Someday, after I am retired, I will write more about my job and career -- when it is all past tense. I think it's best now to be vague about it.
No, I don't work for the CIA or anything top secret! But I have colleagues who have apparently put all kinds of information about my/their employer on their social media pages, which sometimes results in warnings to them of compromising the integrity of the brand, logo, etc. We have a "social media policy," so rather than risk running afoul of that, I'll not be calling my employer by name or telling you much about them. And I maintain a certain amount of privacy in the cyberworld anyway, or as much as is possible.
I am a lawyer and I work in banking. I've worked for banks since 1998 and prior to that, when I practiced law in a firm, I represented banks. How's that for being benign and vague?
This week I read in a banking publication an interesting piece about the decline of check writing. Those in my age group will remember getting their first checkbooks and learning how to write a check. And we learned how, hopefully, to record check expenditures in a check register and deduct that amount from our balance. And every month when we received our bank statement, we would reconcile it so the amount of money we thought we had was consistent with what the bank said we had.
If we were running low and/or happened to make an addition or subtraction error and write a check for more money than what we had in our account (or maybe we played "the float" and underestimated the time between writing the check and the check clearing, not that I would know anything about that), the bank would either pay it and charge us an overdraft fee or return the check and perhaps charge us an insufficient funds fee. That could get expensive.
It's still that way today, for the most part, and I have a fair amount of knowledge of how that all works, but I won't go into those details. Maybe another time. I can tell you, because of electronic check clearing, there is hardly any float anymore, so I would caution you against counting on it. It was never a good idea, anyway.
Back to the subject at hand. According to the article I read this week, only 9 percent of any types of payments are now made by paper check.
Each of my offspring were given a checkbook when they came of age and got their own bank accounts, but by the time they were conducting real business, online banking had become the norm. They rarely write checks and since they can verify their bank balance online on an up-to-the minute basis, I am fairly certain they don't go through the exercise of reconciling their bank statements, because they don't have to.
Wife, who handles all of our financial matters, pretty much conducts herself the same way.
There may be some out there, but I am unaware of any employers who distribute paychecks to their employees. It is all done by direct deposit. I remember years ago when the law firm where I worked started doing that, and I objected strenuously. I wanted to see that check and walk across the street to the bank and deposit it myself. It's funny to think about now.
And given that I represented banks, it's ironic I felt that way. And my employer could not have cared less regarding my thoughts on the subject.
Wife and I still write occasional checks. Just yesterday, the HVAC guys were here to service our units and gave me the option of paying by check or by card. Paying by card would have been easy and I could have accumulated a few airline points.
But here's the thing. If I had paid them by card, they were going to charge me three percent extra to cover their costs. There are all kinds of fees and charges among the card issuers, electronic rail providers, and the service providers themselves. The service provider, especially a smaller one, wants to recoup that.
As for me, I will write them a check every day of the week before I tack on three percent to what I am paying. I suspect, however, some of the younger folks would not even have a check on hand and would have no choice but to use a card.
I assure you the big retailers are recouping their costs for card usage by building it into their prices. Over the years, I have done extensive research regarding who gets what (bank, retailers, electronic rail providers) when a card transaction takes place. All parties concerned push for legislation and regulations to protect their cut.
Even though check writing has lessened considerably, a big part of bank fraud happens with checks -- checks being stolen out of mailboxes; fraudulent payees and endorsements; washing away the amount written to make it appear to be a larger amount. I wrote a few months ago about fraud being rampant, and I assure you it is, and that there is a whole underworld trying to figure out how to steal directly from you and/or the bank.
You might be familiar with the personal electronic payment platforms Venmo and Zelle, where you can make easy payments to friends, family and even businesses. My friend who owns a handyman business does virtually all of his billing through Venmo.
It's certainly convenient. I don't use it myself, but Wife and the rest of my family do. Since Wife handles our banking, it is rare I will make or accept a payment to/from someone, but when I do, I give them Wife's Venmo contact information.
In our church small group, we sometimes collect money for making group contributions, buying books or sending memorials for someone who has lost a family member. One person can take charge of handling the payment and everyone else can easily pay that person by Venmo. We have one couple, out of six, who still pays by check.
And of course, believe it or not, you can still pay for things with cash. What a novel concept!
5 comments:
When eating or buying from small businesses, I try to pay with cash or check so that they don't get charged that fee. That said, I write so few checks these days. There was a time I always had a checkbook with me, but now I will travel around the world with just plastic. I didn't know that most fraud was still done by checks, but can see how easy it would be (I should someday retell a story about a previous employee and check fraud). By the way, I still receive a check when being paid!
I write less checks than I use to, but still write some. (often to family members) I will always write a check (if accepted) if I'm going to be charged a fee for using a credit card. And I think I mentioned in your other post that I love to use cash which occasionally garners discounts.
One of my children DOES receive a real paycheck, oddly enough. The same child also has one utility that will ONLY take checks which have to be mailed in! (no drop box or office hours for paying in person)
And all this time, Bob, I thought you were employed by a newspaper as a journalist! I wonder if you've mentioned before that you are a lawyer in the banking world, and I missed it. Or, are you just that private!?!
I recently had to order some checks for my checking account, and I think I must have come upon a deal where I could get something like 500 checks for the cost of 250. And here I sit with boxes of checks that will likely never be written. We have three checkbooks, but we rarely carry one anymore. We pay bills by check or automatic withdrawal, and shop with plastic.
Becki, I am not that private, but mainly for the reasons I mentioned, I have not revealed much about what I do vocationally or where I work. As I said, once I am retired, I will probably write about it more in a retrospective kind of way. I did write a column in an online publication for 11 years. I majored in journalism in college and wrote for the school newspaper. But I went to law school right out of college, and I've been in the legal, business and banking world ever since I finished. Writing is still very much a passion, though, and I am lucky to have had the column all those years; this blog; and now my Substack site.
For awhile, I thought my check writing days were over. I had everything on auto withdrawal/pay except for maybe some random check to the school for a meal ticket or annual because they don't accept credit cards. But the last few years, the number of checks I write are increasing again because as you state, many people are starting to charge you to pay with credit card.
One item of note about living in rural America, cash is still king here. I see many people around town after payday with bank envelopes full of cash that they are spending here and there. I never see this when I am in bigger towns nor would I expect to since it isn't a very safe way to go through life but our here, I guess it must be relatively safe as a lot of people, older than me anyway, still do it that way.
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