The Check Turns 350 Years Old, Will It Make It To 400?
A recent story on BBC recently reported that the payment method of the check turned 350 years old on Monday. Which brings us to the question… how much longer will checks be around? Most Americans born in the eighties and later have never even had their own check book because they use online bill pay, debit and credit cards, direct deposit, and other forms of payment.
Still think checks will always be around? Don’t be so sure. Checks are now rarely used in Germany, Sweden, Switzerland, and Belgium, and they’re not used at all anymore in the Netherlands. The only developed countries still using checks are the United States and the United Kingdom. And to see how rapidly it’s changing, ask yourself this question: Compared to the 90′s, how often do you see people at the grocery store paying with a check?
Others say “cash is king” and making a comeback because of the economy. But that actually is not correct. Well it is true that individuals and businesses alike have less credit available today, it doesn’t mean they’re paying with cash; instead debit cards are the popular alternative to credit.
Actually you have checks – a checkcard – if you need them you can find them but we are trained to just use the plastic…
Actually checks are making a come back in some circles. People that have maintained a good check writing history are actually able to use that attribute to solving emergency situations.
A 5/23/11 survey by the Wall Street Journal showed
24.9% reported being certainly able
25.1% probably able
22.2% probably unable
27.9% certainly unable
to pay for an unexpected legal, medical, automotive cost of only $2k.
http://blogs.wsj.com/economics/2011/05/23/nearly-half-of-americans-are-financially-fragile/
Realistically that’s better than 50%+ of Americans that are in need of help. To think that high of a percentage of Americans got into this situation strictly due to foolishness is a viewpoint shared only by those who haven’t cared to note wages have stagnated while the cost of living keeps climbing.
That good check writing history can now be the saving grace used in conjunction with Merchants offering “No Credit Check” opportunities to solve those surprise costs.
The only thing I have a checkbook for is paying my rent. That’s it.
checks are gone like the dinosaurs are…..
I highly doubt checks will remain much longer. They are not reliable how can you know if the money is there to back up the amount they write it for? I think everything will be electronic realtime soon whether that is credit cards or something else.