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Comment by kochthesecond | Hacker News Reader

I am 33 and have never even seen a cheque, nor would I have any idea what to do with it. I am in EU though.

32 in the US and I still have to write fucking checks, most commonly for paying rent. No landlord wants to eat the ~3% fee for taking a credit card. The other day I had to pay for some trees to be cut down and pruned in my yard, cost a couple grand which I am never going to have in cash on hand - same deal, the landscaper does not want to pay the 3% fee so it’s cash or check only.

This. The other thing is property taxes, in my area they generally let you pay by modern methods but charge ridiculous fees, so a paper check is the only sensible method.

That's fine. Checks are risky for the receivers not the sender.

Why would you ever involve a credit card processor in this? Can't you just do a wire transfer?

Yeah, and it happens but wire transfers can be a real pain depending on the bank. And you need to get the account number of landlord, and now you don't have a simple way (the canceled check) of proving you paid rent. While less than ideal, checks often have the most upside, which is why they still get used.

Another way of looking at it, a check is more or less a form of wire transfer using the ACH system. I just wish there was a way to remove the paper check aspect of it, in a way that is commonly accepted by private individuals + small business in addtion to big outfits.

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