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The Almighty Buck

Are Checks Sent Through the Mail Vulnerable to Theft? (nytimes.com) 178

Posted by EditorDavid from the double-checking dept.
The New York Times tells the story of a 63-year-old retiree who wrote a check for several thousand dollaras to pay her taxes. But she discovered much later that her taxes were never paid because that check had been intercepted and then altered to be payable to someone else: In some cases, thieves may pilfer one or more checks from local mailboxes. Adam Rust, director of financial services for the Consumer Federation of America, said thieves sometimes "fish" for checks at free-standing drop boxes, using long tools with sticky pads on the ends to grab letters. In other cases, more sophisticated criminals may steal large batches of checks, copy them and then sell them on the internet. Often, the purloined checks are chemically altered in what's known as "check washing" to remove the name of the recipient. The thief replaces it with a fraudulent name, and often increases the amount of the check, before cashing or depositing it.
The 63-year-old retiree's bank told her she'd waited too long to recover the funds: Schwab's "security guarantee," outlined on its website , says that "Schwab will cover losses in any of your Schwab accounts due to unauthorized activity." But fine print at the bottom of the page notes that reimbursement "requires your timely reporting of unauthorized activity to Schwab," and that Schwab "will not be liable for additional or increased losses resulting from a failure to report unauthorized activity in a timely manner." It notes that more details are available in account agreements... Notify your bank as soon as possible, said Scott Anchin, senior vice president of strategic initiatives and policy at the independent bankers association. Banks generally allow at least 30 days and sometimes up to 90 days from the time your statement is made available to you to report suspected check fraud, he said.
So how can you avoid check fraud? Adam Rust, director of financial services for the Consumer Federation of America, just suggests that "No one should ever mail a check." If you must write a check, he said, try to deliver it in person or take it inside a post office to mail rather than relying on your own mailbox or public drop boxes. The American Bankers Association recommends using permanent "gel" ink pens when you do write checks to reduce the risk of tampering... And if you don't already, consider using your bank's online bill payment service.
The article notes that even the U.S. federal government "has been moving away from paper checks for things like benefit payments and income tax refunds, saying digital payment methods are more secure."

Are Checks Sent Through the Mail Vulnerable to Theft? More | Reply

Are Checks Sent Through the Mail Vulnerable to Theft?

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  • Really? (Score:5, Interesting)

    by nospam007 ( 722110 ) * on Sunday June 28, 2026 @03:35PM (#66214432)

    By 2026, mobile money in sub-Saharan Africa has processed hundreds of billions of dollars annually across dozens of countries. Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Ghana, Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, all have thriving mobile money ecosystems where a market trader, a farmer, a domestic worker, anyone with a $15 phone can send and receive money instantly, securely, with a transaction record, no check, no bank, no signature, no piece of paper traveling through an unlocked box.

    The richest country on earth, with the most sophisticated banking system, the most advanced technology companies, and essentially universal internet access, is still moving money by writing account details on paper, signing it, putting it in an envelope, dropping it in an unlocked metal box, waiting for a government employee to physically transport it, having it scanned at a processing centre, and clearing it through a multi-day settlement system.

    A Kenyan goat farmer with a Nokia from 2009 completes the same transaction in four seconds.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Mascot ( 120795 )

      I was about to post a glib hypothetical question about which millennium this story was from, but I think you got it just about covered right there.

      • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

        by jhoegl ( 638955 )
        Seems everyone is fine with paying a fee to pay your debts.
        dumb.

        • reduced payment methods is loss of freedom (Score:5, Insightful)

          by will4 ( 7250692 ) on Sunday June 28, 2026 @06:27PM (#66214652)

          If we lose a method of paying for something, there is a loss of freedom.

          Importantly, there is a loss of decades of pre-internet, pre-finance tech laws and court cases which protect the parties and individual citizens using that form of payment.

          Forcing everyone to move to a "more convenient" form of payment lets the financial top 1% rewrite the laws and regulations to benefit them at the expense of a loss of freedom and protection for average citizens.

