isn’t it like a debit card with extra steps? at a store I mean
Merchants don’t have to pay processing fees for checks, which is why they may not accept credit cards, or require a minimum for a card, and/or may pass along the processing fee to the customer.
Like cash, there’s still costs associated with them. Someone has to record the checks and take them to the bank. But more importantly, checks have an even worse risk of fraud than credit cards. A business doesn’t know that the account has sufficient funds, is even an active account, or that the check writer is even the account holder (can check ID, but what about business checks?). They can call the bank and verify funds, which obviously is awkward and time consuming, or there are 3rd party check verification services, which have to be paid for monthly. And then if someone bounces a check, often banks charge a fee to the depositor for that.
As a business owner, who accepts checks and charges fees for credit cards, I’ll take a check from a trusted party any day over credit cards when they want to avoid the processing fee, but I still have their credit card on file in case the check bounces.
edit: Further, it is a royal pain in the ass to accept a credit card payment, then have someone dispute the charge as if their card was stolen. The amount of energy spent taking checks to the bank is nothing compared to the energy, effort, and documentation needed to prove to a credit card company that the charge was legitimate, so you actually get paid and not take a total loss.
Checks work for situations where you know and trust the customer, and can do things like have their CC on file. Less so for situations like casual retail or trade shows.
I thought credit card processing agreements tend to forbid charging an extra fee for using a credit card. Maybe that’s changed, idk.
Checks predate debit cards and e-transfers by at least a millenia.
Debit cards replaced cheques in the 1990s in advanced countries. Less advanced countries like the US had to wait until the 2010s.
Checks were unpopular in the US well before the 2010s and everyone had debit cards well before that.
Cheques were unpopular and the US was overly reliant on credit cards.
US debit card usage in 2010 was at least 15 years behind Canada. We had tap and chip cards before you guys even accepted debit cards. E.g. San Francisco’s and Seattle’s transit systems didn’t even accept them at all until 2017. Vancouver accepted them some 20 years earlier.
When I was young my mom would write a check for groceries on Wednesday and pray it didn’t clear until my dad got paid Friday. So short term loan for food purpose?
Money isn’t taken out of the account until the cheque is cashed, for one.
Checks are completely phased out in NZ. You can’t even get checkbooks here anymore.
