It’s completely baffeling to me how an advanced country like the US can still be stuck with such an obsolete system.
Seriously - it’s 2023, why are we still moving money around with paper IOUs
Same reason US politicians insist on having AM radio in cars, we mostly hate electronic voting, and a lot of people still like cold hard cash
- it’s tangible
- it’s reliable
- it’s anti-fragile
I say this as a tech enthusiast myself: we vastly, collectively underestimate the fragility of high technology. Not just fragility of the operation, but fragility in the supply chain (silicon manufacturing is super specialized and centered in one of the world’s most contested locations: Taiwan), fragility in the event of disaster, and fragility of the digital security.
I’m not sure that checks rate any better in security here, or in reliability. The check doesn’t have any mechanism within it to verify that there’s actually money to be moved, and doesn’t guarantee that the payment is yours irrevocably. It also doesn’t verify the actual intent to move money, or that the writer of the check is authorized to do so. I get that digital systems have vulnerabilities but let’s not pretend that this paper system doesn’t.
but the checks themselves are irrelevant, they get converted into electronic information as soon as they hit the scanner
whose validty is verified by…checks notes…the payer’s penmanship when writing their name in cursive
There are so many small to midsize business that are still paying with paper checks for whatever reason even when other options are available.
My wife is an accountant and some of the stories she tells about helping business try to get paper checks to government entities to pay taxes or fees just leave me shaking my head every time.
If some company or the government wants to charge me 3% to 10% or more to electronically pay, I’m writing them a check.
My landlord charges 2% to pay rent electronic. A stamp is 50¢.
They get a check.
I left the US nearly 20 years ago and couldn’t believe that Germany didn’t use checks…like at all. I haven’t written or used checks in 20 years and wonder why they’re still around.
I’ve owned cheques at some point but in close to 25 years of doing bank transactions I’ve never actually seen one filled out or the possibility of using one even mentioned. Even as a kid I can’t remember one ever coming up in conversation. I remember one time that my parents got travelers cheques and that stood out so I’m pretty sure I’d have noticed regular ones. I’m 40 now and it’s just always been a curiosity from the movies.
Even in Germany we don’t use cheques and the banking system in Germany is awful compared to the UK. It sucks because it’s the banks scrimping out and saving money by using this system still but the people getting screwed over from fraud.
Feel like Americans need to start demanding higher tech options here or they will be stuck with this forever…
I’m kind of glad this isn’t a real problem for me. I haven’t hand written a check in years. There’s only one monthly thing in my life that requires a check to be automatically sent from my bank, but luckily that will end soon.
