A Personal Finance Guide

What is the Future of Personal Checks?

Personal checks are in a somewhat dire condition at the moment, if you look at their universal use. Some medium and small European countries, such as Sweden, have even phased out their use completely, and the United Kingdom is in the process of eliminating their use. Although some transactions seem to make sense with checks, many of these are being replaced by debit and credit cards - and even PayPal. Checks have been around for nearly 200 years, but could their future be going the way of the video cassette tape? Stateside, many businesses no longer take personal checks, so, with the exception of a few instances, their use appears limited.

Ask most large and small businesses, and the majority of them will say they take credit, debit, and cash for transactions but not checks. While debit and credit card use has been on the rise, the use of checks declined during the 2000s. Although, perhaps, this may have partially contributed to the credit crunch and economic downturn seen in 2008, the fact remains that many businesses find checks too scarce to process and too difficult to bother with. After all, if someone gives you a fraudulent check, the validity of it isn’t always determined upfront, and, within the few days a check takes to clear, the impostor would have already gotten away with money from cashing the said check.

Nevertheless, personal checks often show the same type of individuality that handwritten letters do. In this case, with the exception of fraudulent checks, you know who the check is from. This isn’t always the case with credit cards and is one reason several businesses, particularly doctors’ offices, continue to accept personal checks. A check often gives someone an identity that’s more than a signature on the back of a card.

Although the acceptance of personal checks stateside appears reduced somewhat, especially compared to ten years ago, it doesn’t look like checks are going anywhere.