Okay Boomer.
fellas is it old-fashioned to not want more unnecessary tracking ?
A check has the same information as a basic account. Any sane company is probably storing it in the same backend too.
The postal service has recently been a victim of a lot of theft targeting checks. People are willing to rob postal workers at gunpoint for their box key. Then, thieves sift through all the letters for a chance of finding a check.
Worse, they have ways of “washing” the check to turn it into a blank check, and reuse it with a new amount and recipient.
…Does anyone have data on how many people still use checks?
0 in my country. They were abolished many years ago
My old appt charged a $17 fee for paying online, check is free. We still wrote checks until recently.
I had an apartment that switched payment processor that jacked up my credit card fee well above my cash back (prob cuz people like me ended up saving like 10/mo), so I just switched to bank issued checks that they send for me.
Using the checkbook I got 20 years ago is just a massive pain in the ass.
Definitely this. There are utilities here with 5% service charges for paying online. I’d rather pay by check
Also, most all US small to mid sized business transactions are by check.
I’m not going to take a suitcase with over $10,000 to the city to pay a permit fee, or $50,000 Venmo to pay a business partner.
Unless you are in the marijuana industry, then you have to…
Also, most all US small to mid sized business transactions are by check.
Why? It is a bank transfer with extra steps. A check can get unreadable, get lost… No one in Germany would write a check for a permit fee or to pay a business partner. You pay online. Fast, safe, can’t get lost, easy to proof what, when to whom you have paid for years to come. And the transfer won’t get through if you do not have money on your account or are allowed to overdraw, while you can write whatever you want on a check and then run.
It is not cash or check it is bank transfer or check and the bank transfer is the safer, faster option. All they do at a bank is to scan the check and to turn it into the exact same bank transfer it could have been in the first place. All you do is adding a layer of risk by writing on a piece of paper.
I find that really funny, because many Germans still refuse to buy their groceries without cash, many like me do not own a credit card only debit cards, but no one younger than 90 uses a check. I am 58 years old and have never owned checks.
I don’t know what to tell you, but I work in business in the US and work in invoicing in the construction industry.
Everything is done via paper, full stop.
Bank transfers do not generate invoices, full stop. Company to company payments are made using a PO or check. Nothing else, in my experience, are accepted.
These are for amounts of $1 to tens of millions of $$$.
I use them all the time for contractors and architects. Nothing else …
If it’s any indication… the last time I ordered checks their website was littered with nuisance upsell popups that significantly hindered that task (felt kinda like Indiana Jones navigating booby traps), so I think the “check industry” (if that is a thing?) is getting desperate.
Cash anyone?
You can over $5000 in cash with you at all times???
What are you buying that’s $5,000? Seriously, wtf?
Stuff? That isn’t very much money. Our monthly grocery bill alone is over $1,000. Plus rent. Plus car payments. Insurance. We’re already over $5,000 a month.
It’s usually a bad idea to mail cash.
i feel kinda stupid. what do checks and online gaming accounts have to do with each other? do they accept checks as payment for access?
Edit. Wow me, just wow. Playing == paying
Paying online, not playing online. I misread it at first too.
It got me too.
Americans once again making shit more complicated than it needs to be. Most of the world has moved on from cheques to wire transfers, deposits, etc. all done through online banking.
Every transaction is tracked and accounted for. No need for this bullshit.
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Because online bank accounts never get hacked, and old demented folks never fall for phishing emails… right?
Thats what the 2fa for most transfers is for.
Why is everyone calling them checks? Are we all talking about cheques? I am confused.
It’s just the American spelling.
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I’m American, and all of this stuff happens automatically and digitally after I set up any new account. I’m not sure how writing a check would be easier.
Some banks still offer the transitional system I remember where they do it on your behalf, so once you have all your payees, you can go in every month and put in the amounts for each bill, and they mail a check from the bank to each place.
I think the last time I cashed a cheque my elderly mum wrote it. Had no idea before that people even still had cheque books after 2002 or something, but fortunately I didn’t have to find if there was a branch of my bank left within fifty miles because you can scan them in the app and pretend the other person sent you money in a normal way.
I’m the same way. But since I’ve been having to handle my elderly relative’s estate I’ve had to write a ton of checks. The clerk of court requires the use of checks to pay bills for the estate. The estate account was issued a debit card but the bank said I couldn’t use it because of the same requirement.
In France it’s quite regular and quite useful IMO (I’m from sweden where you can’t pay a bus ticked with cash, nor a credit card… and checks were like abolished in the nineties) paying school stuff, sport inscriptions etc.
Additional bonus, you can split a payment and ask for it to be cashed in over time, without needing some nank taking a cut.
I think checks are a thing of only American past. Can’t think of anywhere else where they used checks so frequently. While they existed, they were the exception
I still have a checkbook for the occasional handy man that doesn’t want cash or transfer. I’m pretty sure most apps take a cut from business accounts, and others will report to the IRS when you make a certain amount, so for some workers it makes sense to avoid the apps.
Zelle is somehow the one that is usually free and does not report, but my credit union has a daily limit for Zelle transfers, so if the bill is larger, I offer payment in check as an alternative to cash since it’s safer.
I mean… The account exists if you log into it or not. You still need to keep track of it so that you’re paying into the correct account, and so that you know how much to pay.
Only you now have to talk to a person if you need to check or change anything.
Not the account for the random hotel or restaurant. “Pay with the O’Burger app!” “Collect 425 SkyPoints with a Platinum Membership!”
You don’t need an online account to buy food at a grocery, but if you had one I guarantee they’d spam the heck out of you, alongside whatever else they might do with your data.
I assumed this was in the context of paying recurring bills rather than shopping. Agree with you about stuff like groceries.
I mean, paying for Netflix with cash would definitely be a power move.
Utilities don’t have special offers that I know of. Check or online is very country dependent though.
I’m having a little trouble thinking of a service that would have automatic reminders but not require an account to access the service… Hotel? Something with layaway? Maybe car payments. Tuition too. Those don’t exactly seem like spurious account services though… Maybe the reminders are for pickup?
My VPN sometimes sends me reminders and special offers when my contact is almost up, for example. Mobile phone data usage reminders and warnings. Even just reminders that they’re going to be charging your card on payment day.
But mainly I don’t wanna leave home so paperless has already won for me lol
Ah, term based contracts, that’s the missing use case! Here I was forgetting not all contracts can be canceled whenever.
Option 3: make my bank write checks for me
where i live its hard to find places who even accept them. im not sure how i can get my bank to give me a check book if i really wanted to use them.
Okay, boomer
don’t have to drag ur ass to a storeOr just use a password manager