          Removing the forms of payment lets big banks, the federal and state government, regulators, hedge funds, wall street, private equity and global NGOs get closer to tracking and having the power to "veto" any payment which disagrees with the politics, agenda or lobbyist favorites of the 1% and financial firms.

          There are decades of VISA and Mastercard credit card payment systems allowing and profiting from credit card purchases at certain types of stores, and now that it is convenient and fits a political agenda, they cut off those stores from accepting VISA or Matercard credit card purchases.

          We do not want a loss of freedom where every purchase is tracked, has a micro-tax/fee added to it, is used to profile the sell and buyer and to feed into a larger mass watching of each person.

          It someone says "more-convenient" the first question should be "Who profits from this?" and the second should be "Which loss of freedom is this?".

          And, when there is a natural disaster, electronic hack, or loss of freedom due to a military invasion of a country, how will people purchase food and water?

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by agm ( 467017 )

          I can make a bank to bank transfer that clears in an hour to any bank account in my country from my phone and there's no additional fee. I haven't seen a cheque in 35 years. Our banks don't accept them as a form of payment, just as we can longer take a horse and cart to the mall.

        • I don't know why people think banking is free.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by jhoegl ( 638955 )
            So you think a 2 cent check is not as good as a 1% surcharge?

            who you work for?

          • > I don't know why people think banking is free.

            Because you've been brain washed into thinking so - over decades. The US banking system is one of the worst there is - you pay fees for everything, everything is slow, requires unnecessary in-person or with-some-specific-artefact activity, and you get paid no interest on anything useful. Even opening an account is an exercise in self-harm. Things get even worse (by a significant amount) if you try and set up a business bank account.

            Elsewhere in the world, w

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by PPH ( 736903 )

      anyone with a $15 phone can send and receive money instantly, securely,

      eSims. We got your phone number. Didn't even have to steal a physical thing.

      • I don't need a sim for money transfers, all I need is a network connection, even via wifi.

      • good luck, you cannot steal his money even if you have cloned his phone number because that it not what the security is based on.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by PPH ( 736903 )

          because that it not what the security is based on.

          2FA. Everyone asks for it. Some demand it.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by shilly ( 142940 )

        It's amazing how people in the US are so committed to the bit that they dream up these theoretical objections to how something will work despite having had no actual experience using it, while ignoring the actual lived experience of people who do use it. There's no fees. It's secure. Sit down and stop self-soothing in public, it's uncouth

    • Re: (Score:3, Insightful)

      by bwanaaa ( 653461 )
      I like the finality, independence and control of cash. But since i cant send cash in the mail, a check is the next best thing. I dont want to be captive to regulations that change, fees that get added, exorbitant interest rates on unpaid balances or late payments.

      • But since i can't send cash in the mail, ...

        You can, it's not illegal, but you really, really shouldn't.

      • Re:Really? (Score:4, Insightful)

        by shilly ( 142940 ) on Monday June 29, 2026 @12:56AM (#66215014)

        What are you *talking* about? Why would a check not be "captive to regulations that change" where an electronic transfer would be? Fees don't get charged in the civilised worlld outside the US for electronic transfers. There's no exorbitant interest rates on unpaid balances, the transfer is instant. There's no late payments, the transfer is instant. Quite the opposite: a check can get lost in the mail, an electronic transfer can't.

        It's incredible watching Americans talk about systems they know nothing of.

    • Re:Really? (Score:4, Insightful)

      by rambletamble ( 10229449 ) on Sunday June 28, 2026 @06:54PM (#66214692)

      I agree with all of nospan07's comment, except for the "most sophisticated banking system".

      I can only assume that, like most Americans, they are unaware of how primitive the US banking system actually is compared with most of the rest of the world.

      It's also bizarrely splintered along state lines, afaik.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by mjwx ( 966435 )

        I agree with all of nospan07's comment, except for the "most sophisticated banking system".

