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Posted by GlenEllyn at 4:46 pm (PDT) on Sat September 2, 2017
I think personal checks will be around for a while yet, although obiviously not as popular as they used to be. There are plenty of small businesses that will take a check so they don't have to pay the transaction fees on credit card purchases. So at big national chains I use a credit card, but at small businesses I always ask if they prefer check or credit card (I try to support small businesses whenever possible). You might be surprised at how many businesses are glad to take checks.
Posted by Bob Matthews at 1:22 pm (PDT) on Mon September 5, 2016
Seems postage actually went down this past April. I use Forever stamps for first class so wasn't aware of this until I checked the USPS website recently for another reason. Couldn't believe seeing 1st class actually dropped 2 cents. First time in my memory that has ever happened. Suppose it's the competition with email.
Posted by Robert Hutchison at 12:55 pm (PDT) on Tue August 30, 2016
I suspect checks will be with us longer than most of us realize! I remember when years ago some people said the computer will make paper obsolete, but today we use more paper than ever before. I, too, have checks and like a lot of people, very seldom use them and like a lot of people pay by computer! Besides, with postage going up it gets more expensive to use checks. And then there was the credit card which was going to propel us into a cashless society...HAH, HAH, HAH!
Posted by CJ at 2:10 am (PDT) on Tue August 30, 2016
It is just as well that checkbooks are going away - what with a lot of schools not teaching cursive. Imagine signing a check with an "X" or printing your name? Just think these kids now will look at the Declaration of Independence the same way we look a Heiroglyphics - No Clue wwhat it says! So Sad!
Posted by Duff at 1:24 am (PDT) on Mon August 1, 2016
I still have a checkbook, but write very few checks... maybe one every other month. Utility bills are on auto-pay, and I pay the rest using personal finance software. But I note that the checks I do write are no longer returned, cancelled, with my monthly bank statement. Gotta log in and view them on the bank's website. Kids now don't know what's meant by the phrase "cancelled check".
Posted by freddo30 at 10:01 pm (PDT) on Sun April 10, 2016
Still use them for certain things ...
Posted by Michael Giffey at 11:13 pm (PDT) on Sat October 26, 2013
Counter checks were actually older than boomers. In the Bette Davis movie "A Stolen Life" (1946) Glen Ford is seen buying a gift in New York for Bette's twin and the salesgirl tells him there are blank checks on the counter.
Posted by Duff at 11:41 am (PDT) on Sun October 28, 2012
Thanks for that, odddog. I guess I had heard the term "counter check" but never stopped to consider what it might mean. Never noticed anyone using them, either; maybe I just wasn't very observant. As I read your note, I anticipated that you'd say she filled in the account number, but even that wasn't required?? Was this in a very small town? It seems that this convenience went the way of the buggy whip after 1967, when the magnetic-ink bank routing and account numbers became a requirement on checks. I'll create a new "Counter checks" item in the galleries.
Posted by odddog at 9:19 am (PDT) on Sun October 28, 2012
Personal checks? What about blank "Counter checks"? Everwhere you went in town there were blank Counter checks for all four banks in town. I would go to the grocery store or 5 & dime with my grandmother and after she was "rung up" she would ask for a check for First National Bank. The clerk would hand her a pad of blank counter checks with nothing printed on them but First National Bank of Henderson. She would fill it out and hand it back to the clerk and that was it. Not even an account number, just her signiture. Ah, I do sometimes miss the 60's!

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