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Comment by beedogs | Hacker News Reader

Heh. In 35 years Americans might finally stop writing checks, too.

I would, but there are certain institutions that don't accept any other form of payment other than check or money order. Even if they do accept a credit card payment, they add a 3% or greater convenience fee to the amount.

Surely you can do internet banking transfer to the recipient's bank? In New Zealand, we didn't used to have many credit cards so that's how you'd pay your bills, buy a house, pay small businesses, or just about anything that can wait a day.

>Surely you can do internet banking transfer to the recipient's bank?

No, there isn't really a "standard" to do this.

As far as bills go, each company has their own billpay system. Small businesses pretty much all take credit or debit cards now. If they don't you pay by check. I pay my property taxes with a check because if you do an electronic payment with their system they want you to pay like a $3 fee. Buying a house requires you to get a cashier's check.

You can do "billpay" online with your bank, but if their systems aren't "hooked up" to the other party's systems the bank will mail a physical check to the other party. None of it is instant or even fast.

Do you find any that only take check and have to be paid in a timely fashion (like in a line at a store) to complete a transaction?

Last time I changed banks (about 6 years ago) I decided to experiment and not order any checks. Every person I've encountered who needs a check will wait for them, so I just add them to bill pay and have the bank deal with printing and mailing them a check. So far I haven't run into a situation where I was cursing myself for not having actual physical checks.

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