        I can only assume that, like most Americans, they are unaware of how primitive the US banking system actually is compared with most of the rest of the world.

        It's also bizarrely splintered along state lines, afaik.

        I took "sophisticated" to mean "needlessly complex" and it's deliberately kept so to keep out competition. Such complexity is also why it's primitive in comparison to all other developed economies and many developing ones.

        Also, isn't "facilitating interstate trade" the purview of the US federal government? If so, they seem completely unwilling to do anything.

    • Re:Really? (Score:4, Informative)

      by Rei ( 128717 ) on Sunday June 28, 2026 @08:22PM (#66214794) Homepage

      , with the most sophisticated banking system

      Any American who believes this should try living overseas for a year or two. The US banking system is insanely backwards. Numerous aspects of the US medical and government systems as well. It's hard to explain it to you unless you experience it.

      Checks are just one symptom (in Iceland, 15 years ago bank tellers would look at you weird and have to get the manager if you had a personal check, and 10 years ago, stopped taking them altogether). For like 15-20 years, we've had free instant bank-to-bank money transfers (no third party involved), everyone on the same service, to the point that if someone is collecting money for a gift for a coworker's birthday, it's always been, they just send an email with their bank details, instead of going around and collecting cash. All your bills - all of them - just show up in your bank's inbox. On and on.

      I mentioned the medical system. Let me give a random example. In the US, you go to a doctor and they determine you need a prescription. They or their receptionist have to ask what pharmacy you want it at. It gets routed through SecureScripts (before that, it was all phone based!), and depending, you may also need to also call into the pharmacy before you go there - and if you need it "transferred", it's a multihour process. Here? The doctor just jots it into their computer, that's it. You can literally just walk out of the doctor's office into the pharmacy next door (or any other pharmacy), tell them your name, and they go grab your order.

      Everything is connected. Everything is interoperable. All keyed to your kennitala (ID number) . And the kennitala is only a key, not a password. The fact that a SSN in the US is treated as both a key and a password is insane, from a security standpoint; by contrast, you can just post your kennitala online, it's fine. We have multiple actual authentication methods. The most convenient is the Auðkenni system. Our SIM cards store credentials in a separate cryptographic chip. When we need 2FA, for any business or government agency (all on the same system), it sends a special SMS that the phone routes to the SIM card to process, and then (at the OS level) pops up an authentication dialogue, so we have universal 2FA, linked to our kennitala, in all of our phones. It's been this way for like 15+ years.

      Or let's talk taxes. You all know what it's like in America, so let's explain what it's like in Iceland. I get an email letting me know it's tax time. I go to the tax office website. I get 2FA login via my phone. My tax forms are right there. They're already filled out, with all of the information already collected. For like 90% of the population, it's just click through, verify it's correct, and submit. Some people may have some things that weren't logged, such as overseas investments or whatnot, but for most people, it's like a five minute process.

      On and on. It's been so weird seeing America getting things 1-2 decades after us and acting like, "wow, we're leading in banking technology!", etc. No, you're an aged dinosaur, way behind the rest of the world because none of your systems work together and you're so slow to adapt to change.

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by Rei ( 128717 )

        And I want to be clear in the above: I fully acknowledge the irony, in that the US tech industry has been a powerhouse. There seems to be a massive disconnect in the US between tech innovation and tech infrastructure. The US is a world-leader in the former. It's consistently a deep laggard on the latter. The reasons why the US has so much trouble getting its act together on infrastructure and systems are complex, but it is remarkable to see, as someone who has spent their life in a mix of the US and Ic

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

          And I want to be clear in the above: I fully acknowledge the irony, in that the US tech industry has been a powerhouse. There seems to be a massive disconnect in the US between tech innovation and tech infrastructure. The US is a world-leader in the former. It's consistently a deep laggard on the latter. The reasons why the US has so much trouble getting its act together on infrastructure and systems are complex, but it is remarkable to see, as someone who has spent their life in a mix of the US and Iceland

          • Re: (Score:3)

            by Bert64 ( 520050 )

            (One also needs to realize the scale and size of the US - the complete European continent is about 10% larger by area than the US - and I'm sure your systems don't work seamlessly from the UK through Russia and Turkieye and the Stans. And in some ways, a smaller country is easier to standardize - because Canada has some standard ways of sending money because that's all we had and by the time the US got interested it was too late to beat e-transfers.

