It’s the holiday season and with Black Friday and Cyber Monday and the rest of the shopping season approaching, many of us are shopping for that perfect gift for our friends and loved ones. Some of us shop online at Amazon to avoid the crowds, while others prefer the
brick-and-mortar stores. Some of us even find the coveted item we’ve been searching for on eBay, Facebook Marketplace, Etsy, Poshmark, or thousands of other online shopping sites. In the not-too-distant past, we all carried around checkbooks and used checks for everything from groceries to rent. Some people still do. Many stores in the past didn’t even accept credit cards, due to their hefty fees.
Things have changed quite a bit since the last century. Consumers have written checks less and less often since the mid 90’s, and Americans have overwhelmingly switched from checks to debit and credit cards in the last several decades. ATM machines, debit cards, online banking, and mobile and online payment systems such as Venmo, PayPal, Zelle, Cash App, Apple Pay, and Google Pay have become much more popular.
Americans wrote 3.4 billion checks in 2022; that seems like a lot, but it’s not when you realize that it’s down from nearly 19 billion checks written in 1990. The Federal Reserve also says it has reduced its national check processing centers from 45 to one. Although there are still plenty of checks out there, the trend seems to be pretty clear and likely irreversible. Another reason why
checks aren’t being used as much includes policy changes by major retailers. According to CNBC, in July of this year, "Target joined a growing list of retailers, including the Aldi supermarket chain, Whole Foods, Old Navy, and Lululemon, that no longer accept personal checks as payment." Rest assured however, that The Farr Law Firm still accepts paper checks!
