Fintech — financial technology — is a quickly growing industry. With automatic and online bill pay, low-cost digital payment systems like Square and Clover, personal money-moving options like PayPal and Venmo, and an expanding corral of alternative financing, older analog ways of paying for things seem to be disappearing. But some people — including The Saturday Evening Post — still pay for things with paper checks. How about you?
Answer by March 15, 2026.
Do you use paper checks to pay for any of your expenses?
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Comments
I do still write checks, but less often than years ago. I have to actually think about what to write in the different sections of the check (something that was automatic in the days when many checks were written in a week).
Check writing might be a generational thing. My sons are in their mid-30’s and I’m pretty sure they would answer this poll as a Never Write Checks. I’m not sure they even have checks in a checkbook!
Last month, I wrote an e-mail to the public affairs section of the Federal Reserve System to submit feedback that they requested when they announced a proposal to eliminate check writing in order to accommodate electronic versions.
The FRS is accepting feedback until March.
I wrote to the FRS to express the continuation of check writing, but I sense the FRS will carry out their plan because Mr. Trump wants to replace check writing with those byte coins and cyber money. A way of getting with the times, I reckon.
I believe check writing is still reliable, as opposed to electronic payments that are plagued with foul ups in computer systems and security issues with cyber criminals.
The most important concern is that the elimination of check writing could have a severe impact on the U.S. Postal Service. It might have a domino effect on other jobs.
Maybe the current administration is planning to shut down the U.S. Post Office, assuming that UPS, FedEx, Amazon, and DHL can carry the mail load.
I wish this issue could be decided by American citizens in a nationwide vote in a general election.
However, we hope this kind of issue can be properly solved by an act of Congress with banking reform laws.
Then we have to readjust.