Have you had to write a rent check lately? Or maybe fax some important documents? Despite things like Venmo and email that normal people use every day, these ancient bits of tech and culture just keep hanging on. There’s clearly better technology, it’s just that not everyone is using it.
I laughed a little reading this.
It was only a few years ago that paperwork I had to file with a NYC county surrogate court required a bunch of faxing, assuming I wanted to avoid a $30 round-trip commute at several steps of the process. (The one guy I had to actually go ask questions of in person there looked and sounded like a character from a 1950s Sam Fuller movie.) I don’t miss having to shlep those papers to a local Staples’ fax desk after our hand-me-down machine gave up the ghost.
Audio cassettes are being used in some prisons, where a CD could be too easily converting into several deadly weapons. I’ve been converting our audio cassettes for several years and getting rid of them via Goodwill or a local used-record shop.
And some folks are still taking part in monthly transactions with people who don’t want payments sent directly to their bank accounts. Our apartment rental could very easily have fallen in that category. We still write between five and ten paper checks a year, but that’s tapering off. Thank crap.
Cheques (Checks) are pretty much dead in the UK as we have such clever things as direct debit so we can authorise mortgage repayments and rent payments (along with all utility and local authority bills) to be paid automatically. Most of my USA friends are amazed at how different banking is outside the US.
Interesting, because what you describe sounds exactly like it here in the U.S. I can’t remember the last time I wrote a check. I use direct deposit for paychecks (required by my employer), and all of my bills pay directly from my bank account. I do not know of anyone who still writes checks (under the age of 65).
The United States has very little in the way of consumer protection compared to other Western nations, but what little it has is maximized when the individual sends payment by check via the US Mail. When Comcast stresses the value of using direct payment over mailing checks it isn’t doing so for your benefit.
“There’s clearly better technology, it’s just that not everyone is using it.”
The future is already here – it’s just not evenly distributed.
– William Gibson
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Same here, as Michael said and in the U.S. as well.
Just how old are your USA friends?
Interestingly the one bill that does have a paper check sent, made by my bank not me, is to TD Bank in Canada. Otherwise everything is done through my bank and my employer also requires direct deposit as does everyone I know.