I often complain how slowly the future has developed. When I was a kid, I thought by 2022 we would all live in streamlined skyscrapers, have parks under glass bubbles, and monorails whooshing us around the city.
Our life isn’t quite that seamless and elegant today, but sometimes incredible change happens right in front of us and we don’t even notice.
This sign I saw at a Hallmark store reminded me of that today. They aren’t taking paper checks anymore. Wait …what? People are still writing paper checks?
Do you remember writing paper checks in a store? We sure did. We wrote a lot of them throughout the 1990s, for sure. That’s when it was still odd to use credit cards for everyday purchases and we never carried much cash around. We wrote checks for groceries, at gas stations, department stores, and yes, the Hallmark store.
It’s hard to remember exactly when we switched exclusively to debit/credit cards for shopping. Credit cards became cool with the launch of the gold cards in the late 1980s, soon they were used for about everything.
Since then, paying with your mobile device has become the thing. I tap with my iPhone or Apple Watch wherever I can. I find it the easiest, the quickest, and probably the safest way to pay. It’s still a credit card, yes, but it’s so seamless.
I guess in this way my streamlined future is happening in small ways without me even noticing it. We went from writing a paper check to simply tapping my phone in a store. I didn’t envision that part of the future, but it sure is amazing!
I can’t wait to see what advances 2023 bring!
HAPPY NEW YEAR!
Image Credit: (c) MrFireStation.com
MrFireStation 
I looked in my check book and the last check I wrote was on Nov. 22, 2020 and the booklet of 25 started in 2017. I consciously switched to electronic checks after having a couple outbound checks stolen from my mailbox by meth addicts. Remember I live in a rural area where deer can often be seen munching on the grass in the field in front of my house, and yesterday my wife saw a bobcat sunning itself.
My sons have checking accounts, but have never received physical checks.
The Hallmark Store is probably trying to spend up their transaction time as it is much quicker to tap your credit card.
As a final comment, I worked in IT Security and still consult in the area. I recommend always making your payments using credit cards if the merchant accepts them. If someone makes a fraudulent transaction with a credit card it is easily disputed and reversed. If someone makes a fraudulent transaction against your debit card, you are going to be missing money from your bank account for a couple days.
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Less than 25 checks in five years, that’s not many!
Yes, I have read that about the difference between credit cards and debit cards. I use my Delta sky Miles AMEX card for pretty much everything.
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I sent a check in a birthday card to daughter-in-law September 1. I had been a bit perturbed that we had not received a thank you for the gift. She cashed it December 16!!! Still no acknowledgement of the gift, but then again she is young and has yet to impress me. But then again she was home schooled in an extremely rural mountain environment until grade 9 and we are not religious. You cannot control and should not control the lives of adult children.
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Well, at least she cashed it! My Dad has learned to give me cash when he owes me for something. I’m bad about cashing them promptly and it drives him crazy!
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