But when he tried to open a savings account for the money at the Livonia branch, staff said they would need to verify the cheques. The assistant bank manager - herself a black woman - went to a backroom, before returning and telling Mr Thomas their team member who verifies cheques was not there. She allegedly asked him how he got the money.
Ten minutes later - after Mr Thomas said he would wait in the lobby for the staff member to return - four police officers arrived.
I'm taking bets the asst. bank manager was told she had to ask by someone else behind the scenes. Then that someone called the cops.
WTH is a beat cop going to do though? How would they know if the check is legit or not? They should have deposited it and waited to see if the funds came in.
Small chance, but it might have been a case of due diligence. The police might have done a by the numbers investigation just to ensure he had a solid verdict that there was no fraud.
I thought the conservative stance was that there's no systemic racism. Your co-workers actually think all racism is solved, in the US of all places?? Sheesh
Dawg, I think you may be overestimating many conservatives. Most of them don't draw a line between personal racism and systemic racism, and many of them think racism was "solved" when Obama was elected president.
They think that "racism" is when you're openly lynching brown people in the town square. Or marching in klan robes. Or Nazi saluting a Nazi flag. Because they aren't doing that, it means they're not racist. They're not smart enough to understand anything more subtle or indirect like generational poverty caused by a series of intentional hamstringings from enslavement to redlining and the like.
I have bad news, but based on the people I've worked with. Lynching a black dude while wearing full klan robes and shooting a Mexican would be considered "light work" and thus not racist enough to be racism.
The amount of mental gymnastics I've seen is wild.
I thought the conservative stance was that there’s no systemic racism.
I mean, there's no limit to how stupid people can be. But I think a lot of conservatives like to say that the racism of the past doesn't matter anymore. That a family that was enslaved 160 years ago (just beyond living memory now, but potentially someone's great-great-grandparent), and then subject to Jim Crow and other cruelties through... generously the 1960s but realistically the 1980s, that family has no long lasting effects.
But really it's important to remember that conservatives just say things. They don't care about facts or truth. They care about power, and their emotions. So even if you proved that racism was systemic and had measurable effects (eg: The Color of Law), it won't matter. They don't care about facts. They care about feelings.
This is funny because many conservatives say things like "facts don't care about your feelings", but it's well known that conservatives project more than movie theaters.
Unfortunately, I had a middle aged white dude make that argument to me while I was a bartender. This was a little before the pandemic, in one of the least diverse states in the U.S. (population is ~90% white people). He said that in his entire life, he had never witnessed or experienced anyone be racist to anyone else, ever, and the only reason why people think it's an issue is because the news is overly sensational and tries to divide us. I tried to tell him his experiences are not universal and cannot be taken as representative of the experiences of a person of color, but he was not having it. Since I was about half his age at the time, he said I didn't have enough life experience to know that. This is despite the fact that I have several friends with first hand experience with racism in the same state he lived. They've been called slurs, followed around in stores, harassed by police and school administrations in public school, been told to go back to their own country (even though this is their own country, and the person telling them this is not indigenous), and numerous other examples.
It was a frustrating conversation that didn't go anywhere. It's especially disheartening that he at least recognized that the news tries to divide us, but then started repeating Fox News taking points when I tried sharing some of the things my friends have been through.
I remember once on a forum a big cis het guy was saying that he's never seen cat calling on the street. Never him, and never at any of his friends. Someone pointed out that since he's a big dude, he's probably not going to be catcalled, and other shitty dudes are likely not going to bother people near him because of patriarchy.
To everyone's surprise, he came back and was like "ok that makes sense. And I asked my women friends and they told me a lot of stories"
Glad to hear he actually checked with the women in his life for their perspective. I'm sure the guy in my example did not have any friends who were POC. If he did, he never bothered to ask them about their experiences with racism and they never felt comfortable enough with him to tell him about their experiences. Based on his age, in the era he grew up, the state was over 95% white people, and that was likely more concentrated to urban areas. If I had to place a bet, I would say the area he grew up in was rural or suburban. It was just wild to me that he never considered that things could be different for other people living in a different area.
If I'm remembering correctly, this was during the time that NFL athletes were kneeling for the national anthem and conservatives were losing their minds over it. He was watching a game playing on the TV, watched them kneel instead of stand, and commented that BLM is a stupid, pointless movement. The conversation ensued from there.
