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Comment by pjmlp | Hacker News Reader

Uau, checks are still in use?!

Incredibly so, in USA. Even salaries are often paid with checks. In Europe (and elsewhere?) we've used online transfers for everything since 90s and USA is a really weird in this regard. That was almost the first thing that Internet was used for.

But also to point out usage is in massive decline - most people pay bills online, and purchase either with debit/credit or cash in person.

But yes, we never really got on the 'pay via bank' train like was done in much of europe in the postwar period, this has impact of how things transitioned to digital payments..

Conversely, we have much more established credit issuing infrastructure, it is not uncommon for even teenagers to have a credit card (not just debit)..

That sounds backward to me. Here (UK) my teenagers had their own debit cards -- not credit.

Perhaps Canada, as well. I paid my rent with a check deposited into the landlord's mailbox back in 2010.

Yep, checks are very common, its how most people pay rent, larger bills, etc in the USA. Credit Unions and Banks here offer "Bill Pay", which is just them mailing out a check on your behalf.

Cash is popular here too, many of the grocers I work with see 40% to 60% of their revenue in cash, though that market segment has discouraged check use (with the exception of Costco).

In most European countries checks are not trusted anymore by common business, given the usual fraud schemes, and in some banks you need to jump through a few hoops to get them (only crossed or pre-validated).

Digital payments have replaced the majority of checks.

It depends on the trust relationship -- stores will not accept checks from customers most of the time anymore, however as the parent said, rent and utilities are still often paid via check as there is an established relationship between the payer and payee.

National retailers mostly accept checks; they just treat them as debit card transactions though, scanning the numbers and printing the check for the customer, even handing it back to the customer after it is accepted.

I guess it isn't even limited to national retailers, the independent grocer here does it too, I guess because it is worthwhile for them to pay for it.

> I guess it isn't even limited to national retailers, the independent grocer here does it too, I guess because it is worthwhile for them to pay for it.

I mean, it really just saves the headache of taking the checks to the bank to be deposited. These machines scan the account information on the check, initiate an ACH debit and print the details on the check for the customer's reference.

We do something similar when patients remit payment to us by mailing a check, we have a third-party service that provides us with check scanners that do a similar job - but instead they scan the payment amount off the check and then initiate the ACH debit, they keep an image of the check and we destroy the original copies. Makes life a lot easier, especially since we have dozens of bank accounts these checks get posted to based on what legal entity the money needs to be allocated to.

Ah, gotta love Telecheck! Their blacklist is nigh impossible to get off of though for those that are on it, but it is optional to use the blacklist.

Usually one has to have some sort of 'check writing account' setup for this with the store or present a valid state-issued identification at the very least; When the store doesn't trust the purchaser they will often manually verify the purchase by calling the bank issuing the check, etc.

Eh? Bodegas won't, but Chexsystems is a thing, and a ton of places use it. I know people who do the bulk of their shopping with checks.

I've heard about the popularity of SWIFT. ACH is nowhere near as accessible, and it has fees depending on your bank or 3rd party ACH provider.

EMV was also much more rapidly and properly deployed as compared to the US, where some javacard applets just give a static code instead of a rolling code. We have literally hundreds of banks and credit unions, plus a few thousand payment processing resellers all fighting to hold back progress in the payments industry here.

If I'm not wrong SWIFT is already on the downward. Most services that had my SWIFT code requested me to update it to my IBAN code instead because SWIFT was being replaced.

Plus, inside the Eurozone+Friends, you can use SEPA payments across borders, and it is very cheap or even free.

From what I hear from my stateside friends, e.g. american utility companies often charge extra to pay by credit or debit card.

From a UK POV, this is completely alien to me as a concept.

> Yep, checks are very common, its how most people pay rent, larger bills, etc in the USA. Credit Unions and Banks here offer "Bill Pay", which is just them mailing out a check on your behalf.

Bill Pay services will try to convert the transaction to an ACH push if the service you are paying is set up for it, saves the bank money and lets them keep it in your account (earning them money) for longer. They will always fail back to cutting a check though.

Sadly some vendors/stores don't even accept Debit/Credit here in the USA.

Personally I find it rare - usually it's because of infrastructure (e.g., the farmer's stand doesn't have a credit terminal to process payments), or tax evasion (e.g., a restaurant gives you a discount for paying cash and it doesn't report that income).

I suppose it depends what you're buying. I've also had places who use Square tack on another 3% to cover their Credit Card fees each order as well :/

In NYC it is pretty common for a mom & pop bodega to either not accept debit and credit, or have a ridiculous limit on it. The pizza place I used to eat lunch almost everyday was $25 minimum for cards. The bodega next to my office was $15 minimum. The bodega under my apartment had $5 minimum, but they usually waved it for me if I was over $3 and didn't have cash.

Also, almost every Chinese restaurant or Ramen place had Cash Only signs.

A rewards credit card costs the business your shopping at 2%, or all the way up to 3.5% for certain cards. Then you get network fees (from Visa, Mastercard, etc) and another few cents and tenths of a percent tacked on by the businesses Payment Processor, and poof, there goes 3% of their income!

Its no wonder so many businesses don't take credit cards or debit.

Half of my clients still pay me via Check, even though QuickBooks invoices offer a Pay Now button (with options for Credit Card or ACH).

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