1. OP said "make payments", not "receive money". Literally no one is going to give a shit if you make your mortgage or car payment in cash.
2. LOL, yes, I deposit cash all the time, including a quite large sum at least twice a year (charity events). Cash-based businesses are still very much a thing.
3. I write like $10K worth of checks every month, and deposit around $3K-$6K worth of checks every month. No smartphone required.
Are you sure? To get a mortgage they check the source of your down payment and it cannot be cash. Seems odd if they don't also check source for payments.
Yes, absolutely sure.
> To get a mortgage
I said:
>> make your mortgage or car payment
Making payment on existing loan != taking out a new loan.
> they check the source of your down payment and it cannot be cash.
If you mean literal physical cash: the main reason for this is that no one involved in the transaction is interested in taking on the risk of carrying briefcases full of cash across town.
If you mean money in a bank account that is of unknown provenance: This isn't really an issue unless you make a huge lump sum deposit just before closing and have absolutely zero documentation regarding where it came from. Even then, giant sums recently deposited isn't a problem. You just have to prove that it's of non-criminal provenance. Recent pay stubs or sales receipts will do.
That has nothing to do with the money being "cash" or not, though.
And even then, it's mostly about access to giant piles of credit. If you don't need to borrow huge piles of someone else's money, then no one gives a shit. E.g., I've purchased property with a cashier's check, which is about as close to literal cash as you can get without major security risks involved.)
That's actually incorrect, to my understanding. If you have 100k in your bank account for a year, the lender doesn't care when you pay your down payment out of that regardless of where it came from. They object when there's a recent transfer/deposit of that money because it could indicate an undocumented loan, throwing off the debt to income calculations.
> They object when there's a recent transfer/deposit of that money because it could indicate an undocumented loan, throwing off the debt to income calculations.
Right. It's not some authoritarian plot. They just wanna make sure you're not a fibbing about your net worth before handing you a giant stack of their money. If you can prove the money is yours then they're fine.
I haven't been to a store that has refused cash and have never been required to use a banking app.
Just because you choose to use e-banking doesn't mean that cash and checks are inaccessible, or even particularly inconvenient.
In stores I mostly use cash, except for larger purchases where it becomes inconvenient. Those go to the credit card which I'll then pay with a check.
Bills here are paid with bank transfer. It doesn't have to be done though online banking, but doing so is obviously easier.
But yes, you can go into banks and deposit money (even frequently, and in reasonably large amounts).
The flagging and suspending stuff is more what I'd be wary of using paypal or something similar, not an actual bank.
Have you actually tried depositing large amounts of cash on a regular basis? Sounds like a good way to get your account flagged and suspended.
Not to mention the Treasury's seeming animosity toward cash as an instrument of payment.