Also, the image of the bad check was what got my money refunded. An electronic trail is simply not as good as a paper one when there's a dispute. A cancelled check is gold in a dispute.
The fact “bad checks” can exist is the problem, which necessitates the use of a literal paper trail.
It is insane.
Maybe FedNow will change things?
The real answer is more prevalance of free ACH transfers. Some companies still like to charge the unneeded credit card fee for those too sadly.
There's only one thing I (typically) use them for nowadays but they do occasionally come in handy at times.
"why is this gate here, let's take it down!"
type comment?
Checks are extremely useful to individuals. You can pay for something, it has no overhead, and you have your own audit trail.
You can probably fake a fax machine or a certified letter too, but I think they are useful too.
The US has a ridiculous level of bank/payment fraud compared to Europe (~15x in some areas, according to the fed), who invested in chip+pin, SEPA, IBAN, etc etc. This all lets me pay for something with no overhead and maintain my own audit trail in a way that doesn’t involve a trust-based system from the 1800s.
The US also has strong consumer protection laws.
I remember a friend of mine had a father in mexico and someone misused his bank card and he was SOL.
In the US, there are laws protecting credit card holders. The most that can be lost is $50 (or $500 in cases of extreme negligence).
What is really happening is that with minimized repercussions a lot of things have almost been decriminalized.
1. Not my name for the payer
2. An out-of-state address
3. Check was not on my bank's paper, they did the logo wrong, etc.
4. Signature was someone else's
Essentially, everything was wrong but the account number. The bank cashed the check, and blamed me. I got very angry about that, and basically sat in the manager's office until he agreed to refund my money.
A couple months later, I ran out of blank checks, and went to the bank to order more. They gave me a song-and-dance about the advanced "security paper" for the expensive check blanks they wanted to sell me. I literally laughed, and told them you guys don't check the name, the address, the signature, and certainly not the paper, and walked out and bought more checks from an online company.