            The US has a single centralised government with a single currency, Europe is not. The closest thing it has is the EU which covers a significant portion of the continent and then the eurozone inside that which covers most of the EU.
            Despite that the EU does have centralised payment systems that let you send money instantly and without fees throughout the euro zone.

            The *stans are mostly in asia, with only a very small part of kazakhstan considered to be in europe.

          • Re: (Score:2)

            by bn-7bc ( 909819 )
            And the social security card (well the SSN really but who cares) was never designed as an id number (no way to verify validity without looking it up, easy te generate a number that appears to be valid when it's not etc), surry to be harsh but the US needs to do better in 2026 come on most membership/rewards cards have more securety build in than the de-facto id number everybody uses, why does no one seam to mind this?
    • Actually the US has an incredibly primitive banking system. When I worked there, interbank funds transfers were sometimes done by driving armoured cars with bundles of "checks" in them into an underground parking garage and tossing them from one vehicle to the other. I didn't really believe this until I talked to someone who used to do it before they got promoted to other work. It was weird dealing with funds transfers that took days to clear instead of clearing the instant you clicked OK.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by quenda ( 644621 )

      The richest country on earth, with the most sophisticated banking system,... is still moving money by writing account details on paper, signing it, putting it in an envelope,

      Wait until you hear about their measurement system. And how about the Electoral College that appoints the president?
      Their healthcare system still uses fax machines. And ask an American how much fun it is lodging income tax returns.
      Pennies and dollar bills. Magnetic stripes on credit cards.

      Its mind-boggling how the country that leads the world in new technologies, can also uniquely among developed nations, still be living in last century with some important technologies.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by Kisai ( 213879 )

      The thing is, paper checks are more secure in two specific scenarios:
      - Transferring a large amount of money between two businesses with no prior relationship (Keep in mind that this is primarily a problem with US small businesses)
      - Transferring any amount to a foreign individual. Because all the f**king banks want to keep like 30% of it. Even Western Union wants to keep like 10% of it.

      So the best way to make sure the intermediatory isn't eating the funds up in fees is to make sure you get the check in the h

      • Thanks for mentioning this. Small businesses need options like paper checks for a reason.

        It is so obvious that many smug posters have zero real-life experience. Just because you read about something on the internet does not mean that you understand it.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by mjwx ( 966435 )

      By 2026, mobile money in sub-Saharan Africa has processed hundreds of billions of dollars annually across dozens of countries. Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda, Ghana, Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, all have thriving mobile money ecosystems where a market trader, a farmer, a domestic worker, anyone with a $15 phone can send and receive money instantly, securely, with a transaction record, no check, no bank, no signature, no piece of paper traveling through an unlocked box.

      The richest country on earth, with the most sophisticated banking system, the most advanced technology companies, and essentially universal internet access, is still moving money by writing account details on paper, signing it, putting it in an envelope, dropping it in an unlocked metal box, waiting for a government employee to physically transport it, having it scanned at a processing centre, and clearing it through a multi-day settlement system.

      A Kenyan goat farmer with a Nokia from 2009 completes the same transaction in four seconds.

      Complexity is the problem with the US banking system, it's being deliberately kept that way to keep outsiders out. There aren't any US based challenger banks [wikipedia.org] and the big bois have been killing off the old local banks and building societies.

      The US government isn't powerless, but gormless to stop it and do what other countries have done and create a seamless system for interbank transfers. They're quite happy to turn a blind eye to it to keep the donations from the big banks coming through.

