Paper checks are dead. Cash is dying. Who still uses them?
washingtonpost.com
washingtonpost.com
- Counterfeit money, including when it's passed unintentionally
- Robbery and employee theft
- And/or the costs of preventing/mitigating the above
- The risk/cost of secure storage and transport of large amounts of cash
- Honest mistakes like miscounting or misidentifying bills
- More employees required to sustain the same throughput of customers
I can't speak to specific amounts myself, but anecdotally a family friend who runs a small business ended up going cashless specifically to increase the amount of revenue that actually ended up going to his business rather than to the above (and other, smaller) cash-related nuisances.
And, at least around where I live (SE Michigan), the "bottom line" difference between the two is large enough that gas stations often give a ~3% discount for paying with cash, and more than one little grocer I go to has a sign up - "Please pay in cash if you are able. We lose X% to the bank if you pay with a credit card, and Y% with a debit card."
As for checks, though: let's please get rid of them, because I personally don't want to be stuck in line behind someone writing a check ever again :)
I’ve had clients pay me with paper checks and I do the same: scan with my phone, sign with a PDF editor, deposit with mobile banking app.
PayPal and some other services have free transfers but those sometimes take a day or two to clear.
Buried somewhere in bank regulations is the requirement for an intact document. That's why the checks we purchase are festooned with security features, so people don't try to pull this shit with second-and-third-generation images.
Banks made a significant concession with Mobile Deposit features. But really, they're just admitting that they've been doing the same with check images for decades already.
You can order paper checks from any printer, they aren’t festooned with security features.
So then, why is my bank telling us that we need to retain the original check for 90+ days after a mobile deposit?
Mobile deposit probably feels strange and risky to a lot of people older than 40 or 50, so telling them to hang onto that paper check gives some comfort. Back in the '70s and '80s banks would mail your canceled checks to you with your statement, people my age got used to that. Then banks stopped doing that, and they stopped needing the paper at all. I suppose some people my age or older find that disorienting having grown up with paper checks filed in shoeboxes.
Anyway, checks are the worst way to transfer money I can imagine. Giving a stranger the “user and password” to your account. Crazy.
Cash dying is something I’m more mixed on. On one hand, I think explicit need to use cash is mostly inconvenient, leaves you with risk of loss and theft, and has the most benefits for illegal and harmful enterprises (e.g., a cash only restaurant avoiding taxes harms the rest of society).
On the other hand, cash is a hedge against privacy violations, being able to make transactions for things that are illegal but shouldn’t be, and the fact that credit card companies are allowed to make far more money on each transaction than they have any business making.
Also, spending cash helps visualize money. Credit card users don’t see their money leaving their hands which encourages excessive consumption.
I never met a service delivery person (haircut, food delivery, trash hauler, etc.) that wanted electrons.
Then they show all the ways it very much isn't. The title is shit.
Mind you, I often don't tip in cash, because we get money back on a credit card. But I think that's a reasonable reason to use cash.
I pay literally nothing in bank fees every year, and end up having to write a check maybe... twice? Usually to a low-end specialty contractor.