be cleared to use cheques to make payments.
Magalei Logovii says the Customs Office will be given a list of good and bad customers.