      I can send mo

    • I have a strange feeling you are against paying off the 13 middle layers between the transaction source and destination. Lots of really good companies sit there in those layers and leech off everyone's existence. Be more sensitive to their needs...even 600kg mosquitos need to eat.
    • I see it as "leap-frogging technology". Developing countries can take advantage of others' previous experiences. Since they didn't have to deal with checks, they could skip that entire infrastructure and jump to the latest, workable system. It takes time to phase out old systems (as it should). For example, I don't own a cell phone; would I be left out or will they provide a computer method?

      Speaking of cell phones, I understand this is precisely what happened regarding land-line phones in developing

  • US bank account (Score:5, Informative)

    by innocent_white_lamb ( 151825 ) on Sunday June 28, 2026 @03:57PM (#66214460)

    I'm not in or from the USA but I have a bank account at a US bank for the purpose of paying US based suppliers.

    I interact with that account through the bank's website and can transfer money directly to it from my main bank account and make payments from that account through their website.

    When I initially set up the account I assumed that those payments would be some kind of an electronic funds transfer.

    Nope.

    You enter the mailing address for each payee, and they print and mail a physical cheque to them from the bank.

    Really.

    Everything about the transaction is through their website right up to the point that they print and mail a cheque. And I still find that amazing.

    • I find it depressing that the US is so much behind

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by chthon ( 580889 )

        Maybe you should read "Huckleberry Finn". I think that Samuel Clemens also found that the US was backward in his time.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by azander ( 786903 )

      It is even worse. The USPS doesn't even guarantee delivery, contrary to their own regulations.
      Even if they do deliver it, the "standard" is now 5 to 14 business days to deliver 1st class (standard) mail.

      They are supposed to scan every email so they can track it from the source. They don't. She scan it at Outgoing side from the processing center. Even then it may take days before it gets postmarked. The system is failing. Fast.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by khchung ( 462899 )

      You enter the mailing address for each payee, and they print and mail a physical cheque to them from the bank.

      This is called Online-to-Offline (O2O), I heard that Japan have this to perfection, e.g. you register for an event on their website, they email you a QR code, you would think you should this QR code on your phone to enter the event? Nope, you need to print out the email and hand in the physical paper with the printed QR code to enter.

      Not to mention entering data into a spreadsheet then print it out to fax to the recipient.

      I think US banks have a lot to learn from the Japanese, LOL.

    • You might want to consider wiring the money from your non-US bank directly to the recipients. However, even this can be fraught with problems.

      Some US banks cannot accept incoming international wires, instead it has to go though an intermediary. In one case, I sent some money to a relative in the US from my UK bank. I tested the setup by sending $100, then sent a larger amount. The $100 that I sent was credited to my relative's account, then a couple of days later (after I had sent the larger amount), they t

  • Unfortunately (Score:5, Insightful)

    by sphealey ( 2855 ) on Sunday June 28, 2026 @03:58PM (#66214462)

    "If you must write a check, he said, try to deliver it in person or take it inside a post office to mail rather than relying on your own mailbox or public drop boxes. "

    That was the neighborhood advice going around our area 1-2 years ago. I myself was skeptical that mail theft was going on as I had dealt with the Postal Police when managing an e-commerce site and I knew they are very good at finding things like this. Unfortunately it turned out (1) I was wrong: there was mail theft going on in our neighborhood but (2) everyone else was wrong too: the mail wasn't being stolen from blue boxes; it was being lifted from the bins behind the slot in our postal service center. The perps were eventually caught but it took far longer than I would have thought.

    • I had a check stolen from a blue box outside the post office. They had been doing it for a while. They would not empty the box, they'd only take some, so the employees didn't realize someone had a key to the box that shouldn't. They took a payment with a 50 dollar check, altered it to 500, and to themselves. I saw the scan of the check and was kind of in disbelief anyone cashed it for the perp. It was clearly altered. Bank restored the funds, but now I take mail into the post office. Pretty crappy to need

  • Yes. (Score:2)

    by a9db0 ( 31053 )

    This happened to us a couple of years ago - check to the IRS intercepted, washed, and redirected. Nearly cost us a fortune. We caught it in time, and were able to get the IRS paid and get the fraud reversed.

