Comment by crazygringo | Hacker News Reader

Comment by crazygringo | Hacker News Reader

Parent Full thread

This is exactly why the USPS started replacing the blue box opening slots with a narrower version in New York City and surrounding areas starting back in 2019 [1], to prevent "mail fishing" -- retrieving envelopes from people paying bills, specifically to wash found checks in order commit fraud.

Which, if you used to use the blue boxes for mailing thin packages, is a huge annoyance because you can't anymore. :(

Seriously, these days nobody should be writing personal checks using a pen. If you do need a check for a transaction, use a cashier's check (different from a personal check, it's drawn on the bank) for occasional large amounts (like apartment deposit or buying a used car), or most banks allow you to send a paper check via online banking for routine needs -- you fill out the details online and it mails a paper check to the recipient that, AFAIK, can't be washed for check fraud. (All of this is USA specific, to be clear.)

[1] https://www.nytimes.com/2019/03/21/nyregion/mailbox-theft-fi...

> Seriously, these days nobody should be writing personal checks

FTFY. The US is the only country in the world that I know of where writing personal checks is still commonplace. In Europe they're thoroughly obsolete, and in Asia, where they were mostly uncommon in the first place, even the few once check-happy countries like Singapore have pretty much migrated off.

French resident here. Received a bill from this week from a medical lab for some tests; the only payment options are either visit the lab in person (an hour's drive away) or mail a personal check. This is not uncommon here, and even most large supermarket chains still accept checks.

Wow. I’m a year away from 40 and have handled exactly one check my entire life. A gift from my uncle for my confirmation. I have never seen them used in shops and I have never heard of paying bills with checks. These days I get most bills straight into my online bank and just have to confirm the payment. It’s been more or less like this my entire adult life.

Norway BTW. Perhaps our small population makes it easier to just end old legacy shit?

Really? I’m approaching 10 years in Germany and I have never seen a cheque in Europe. SEPA transfers are the standard, and this is in the land of the faxes.

I can attest that France still uses checks a lot. Just over this summer I wrote something like 5 checks.

Mostly for work to be done on a house, and otherwise to get around the absurdly low limit on bank cards.

Certainly up to about 5-10 years ago in the UK university societies ran on cheques (not sure if they still do). It was AIUI the only simple way of requiring the approval of any two of a number of committee members to spend money.

I think the last time I wrote a cheque was just before leaving the UK 16 years ago.

I was surprised in Switzerland they have kind of a reverse cheques (probably the wrong term), when you buy many things online, or dealing with taxes, the firm will send you a payment slip, you can then take that to your bank (or now scan with the banks app) and authorise the funds.

They're still used in France even if mostly by old people.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com