If a customer is prepared, then a check takes no longer for our cashiers than a credit card. Being on the management end of retail, I prefer checks. While we do get the occasional bounced check, the costs do not approach our credit card fees. So far this year, we have paid over $25,000 in credit card service fees.
my local supermarket recently outlawed using checks there, you dont have cash or an eftpos (debit) card then to bad.
their point of view, which i agree with is basically, there is 3 different ATMs within 30 seconds walking distance, and 4 banks within 5 mins walking so there is no excuse not to have cash if you dont have eftpos.
and if you using a check because you know you dont have any money in your account, then you breaking the law and why should they help you do that?
To briefly add to this hijack:
I never carry a purse and haven’t since high school. I find them annoying and difficult to keep up with. I have a small wallet that I carry - I will toss it in my backpack when I’m on campus, but otherwise it goes in my pocket.
My point of view is basically, the store is not in any position to tell me that I have “no excuse” to not use cash. That is a personal decision, and if I don’t consult them on what type of tampons to buy, I’m certainly not going to consult them on whether I should pay with a check or not.
Your store would lose my business for that type of attitude.
If I bounce a check (and I won’t), THEN you can request cash. Otherwise, I’ll be spending my thousands of bucks per year at the grocery across the street.
It’s easier to keep track of transactions, I have the check log right in my checkbook and it reminds me to write down the money spent.
I don’t carry cash…most times I don’t have cash. I don’t like to carry cash.
Similarly, I do not carry my debit card all the time, and not all the places I shop in accept debit cards.
You’re not alone in observing this, Max…
Quoted from Seinfeld:
So, I’m on line at the supermarket. Two women in front of me, one of them, her total was eight dollars, the other, three dollars. They both, of course, choose to pay by the use of the check.
Now the fact is if it is a woman in front of you that’s writing out the check, you’ll not be waiting long. I have noticed that women are very fast with checks, you know, because they write out so many checks.
The keys they can never find in their purse, they don’t know where that is. But the check book they got that. They never fumble for the check book. They’ve got… The check book comes out of a holster, “Who do I make it out to? There’s my I.D.”
There’s something about a check that to a man is not masculine. I don’t know exactly what it is. I think to a man a check is like a note from your mother that says, “I don’t have any money, but if you’ll contact these people I’m sure they’ll stick up for me, if you could just trust me this one time. I don’t have any money, but I have these. I wrote on these. Is this of any value at all?”
they have lost some business, but certainly not a large percentage, or even a noticeable percentage, and that loss of business certainly doesnt come close to the amount of money they were losing thanks to stolen and bounced checks.
I write four checks a month and I usually have trouble finding it when I need it. My girlfriend lets her husband handle the checkbook. I generally don’t carry cash, so this means everything is paid for by plastic.
So, I don’t know what you’re talking about.
OTOH, it’s not as though you can pay parking meters, or pay phones, or any number of automated things with anything BUT change/cash, so if you need to pay for that too, then a cheque becomes handy in a store where the equipment exists to process it.
I, however, use debit for EVERYTHING. I even pay-at-the-pump all the time if I know where the gas stations that have it are (And I do for all the driving I usually do). I love my debit card…so handy. Like someone said, cash itself is just too easy to spend, while debit makes you think about your purchase. So much better.
I am a woman. I don’t know where my checkbook is. The last time I had to find it was to void a check for direct deposit authorization at work. I found my checkbook in the freezer of the mini-fridge. I’m guessing right now its somewhere else.
I don’t use my checkbook. I like paying for stuff on debit card or online. I also don’t think I’ve balanced the checkbook since high school.
I did use my checkbook in high school…my parents would verify that I balanced my check book and all of the check amounts and that they were filled in properly (including the freaking memo line). It was really a control thing for them–they monitored my mail and very overly strict. They thought I would be dumb enough to buy condoms or some other taboo item and write it in the memo or something. I never did that…although I did have a lot of checks for “stuff.” 
Hehehe…fond memories of sneaking stuff.
I’m female, and I don’t even own a checkbook. I haven’t had one for about 5 years. I use my cards for everything. If I do need a check written, my SO does it with his checkbook.
And yesterday at the grocery store, I was behind a man who wrote a check. So there.