    Never pay the IRS with a check. Credit card, ACH wire transfer, or EFTPS for us from then on.

  • Check fraud has been around since the dawn of time. Well, since the dawn of checks anyway.

    Whether it's forgery, fraudulent deposits, check washing, theft from mailboxes... These have all existed for centuries. Literally nothing new. But, much more importantly, these events are such a small percentage of overall check processing that there is no incentive to change the system or process. Neither form the banks nor the check users.

    Those banks that are pushing digital transactions aren't doing it because of ch

  • TFS neglects to mention it, but in the article it's clear why the 63-year old retiree didn't get their money back: they waited 10 months(!) to report the problem.

  • What is a "Check"? (Score:3)

    by gweihir ( 88907 ) on Sunday June 28, 2026 @05:24PM (#66214594)

    And what is "the mail"?

    Seriously, last time I held a "check" was some 20 years ago and it was from an US organization. My local bank here (Europe) told me after some confusion that they had an expert that knew how to get these cashed and a partnership with an US bank. They did not even bother to charge extra for the work, because this apparently happened very rarely.

    • You are so awesome!

      Yay!

    • Yeah, but do you have AC?

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by gweihir ( 88907 )

        Yes. I do not share the irrational fear of AC. I do note that the mobile ACs I have (redundancy is an engineering way-of-life) are currently all sold out. I got mine very cheap in the winter, dynamic pricing and foresight for the win.

        What I do not have is an apartment where I can do a non-improvised installation. On the plus-side, because my apartment is minimum-energy, I can delay running AC by a few days when it starts to get hot and according to the usual estimates, the AC takes about half the energy it

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by azander ( 786903 )

      Lucky for you. My employer now charges a 2.9% fee on all Credit and Debit card transactions. We are seeing more and more checks because people don't want to pay that fee. Businesses especially.

  • Even the bank tellers that were in to cash those checks

  • A time which has come and gone (At least, outside of the USA).

    The United States has a bunch of banks with vested interests in payment systems. They all want those juicy transaction fees on all payments. They couldn't eliminate paper checks so they let them slide (Remember when some banks used to charge per-check fees as a profit center?).

    We we ever have a near-instantaneous payment system similar to what the European Union has? Probably not. There's too much profit in those transaction fees.
    Fed Now was supp

  • I haven't heard of anyone using a check for 30 years. Do banks even accept or issue them?

  • 100% of every thousandth payment taken, vs. 3% of every single payment....

  • The only time I have written a physical check in the past 5 years is for a present. You write it, stick it in a card and hand deliver it.

    I cannot see any reason not to use some form of electronic payment for anything but a birthday/Christmas present.

    Venmo, Zelle, ApplePay, Paypal, login to your bank account and wire the money,

    • 5 years? I did get a checkbook when I opened my first bank account around 1990, but I have never used one. At the time I couldn't believe they were actually giving me checks. I mean, not in 1990?

  • I remember a story a while back, diamond couriers were losing too many packages due to theft. Their solution? Send the diamonds via regular mail.
    Losses in the mail were tiny compared to targeted thefts.

    I wonder if it's mail that's the problem, or if it's banks cashing checks they really shouldn't and trying to blame their customers for the banks own negligence.

     

  • For recipients that require checks, such as some government agencies, bill pay is better than regular checks. This is true even if the bank prints and sends a paper check, because the bank guarantees delivery of the money.

  • My former employer's 401(k) custodian won't do an EFT for rolling over my 401(k). The ONLY option is a snail mail check sent through untracked first class mail. It's like they WANT you to lose your money. Imagine getting what most people would consider a large fortune of money in your unlocked mailbox that anyone can take out and doesn't have to be signed for on delivery.

