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Old ladies paying with personal checks...

RoJoHen

Awesome
Admiral
Whenever I go shopping during the daytime, I inevitably get stuck behind an old lady buying her groceries by writing a check. I feel like grocery stores are one of the few businesses left that even accept personal checks anymore.

When will it stop?
 
That depends upon when companies will stop printing checks.
 
When I am paying by check I insist upon making it out myself, in slow, careful cursive. Then I fill in my entry in my check register to make sure I am still in the black. Then I laugh and laugh and laugh at the whippersnappers behind me.
 
I know. I mean, I still have to write a check to pay my rent. I have no other means of paying my landlord. I would love to set something up so I could just pay him online.

I suppose I could mail him a wad of cash, but that seems ill-advised.
 
It beats standing in line behind a stripper paying for a week's worth of groceries for her whole family in ones.
 
Whenever I go shopping during the daytime, I inevitably get stuck behind an old lady buying her groceries by writing a check. I feel like grocery stores are one of the few businesses left that even accept personal checks anymore.

When will it stop?

I don't see how this is hurting you.

Don't be in such a hurry.
 
here in the UK, cheques are swiftly on the way out - I cannot remember the last time I went to a business that would accept a cheque - even my plumber wanted direct bank transfer.
 
It beats standing in line behind a stripper paying for a week's worth of groceries for her whole family in ones.
Hey, those ones are always appreciated when your drawer is full of nothing but twenties.
 
When I am paying by check I insist upon making it out myself, in slow, careful cursive. Then I fill in my entry in my check register to make sure I am still in the black. Then I laugh and laugh and laugh at the whippersnappers behind me.

I can totally see you doing this. ;)

As JoeZhang said, very few places in the UK still accept cheques. Most shops no longer do, and I've also paid several tradespeople via bank transfer. The only regular cheques I write are for my daughter's music lessons, and I often go months between writing cheques. I think I wrote less than 20 in total last year, and that included paying off credit cards.
 
When I am paying by check I insist upon making it out myself, in slow, careful cursive. Then I fill in my entry in my check register to make sure I am still in the black. Then I laugh and laugh and laugh at the whippersnappers behind me.

I can totally see you doing this. ;)

As JoeZhang said, very few places in the UK still accept cheques. Most shops no longer do, and I've also paid several tradespeople via bank transfer. The only regular cheques I write are for my daughter's music lessons, and I often go months between writing cheques. I think I wrote less than 20 in total last year, and that included paying off credit cards.

I think I've written less than maybe 5 a year for at least five years - haven't wrote a single one this year.
 
here in the UK, cheques are swiftly on the way out - I cannot remember the last time I went to a business that would accept a cheque - even my plumber wanted direct bank transfer.

My bank acvount doesn't issue chequebooks.

I'm still holding out against internet banking though. Automatically set up it may be - I told them I'd never use it. No idea how to do a direct bank transfer, and I don't want to know...
 
Whenever I go shopping during the daytime, I inevitably get stuck behind an old lady buying her groceries by writing a check. I feel like grocery stores are one of the few businesses left that even accept personal checks anymore.

When will it stop?

I don't see how this is hurting you.

Don't be in such a hurry.

It's not hurting me. I find it more funny than anything, as it seems to be a trait exclusive to old ladies.

In the age of debit cards and electronic payments, I'm just wondering how much longer checks are going to hang around.
 
There's no technical reason why checks have to go away. The underlying technology is still used all the time. Paper checks tend to be processed electronically at the point-of-sale these days, same as if you'd used a credit or debit card. In that sense, since the technology for them is cheap and ubiquitous, as long as people want to keep using them we probably will.

I haven't written a check in ages, myself.
 
@RoJoHen: We reach. I see this all the time at my own store as well. And sometimes even with customers who USE debit cards, but still insist on writing in the amounts in their little check registers anyway. :rolleyes:

About your landlord, though: If your bank has any kind of online bill-pay service, you may be able to use that. Lots of banks let you do this. They'll let you put in your landlord as a payee, and if that person doesn't accept direct transfers, the bank will cut a check itself and mail it out to them - you don't have to write or mail one.

That being said: Checks may be relatively easy to use, but IMHO they are still obsolete and I won't exactly shed any tears when they go away for good. Besides, what excuse is there not to have a debit card anyway? If you have checks, you have a bank account, and if you have a bank account, you can get a debit card. :shrug:
 
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Makes me wonder what things we will each be 'foolishly' holding on to in our distant futures- practices we will cling to, even as the times change.

"What? You're STILL gammin' 'round wearin' clothes in the Hypermarket, Old Dudemeister? That is SO 2030s!"
 
Working retail during the early days of chip and PIN card payments was amusing when it came to some elderly customers who didn't quite understand the concept of keeping the PIN secret.

"Could I ask you to enter your PIN number please, madam?"

"IT'S 8-4-7-3, LOVE!"

They never quite understood why I suggested they head straight to their banks to get their PIN numbers changed immediately, bless them.
 
I usually use my check card but:

My checkbook has nice carbonless copies of each check I write which remain bound together for future reference. These are all conveniently the same size instead of the random and often unnecessarily long register tapes.

Cards are great at retailers, but many individuals have not made arrangements to accept payments from other individuals electronically.

A higher percentage of retailers insist on photo ID when the customer wants to pay with a check. This makes it a little less likely some thief would go to the bother to use stolen checks for in person purchases (they would need to forge an ID)
 
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