What's the point of paying with a check?
What's the point of paying with a check?
isn't it like a debit card with extra steps? at a store I mean
Merchants don’t have to pay processing fees for checks, which is why they may not accept credit cards, or require a minimum for a card, and/or may pass along the processing fee to the customer.
Like cash, there’s still costs associated with them. Someone has to record the checks and take them to the bank. But more importantly, checks have an even worse risk of fraud than credit cards. A business doesn’t know that the account has sufficient funds, is even an active account, or that the check writer is even the account holder (can check ID, but what about business checks?). They can call the bank and verify funds, which obviously is awkward and time consuming, or there are 3rd party check verification services, which have to be paid for monthly. And then if someone bounces a check, often banks charge a fee to the depositor for that.
As a business owner, who accepts checks and charges fees for credit cards, I’ll take a check from a trusted party any day over credit cards when they want to avoid the processing fee, but I still have their credit card on file in case the check bounces.
edit: Further, it is a royal pain in the ass to accept a credit card payment, then have someone dispute the charge as if their card was stolen. The amount of energy spent taking checks to the bank is nothing compared to the energy, effort, and documentation needed to prove to a credit card company that the charge was legitimate, so you actually get paid and not take a total loss.
Came here to say.
Checks predate debit cards and e-transfers by at least a millenia.
Debit cards replaced cheques in the 1990s in advanced countries. Less advanced countries like the US had to wait until the 2010s.
Less advanced countries like the US had to wait until the 2010s.
Lazy insult. Both credit cards and debit cards were invented in the US, btw.
We had debit cards in primitive Oklahoma in 1990.
The US has had debit cards for longer than most countries. You might be confusing that with the EMV chip rollout. One reason it took so long was because of how deeply embedded the non-chip technology was.
Checks were unpopular in the US well before the 2010s and everyone had debit cards well before that.
Cheques were unpopular and the US was overly reliant on credit cards.
US debit card usage in 2010 was at least 15 years behind Canada. We had tap and chip cards before you guys even accepted debit cards. E.g. San Francisco's and Seattle's transit systems didn't even accept them at all until 2017. Vancouver accepted them some 20 years earlier.
So basically it's just old people sticking to what they know even though it's significantly more work every time they buy something
Not much point these days. Debit cards didn't used to be a thing, so the alternative was to carry around a bunch of cash or use credit, which lots of people didn't want to do for a variety of reasons. Now the main issue for some people is that they don't trust using a card without getting their info stolen. Using a chip card is probably more secure than a check, but you can't convince everyone of that.
When I was young my mom would write a check for groceries on Wednesday and pray it didn't clear until my dad got paid Friday. So short term loan for food purpose?
Sometimes people pay with checks when they're waiting for money to hit their account, like if it's a day before their payday, because businesses usually don't cash checks until the following day.
This is a bad practice and I do not recommend anyone do it.
Money isn't taken out of the account until the cheque is cashed, for one.
Which makes it harder for people to keep track of their expenses. Which in turn is why "balancing the checkbook" used to be a regular chore for almost everyone and is now a chore for almost no one.
Checks are completely phased out in NZ. You can't even get checkbooks here anymore.
so futuristic, what are the steps to get there?
Idk if they are phased out in my country, but I have never seen people using them (only in American movies, but not irl) or even talking about them, not even in the 90s. Using them it sound so archaic and ancient
In the bad old days a check was as good as a wave and a promise, so they’d require your drivers license, ssn, mothers maiden name, blood sample, a lien on your firstborn and you’d have to stand on one leg and sing the alphabet song with your eyes closed before they’d take it.
Like…. when? In the 70s and 80s checks were widely accepted and at most they’d ask for an ID. After that, it tightened up do to various types of fraud, so I guess you mean after the 90s.
In the 70s. By the 80s checks were more accepted from everyone, but try being a single mother in the 70s and use a check at some places, while a guy probably wouldn't have as much trouble. They did often ask for two forms of ID, the second usually a CC to I guess prove that you have some credit worth. It was a huge hassle if you were in the wrong demographic.
Source: saw my mother go through that shit often as a kid
They are a hangover from a time before debit cards existed
They existed before debit cards and mostly before credit cards became popular.
Anyone paying with a check voluntarily these days is just either extremely stubborn and stuck in their ways, or incredibly ignorant. There isn't a single reason I know to keep doing it.
My 14yo daughter writes a check out of my checkbook every week for her horse riding lessons.
I just wrote a check to have my furnace repaired.
Checks are still very much a thing.
Avoiding processing fees for using a credit or debit card is another reason, although those are becoming far less common.
Currently I only use my checkbook to look up my routing and account number for some online subscriptions so I don't have to remember to update the payment method when cards expire.
It's a holdout from when your options were cheque or cash (debit cards hadn't been created yet). Cheque is the more secure option as its use can be cancelled/reported as fraud. Cash is just gone once handed over, so it can be stolen from you easily.
Most places won't accept cheques anymore. Mostly just grocery stores. (food is a necessity and the elderly don't like change)
Seeing a lot of "only idiot cavemen don't use debit cards", but in my case it's for cash security. If there is theft or fraud that money is not available until the bank decides my report is legitimate. With a credit card that's not the case. Where I can't use a credit card I use a check with some extra security info.
its like a little paper contract, guaranteeing you will pay that amount.
that its paper means theres a physical record both parties get to keep.
It works as a legal receipt.
It’s kinda like that. More of a promissory note bc debit balances can be checked at the point of purchase. Easier to balance your account if you’re not able to use internet reliably too. They almost all have carbon copies for each check and a balance ledger.
I really only have them for big purchases. A lot of businesses added a ~2% fee for using cards on things over $1000. Which is more than I want to pay when I’m already dropping $10k on house repair or something.
In the US, checks are much worse than paying with a credit or debit card. It is much cheaper for a merchant to take checks than either type of card, so that is why they're usually used.
Also, the person in question might be very poor / bad with money and unable to get a credit or debit card.
If you can get checks, you can get a debit card and vice versa. Each just relies on having a checking account.