    There's already a case where someone doing a rollover lost their funds because of washing of an intercepted rollover check and the last I

  • I thought you did innovation and stuff. Lol

  • Those checks are impossible to be intercepted and are the most secure way of sending money.
      Europeans are totally crazy by using those so-called "wire transfers".

  • Why on earth does the USA still cling to the use of checks?

    "Here, I'm going to write down an IOU on this piece of paper to pay for the thing" - uh, yeah, sure, and now I have to trust that the check (that has nowhere near the security features of actual currency) is legit, and that you are going to have money in your account at the time I try to deposit it.

    Like, seriously?

    What's wrong with electronic funds transfers? They're instant, don't have any fees and I can see the money in my bank account within seco

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by azander ( 786903 )

      No fees? In the US 90+% of all banks and credit unions charge a fee, per transaction and a percentage, of all transfers. Many businesses roll it into their pricing, but now with these fees changing every 6 months or more, business are breaking the fee out to show people their cost. Besides "fees" are less regulated than overall pricing. You can add fees for just bout anything and get away with it, so the processors do. "Electronic cost recovery fee", "Processing Fee" (the original cost per transaction

  • I did mail checks to pay utilities, like my electric & phone bills. Automatic withdrawals didn't work due to irregularities on when I might get the money, so that's what I did

    But for taxes, I'd never mail a check. I'd do an electronic money transfer, supervised by the tax preparer (I used H&R Block until my tax consultant retired some years ago). Essentially, if the amount is too big, I wouldn't use a check

  • >"In some cases, thieves may pilfer one or more checks from local mailboxes."

    This is one reason why I drop all my outgoing mail (mostly bills) into a locked US Postal Service box at work, rather than mailing from home.

  • The US still has checks? (Score:3)

    by DrXym ( 126579 ) on Monday June 29, 2026 @08:28AM (#66215312)
    A few countries in Europe still technically support cheques but most have gotten rid of them entirely. Even where they still exist it's nearly theoretical since banks etc don't issue cheque books or provide cheque services. Since every EU / UK bank has an IBAN and most of Europe is under SEPA (for cross border payments) it is easy and quick to pay somebody electronically.

    • Re: (Score:3)

      by ThePyro ( 645161 )
      Insanely, it's still the cheapest way to pay some of my bills. They charge extra for using a credit or debit card, and the cost of a stamp + paper check is less than card transaction fee. I keep dutifully mailing them a check every month, hoping they'll get tired of having to deposit manually and just make everything the same cost...

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by hwstar ( 35834 )

        Remember the per-check charges banks used to have on some checking accounts before electronic transactions were widespread? These could come back. Also stores could start charging a fee to accept cash as it is a logistical headache.

        All of this points to a severe need for a zero or low fee transaction system. FedNow was supposed to be this, but the big banks refuse to adopt it.

  • consider using your bank's online bill payment service

    Which is fine until the financial institution eff's that up. I've had checks get lost in the mail so I avoid sending them where possible and do most payments on-line. One of my utilities won't let you pay on-line unless you agree to stop printed statements, which I don't want to do (plus their web site sucks...) So I thought I'd try on-line bill pay through my credit union. A month later I received another statement that failed to show my payment. I asked my credit union for any data they had on the tr

  • I keep getting letters from the DOJ Victims Affairs about a guy they arrested stealing mail and trying to kite and then cash checks. [uspsoig.gov] He also got one count of unlawful possession of an unregistered machine gun (GLOCK switch).

    Apparently some of the mail they recovered was from when I was dealing with my mom's estate. Probate courts usually order that everything is paid by check so that there is a paper trail.

    The DOJ were not amused when I called and asked if they could do an NFA transfer of the machin

  • Handed directly to recipient institutions or individuals they serve as a firewall against online account compromise.

    Checks have use when internet is interrupted during natural disasters and I have so used them. I've never had a check problem in my many decades on the planet because I think before writing. I bank locally and those I pay are protected thereby.

    Redundant payment methods including cash come in handy. I keep a couple thousand (small enough to lose, large enough to be useful) bucks handy because b

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