Omaha – Richard Kesterson slid his debit card out of his wallet before the grocery store cashier rang up his total.
Like millions of Americans, he didn’t even consider paying by check. Using a debit card or paying online through his bank’s bill-pay system is easier, he said – and his bank keeps track of his spending instead.
“I haven’t balanced my account in 10 years,” Kesterson said.
Check writing has declined sharply since 1995. The Federal Reserve estimates that 49.5 billion checks were paid in the United States in 1995; that figure dropped to 36.6 billion checks paid in 2003, according to the most recent Fed studies.
The growing popularity of plastic is the biggest factor.
Increasingly, checks also are being converted into electronic payments by merchants who prefer electronic transfers to dealing with the paper checks.
Together, credit and debit card use accounted for 43 percent of all non-cash payments in 2003, up from 33 percent in 2000.
In some cases, consumers may still write a check, but increasingly, merchants are scanning those checks and converting them to an electronic payment.
Converting checks to electronic payments allows merchants to get paid quicker, and it may help reduce the number of insufficient funds checks businesses have to deal with.
At some stores that process checks electronically, the clerk hands the check back to the consumer with the receipt after scanning it and claiming an electronic payment for the store.
Many of the checks written to utilities, mortgage companies and other businesses are also being converted to electronic payments when the companies receive them.
Checking writing isn’t going away, though.
Some transactions are still better suited to checks, such as paying the kid who mows the lawn, making a contribution to a church to have a record of charitable donations at tax time, or payments such as real estate closings.
