> but otherwise I'd have to drive to an ATM to deposit a check
Are cheques really that common in the US still? In Ireland, and as far as I'm aware, the rest of the EU, it's rare to see a cheque at all these days. Almost everything is paid either on cards or some other form of electronic transfer.
Not really. Happens enough that you can't call it a surprise to see one, but they're only used in certain niches at this point. I write a check about once a year, for some edge case like I'm paying a contractor who refuses to just get Venmo or equivalent.
Even where they are used (as someone mentioned, you do occasionally see elderly folks write them at the grocery store) they tend to be just a slightly different version of a debit card w/o PIN -- the stores now can instantly run them, there's no way to float one.
I've written about 25 checks for "one-off stuff" in the last year or so, -not including- the checks that pay my electric utility, Internet, trash, water/sewer, auto insurance, and so on. Property taxes are check-only in my area. A lot of kid stuff at school like PTA, reading activities, sports and such are cash or check only. Home maintenance things like painters, gardeners, pool service, trash hauling take checks only. I can't see a way to get along without physical checks, at least in the USA, unless you take a big sweaty wad of cash everywhere you go.
Where in the heck do you live?
Even my kids school had a portal for payments. My yard guy does get paid by check. But I do that via bill pay and the bank sends a check. Even independent painters take Venmo cash app or PayPal
> they tend to be just a slightly different version of a debit card w/o PIN -- the stores now can instantly run them, there's no way to float one.
That's actually the most surprising thing I've heard in this thread. Having that ability would probably go some way toward explaining their longevity. Like I said in another comment, I don't even know if a grocery store / supermarket would accept a cheque here, mostly because they wouldn't have the ability to run them.
Yeah. I don't know the details and I very rarely see them in stores. But there's some sort of system that, as parent says, basically immediately locks the funds so (as I understand it), there's no risk to the store.
I assume things like car dealerships use the system as well. When I bought a car recently I just gave them a personal check which they were fine with. In the past I had to go to my bank and get a cashier's check.
You don't even generally see signs about returned check fees these days.
They're not super-common in general for most use cases but they're still the most straightforward way to make personal payments (other than in-person cash payments) without going through some process that's more involved than giving someone a piece of paper.
Common enough. Ignoring the ones that I never see because my bank writes and delivers them for me, I still periodically get payments for things like FSA as a check. I also write maybe a couple dozen a year for various home service stuff.
(That said, I probably only deposit 5 or 6 checks a year. So putting them in an ATM at the bank wouldn't be a horrible inconvenience. And they are getting less and less common.)
Yes, sadly they're pretty common. My wife's side business is almost always paid with a check. I regularly, but not frequently, receive doctors bills or similar without online payment options, so I have to write ~12 checks/year. My housekeeper doesn't accept Paypal/Venmo, so she's paid with a check as well. Sane for some random laborers (lawn, paint) who are working by word of mouth (and not employed by a larger firm). And it's pretty common for elderly people to use them to pay for groceries.
I guess my counter-question is what does the rest of the world do for doctors bills or paying laborers who don't accept payment via Paypal/Venmo?
Here in Ecuador it's mainly cash, but it's becoming more common to just do a normal bank transfer from a mobile phone. The banking app of my bank here (Pichincha) has a built-in option to share the payment as a .jpg via Whatsapp (or any messaging app) as a sort of confirmation to the recipient.
In the Netherlands banking apps let you create "Payment Requests", which is basically a URL you can share with someone to have them pay you (you can pre-fill the amount they need to pay). Typically, if you open such an URL on your phone, it will let you jump into your banking app of _your_ bank to make the actual payment (even if the payment request is from a different bank than the on you're using).
> And it's pretty common for elderly people to use them to pay for groceries.
Interesting. I'm not even sure a grocery store / supermarket would accept a cheque here.
> My housekeeper doesn't accept Paypal/Venmo, so she's paid with a check as well
Here it'd be either cash in hand, or a bank transfer (same as rent, really). All you need is their IBAN (International Bank Account Number) and BIC (Bank Identifier Code), and most mobile banking apps will let you set up a monthly direct debit. You can sometimes run into issues if their bank account is in a different country to the bank you're transferring from—it's unlawful to discriminate between IBANs in different countries, although it tends to goes unpunished—but there's usually workarounds to that.
All you need is their IBAN (International Bank Account Number) and BIC (Bank Identifier Code), and most mobile banking apps will let you set up a monthly direct debit.
What is this dark magic?!?! lol. The US is comically awful at consumer banking.
And actually just to add to the last question of your comment. We'd also pay for doctors bills by either cash, card, or direct debit. Healthcare in Ireland isn't perfect (long waiting times—but you can go private for quicker care), but it's relatively cheap (free under a certain income, in the cases of certain long-term medical conditions, and above a certain age), and heavily subsidized.
My sister recently had a stay in hospital, and then later an emergency room visit. As far as I'm aware, it all totaled less than €200 (half of which will be refunded by insurance, and another 20% of the remainder as a tax credit), which was all paid for partially by card (to the GP who referred us to the hospital), and partially by bank transfer (to the hospital).
You still get printed bills with the bank account number to send the money to in Germany; only big change in the past decade is that that bank account number is a long IBAN number with the bank’s ID and a checksum rolled in.
I mean, they still exist here in Ireland, my biological grandmother sent me one last christmas; it's still sitting on my desk and I haven't gotten around to cashing it.
If your grandmother balances her checking account every month, it's extra work for her to have outstanding checks.
Also, people at the poverty level often don't know how much money they have to spend for the month until their rent and utility payments are deducted from their account. (they don't do math)
> Also, people at the poverty level [..] (they don't do math)
I'm sorry, but what the fuck sort of paternalistic and defeatist attitude toward education is that?
EDIT: I would like to apologize, I swore in my previous edit of this comment. I did not swear enough. Seriously what the absolute fuck sort of attitude is that toward people and swearing?
Are cheques really that common in the US still? In Ireland, and as far as I'm aware, the rest of the EU, it's rare to see a cheque at all these days. Almost everything is paid either on cards or some other form of electronic transfer.