Seventies-looking digits on checks

Factual Questions
41

I’ve always liked the logo of Homer Simpson’s union: http://farm4.staticflickr.com/3769/10610223406_2b16f5c78b_z.jpg

42

I still do probably hundreds every year. For nearly all of my billers (utilities, doctors, etc) I pay online through my bank, but the bank still kicks out a physical check that gets mailed to the payee. Direct electronic billing still has a long way to go to get adopted.

43

I don’t write many checks either - but banking in the US will have to change a lot before checks can be completely eliminated. Let’s see when I use checks-

  1. For transactions with individual people- a birthday or wedding gift, or to pay my share of a group purchase. Sometimes cash works just as well, but I’m not going to mail cash or put an envelope with a few hundred dollars in cash into a box at a wedding. There are things like pop money that can get around this- but they have fees. And good luck getting my 76 year old mother to understand that I can send her money via email.

  2. to pay bills sent to me from entities that don’t accept credit/debit cards. For example, if my doctor’s office forgets to collect my copay and sends me a bill for $20. They don’t take credit/debit cards because it’s not worth it to pay the fees for such a small average transaction so it’s mail a check or pay by check (which means an extra trip because I don’t mail cash)
    Another situation where checks are used is to pay wages- sure, I can (and do ) have direct deposit. But lots of people in the US don’t have bank accounts and although there are payroll debit cards , they often have fees. In my state, to avoid employees essentially being paid less due to fees, there are regulations effective in March 2017* for paying by debit card which make paying by check much less of a hassle ( and probably less expensive to employers)

  • Some of the requirements
    Employees must :
  • have access to at least one (1) fee-less ATM within a reasonable travel distance from where the employees work or live;
    -have access to unlimited withdrawals from a fee-less ATM; and
    -not incur fees for: checking their balance; maintenance; account inactivity; overdraft; contacting customer service; receiving written statements or transaction histories; closing an account; card replacement (at reasonable intervals); taking action necessary to receive wages or hold the payroll debit card; or point of sale transactions.
44

It used to be the case that many people in the UK didn’t have bank accounts either. Banks don’t really want customers who spend all their wages as soon as they get them, so they were forced to offer basic no-frills accounts. ATMs are ubiquitous here and the fee-paying ones are mainly found in service stations and airports.

The two cheques I used in 2016 were for paying tradesmen. I imagine that next time |I need my gutters cleaning I will pay cash or use an app on my phone. Many shops and other organisation don’t accept cheques these days anyway. The real question is - how much longer will we even need coins and notes? 2030 or so is my guess.

45

Barring a complete overhaul (or abolition) of the money system, we’ll need them for as long as people still value their privacy. Cheques, credit cards, and electronic transfers are not anonymous the way that cash is.