Writing Checks: One More Way to Show Your Age

 

by Pa Rock

Consumer

Another American tradition seems to be on the brink of extinction.  Target, one of this country's largest retailers, has announced that starting next Monday, July 15th, it will no longer accept personal checks.  Other big names in the US business scene, like Whole Foods and Aldi's, have already abandoned that payment option.

The Federal Reserve which manages the United State's money supply, says that the use of checks to make purchases has dropped dramatically since the 1990's, and today people are far more likely to use other payment methods like debit cards, ready cash from ATM's, and a host of digital means that I won't even pretend to understand.  

That phenomenon matches my personal experience.  Two decades ago I would spend one evening each month combing through a hundred or more cancelled checks to make sure the bank had done its job correctly and that my checkbook balanced.   But now I seldom have more that three or four cancelled checks in any month, and they are usually for special things like birthday gifts to grandchildren.  Most of my shopping is online where it is billed to a credit card, and even the local shopping that I do in stores is generally conducted with a credit card.   I pay the credit card off every month with an electronic transfer - by phone - from my checking account. No muss, no fuss.  

Checks are going the way of the landline telephone, and at this point it seems likely that the use of currency for shopping will also disappear within a generation or two.  Automatic checkouts don't like cash anyway.

My father taught me to write checks.  He also taught me how to adjust a carburetor.   Remember carburetors?  

I would go to town and get a burger and fries for lunch, but my app is on the fritz - and I might get run over by a driverless car.

I think I may have overstayed my welcome!