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Comment by gosub100 | Hacker News Reader

It's very uncommon to use them for any common expenses like groceries or gas. I use them for a quarterly HOA payment, yearly CPA tax preparation, petty government fines and fees, and donations to charity. Generally things that you mail a payment for and you want a record of the payment. Most of these I could do electronically but I don't really save any time doing so because of the friction of setting up the payment.

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> Generally things that you mail a payment for

I’m sorry but this sentence makes absolutely zero sense to my europoor brain.

What do you mean when you say mail a payment and why would you need to do that. I literally lack the imagination.

The European mind cannot comprehend how primitive American consumer banking is.

I don't understand either, but I would be genuinely interested in what "mailing a payment" means in practice. Is it like sending a check by mail or some kind of paper bank transfer?

Sending a check via mail is infrequently done, but it happens. I just paid my annual property taxes that way. My options were:

* mailing a check

* paying via credit card over the phone for a hefty surcharge

* cash in person

In my case, I used my online banking to send the amount to the mailing address on the bill. In some cases - for large companies, typically - my bank can send the remittance electronically. In others, though, they fill out a paper check on my behalf and send it via the postal system. This service is fee free to me, or else I’d have sent the letter myself.

You say ‘the cheque is in the mail’ when you intend to ignore an instruction whilst pretending to comply.

When I want to transfer currency units to entities which are not within range of any personal locomotion apparatus, I utilize a government service that transfers paper parcels anywhere in the country for a fixed rate. A few days later the receiver redeems the check for currency units deposited into their banking account.

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