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
Okay, boomer
…Does anyone have data on how many people still use checks?
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.
My old appt charged a $17 fee for paying online, check is free. We still wrote checks until recently.
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 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.
0 in my country. They were abolished many years ago
I use them all the time for contractors and architects. Nothing else …
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.
I keep all my bills organized in bookmarks. Keep track of their due dates on an Google Sheets budget. I’m not going back to checks…lol
Do you guys not have direct debit? All my bills are paid automatically. Manually paying my bills sounds like a pain and I would definitely forget/double pay if I needed to do it that way
We do. I never give companies power to pull money from my account. I realize it’s a convenience for some people in the way they budget, so no judging… I’ve just been screwed by it one too many times. I keep full control over my finances. I budget everything out on an Excel template I created. It actually doesn’t take much time at all …an hour or so once a week to get everything balanced and paid for the month.
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’m old school, if I want to buy something, I go to the store with the ability to essentially examine the item, pay for it in cash and go home. Crating an account and paying with the card, with which also the bank knows what I had bought? WTF, capitalism surveillance shit.
What? The only payments I make that could take checks are my bills and it’s not like I wouldn’t have to keep track of those just because I’m paying by check. I don’t understand this at all.
Yeah, I know this artist has gotten a lot of shit in the past for little reason, but this is truly an absurd take.
Pretty sure they mean one less account someone could track you with, because yeah, staying on top of sending monthly checks for stuff is something I’m very glad I don’t have to do anymore. My credit took multiple hits in my younger days from bills I forgot to pay on time.
Password Manager
There will be lots of a useless accounts you have to make in life. Scale yourself. Many such accounts will not be optional. At least this one provides you with some value.
Password managers are good; but keeping track of passwords is not the main problem with making online accounts for everything.
Every account need a valid mail direction, ofte als with 2FA a phone number, both pretty easy to track in the network. Every website know your ISP, your public IP, your OS and a lot of other data which they can store and sell it to third parties for commercial reasons. Never create an account if it is not essential for you.
Pretty sure that a company that I would otherwise write checks to with my name address and phone number already has the lion’s share of those details. My IP address and operating system are the least of my concern in that case.
Hiding my IP address from the power company seems like a limited improvement.
Hard why not both? You should use a password manager & create less accounts on platforms or sharing your phone/email if you can help it.
Sure, in general yes. But in reference to the comment, writing a check they would already have my name address and some reference to my bank account details even without the online account, which implies a high degree of trust.
If I need an account to read an article on a website? Then I’m not interested in reading your article.
V true. I was think more along the lines of any sort of cash, debit, check transfer that doesn’t involve accounts or folks skimming money off the top rather than checks specifically when interpretting the meme.
A check has your checking account number on it. Please don’t write checks. Use cash.
Cash has a globally unique identifiable number on it for tracing. Please use the barter system.
Cash has an identifier on it, but unlike a check that identifier doesn’t identify you.
Your digestive system can remove the number
Checks? Cash? What year is this?
Welcome to dystopia 2024 hellhole edition. We’ve got mail theft, check fraud, genocide and fascism. 🤠
Option 3: make my bank write checks for me
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
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.
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.
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.
I am french, I use cheques , I also use wire transfers and many other bank option but I hope more place would accept my cheque. Also cheque transaction are tracjed and accounted just like others.
Okay Boomer.
fellas is it old-fashioned to not want more unnecessary tracking ?
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.
