"the humble check is set to become a historic relic"

[pennsy]

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20091216/...ritain_cheques

The board of the UK Payments Council, the body for setting payment strategy in Britain, agreed on Wednesday to set a target date of October 31, 2018 for winding up the check clearing system

[Wiley-X]

So when you want to send you niece a $100 for a birthday present, will you use PayPal?

I'm not a big fan of the electronic check clearing that stores are using now. They scan the check and give it back to you. So if someone steals your checkbook and spends big bucks at a store, you don't have the fraudulently signed check as evidence. Ask for ID? Most stores don't if your account has been cleared before.

I will admit that I'm part of the anti-check revolution. I use my debit card at the grocery store, gas station, everywhere. 99% of my bills are paid on-line. I've been doing online payments since the 80s with Check-free.

I like the automated payments because they can't nail you with bogus late charges. Years ago, I'd mail my mortgage payment a week before it was due. Oddly, every month it would get there a day or two late. So I started investing a buck in certified mail and surprise, surprise, the payments got there on time. Now with electronic transfers, the mail man is taken out of the equation completely.

[marthos]

Credit/debit cards are as bad as checks, if not worse.

You can't put a check in a gas pump to pay for your gas, you have to go inside and they run it thru the checks system, you can use a card and NOONE is there to check ID against the card.

I worked at full service gas station, I never checked ID against a credit card, I was ALWAYS required to check ID for a check and request phone number and drivers license # be on the check.

Nobody is at the automated grocery store checkout lines checking your ID to make sure your card is YOUR card.

It is easier to steal your credit/debit card and spend all your money, than to do so with your check book.

I am of the mind that we should just go back to GOLD and lose the paper and plastic currency.

[pennsy]

Credit/debit cards are as bad as checks, if not worse.

You can't put a check in a gas pump to pay for your gas, you have to go inside and they run it thru the checks system, you can use a card and NOONE is there to check ID against the card.

I worked at full service gas station, I never checked ID against a credit card, I was ALWAYS required to check ID for a check and request phone number and drivers license # be on the check.

Nobody is at the automated grocery store checkout lines checking your ID to make sure your card is YOUR card.

It is easier to steal your credit/debit card and spend all your money, than to do so with your check book.

I am of the mind that we should just go back to GOLD and lose the paper and plastic currency.

Fuck gold, lets use tally sticks :-P

[X-Man]

I don't care if we go back to using wampum, but this "cashless society" is nothing more that enslavement.

By the way, this is the month that the Fed's wanted to have in place their set of uniform standards for state issued driver's licenses, making a DL into a national ID card. Yuck, yuck, the best laid plans of mice and men....States rights trump federal regulations.