I’m female, and I use my check book to pay bills. I generally use a debit card for purchases, but I write the amount in the check register just as if I’d written a check. (I know myself well enough to know that if I’m set free with cash I’ll piss my money away on shit I don’t need. Like shoes. And beer.)
I used to write a lot more checks when I lived in Rural State, but now that I live in Big City, I’ve found that a lot of businesses won’t take them anyway, so I’ve sort of broken the habit of writing them.
Because from personal, anecdotal experience, it seems to many of us that the people who are holding up lines while their 75 cent check clears are women.
My fathers new girlfriend is awefull about this. ARGH! She doesn’t carry around a single cent in hard currency, and then gets angry when the drive through fast food place only takes cash and borrows money from me!
To you compulsive check writers: carry some fucking cash with you goddamnit! If I see you pulling out your checkbook to buy a box of tic tacs again I’m going to scream in frustration.
I once wrote a check for 72 cents, I think it was. I needed a pen for an exam. I had no cash, but I did have my checkbook.
I normally don’t do that sort of thing. These days, I’d buy the whole box of pens and charge it – or just “borrow” a pen from somewhere.
I have the opposite problem. Nothing I own has pockets in it.
I’m horrible at money management. Duplicate checks are a godsend - mostly cos when I had* a debit card I would forget to write down what I used it for. Add to that the ability to live in a check-friendly area, the fact that cash goes through my fingers like water, my lack of credit card, and the fact that (aside from the purchase of the actual check blanks) checks cost me no more than the green stuff, I see no reason to use anything but.
*Please note the had. I got myself into so much financial difficulty over that it’s not even funny.
Totally off topic, but if I were a woman i WOULD carry a purse…why? To sneak Mountain Dew into movies of course… 
Seriously, i have fond memories of taking my kid sister to the movies and having her sneak in candy and soda in her play purse…i envy females
It’s much worse down here in Dixieland. Not only do most women pay by check, even in the “Quick Check” Out line, but they also feel a need to shoot the shit with the cashier for a few minutes. If they aren’t in a hurry what the hell are they doing in the fast lane?
My blood pressure rises and life expectancy falls.
Years ago, I never carried a purse, did carry a checkbook, and have written checks for small piddley amounts. Options in those days pre-ATM, have cash or write check. If I wasn’t carrying cash and wasn’t near a bank, I’d write a check for everything.
Then the ATM came along. I’d still write a check for anything more than a few dollars, because I don’t like to carry cash (still don’t). Have no idea where it goes, I’m thoughtless about leaving it around - me and cash don’t mix.
The the debit card arrived. Now I don’t need to carry purse nor checkbook, because I have the almighty debit card - which works everywhere that used to require a check.
The children arrived. Not willing to haul a diaper bag everywhere, I now have a big honkin’ purse, holding two diapers, wipes, fruit snacks, one McDonalds Happy Meal transformer and three pretty rocks chosen especially for me.
My guess is that for many people who still write a lot of checks, they don’t use ATMs often, don’t use debit cards and are still living in 1980.
I have a question which is not directed at any person.
Why do people use debit cards?
I had one, but sent it back. Because it seemed like a totally losing proposition to me.
I have Discover (which pays me some cash back), a Master Card which gives me cash back, and an American Express which gives me from 1-2 Delta miles per every dollar I spend. On every single thing I charge.
I simply pay my charges off every month, and incur no interest. In fact, I have paid no credit card interest charges in more than…10? 12? years, I think? I honestly cannot remember. And I only buy what I would have bought with a check or cash anyhow. There is no magic leprechaun who tells me “You have a $50,000 credit limit - buy a Corvette!”, so I do not ever need to use a card as a loan service. If I need a large capital purchase, I get a bank loan.
And my card companies give me nice itemized lists of my purchases at months’ and years’ end.
And all of my cards have some pretty decent “consumer protection” and convenience things on them (especially the Amex), which have actually saved me more money than the annual fee (it’s the only card I have with one, and I make money off of it, so to speak).
If I were to use a debit card, I would get no benefit back whatsoever. Are there “cash back” debit cards out there?
I mean, really? Aside from a credit problem which might keep one from using a card which actually gives you money back, why use a debit card? Or write a check, for that matter, if cards are accepted? 