Go Ahead, Write a Check for Your Coffee, I’ve Got All Day

I had to write two paper checks this week, both to government agencies that would not accept another payment form or charged a surcharge to pay on-line. So I had to laugh when I read the article in the Wall Street Journal today that interviewed people who still paid with checks at the point of sale:

“When Gert Watkins pulls out a check at Wal-Mart or Target, the shoppers in line behind her roll their eyes, sign deeply and mutter under their breath.

Ms. Watkins a 67-year-old former banker in Birmingham, Ala., knows that many other shoppers pay with credit cards and debit cards, but she doesn’t care.”

“They make those faces, but I just turn around and say ‘I will be through shortly, sweetie, it’s my turn now’”, she says”.

Another consumer who was found using checks to pay for purchases in a retail store preferred them after having experienced credit-card fraud. Interesting to think that consumers feel safer with checks than cards. Perhaps that is why the decline in check usage has started to level off:

“While check payments fell at an annual rate of 4.4% between 2012 and 2015, the drop represented a slowdown in the rate of decent for the first time”

Overview by Sarah Grotta, Director, Debit Advisory Service at Mercator Advisory Group

Read the full story here