One of the privileges if being a white guy is that other white guys wont even try hiding their racism from you if all you do is keep your mouth shut. Then you can let them run it all out before letting it slip that you aren't one of their friends.
Yeah, it's a real privilege to be subjected to a bigoted rant while waiting for an elevator because they assume you'll be on their side in the coming race war.
Apparently this was in Detroit in 2020. A similar thing happened a few years earlier in West Seattle. Black guy went into a Wa. Mutual to deposit a check and the bank people thought it "didn't look right" so they called the cops and charged him with check fraud. During the week or so he spent in jail, he lost his job, got evicted from his apartment, and gf broke up with him. He sued the bank and it took a couple years but he won.
That's it? 10kg? And clankers seem to think that's about 11-12L. So I can load a heavy duty duffel with about 4mil and its only about 40kg. Easy peasy.
In the U.S. checks are still a very common way to pay bills for businesses. The reason: checks are cheaper. ACH fees are more expensive.
In other countries the reverse is true. Checks cost money while ACH is free. So everyone does ACH and checks are almost unheard of.
In the U.S. it's faster and easier to reimburse myself from the my business account with a check to my personal account. Its truly ridiculous process. I print out a check from the business software and sign the check. I then remote deposit the check into my personal account (endorsing then back) with my phone. The check never leaves my desk.
It costs me under $0.03 (cost of the check) to do it this way. ACH fees are $5/transaction for essentially the same thing.
Checks are nice when you don't want acquiesce to the anti-privacy account making nonsense or pay the "convenience" fee some companies pull on their websites. With the added bonus of in order to get their money they need to take extra steps and have a real person process the payment because the company dicked around. Checks are awesome.
In this case, it would actually be beneficiary to use checks because they can do it via cashier check to guarantee that it's going to deposit and also it makes the paper trail to help protect against the I wasn't paid or this person never got the money claim.
Not that I don't believe that checks are not ancient outdated technology as well, but I do agree there are some rare occasions where it makes more sense to use a check versus having to deal with a wire transfer or paying in physical denomination.
What's the process and why is it so arduous? Here it's just account name, bank number, account number and you can expect it next day (or instant using modern methods). Sure beats going to the bank...
I'm not sure where you are located but, in the US it's those 3 pieces of information as well. I think checks in the case of validity and legal situations make a lot more sense. Not everyone will have that information at hand, nor do they have banks that are willing to allow them or charge a fee for them. It's also 2 pieces of information more than a cashiers check would require, and discloses where the destination of the funds is going to anyone involved which includes both the handler and the person who is giving you money, where with a cashiers check you can deposit or cash those most anywhere that manages checks, be it your bank, an opposing bank, walmart etc. It also helps with the actual paper trail as you have a physical piece of paper confirming you are going to be receiving the amount, where a wire is fully digital and if something messed up along the way, it can take weeks to resolve the issue. You can't screw a cashiers check up without really trying, it's weighted against the bank itself instead of the person or entity that is owing the money, which means it can't bounce(like normal checks can), and it only needs your name which, the court and the payer should already know, where a wire transfer can be screwed up by a simple typo of the numbers.
The processing speeds are also night and day. You mentioned next day but, that is likely because because your bank is doing you a favor with it. A wire transfer can take up to 5-7 business days to actually transfer, in some cases it can even take up to a couple weeks. Cashier checks are handled similar to government checks and are legally mandated (at least in the US) to be cleared next day. Wire transfers to my knowledge do not have this obligation.
Thanks for the concise explanation! Sounds like quite the hassle indeed.
My home country is Australia and it's basically the polar opposite. A direct deposit (what we call a wire transfer) is always less than 24 hours and never costs anything to the account holders. Even for hundreds of thousands of dollars (such as when purchasing property).
There's also a secondary system called Osko and if both banks support it the transfer is instant (and still free). Salaries must be paid using direct deposit (to ensure an electronic 'paper trail'). No one with a job or government benefits is unbanked. For at least the last 35 years everyone opens their first bank account at elementary school, where the (former) government bank attends and sets up a fee free account for each child. There are no account fees. Only 15% of transactions in Australia involve cash money, and almost all others are direct deposit or direct debit with about 0.1% being cheques.
If for some reason an individual doesn't have an app with their account info on it they will carry it in their wallet. Many people have an email address attached to their account anyway and you can use the email address instead for sending a direct deposit. Most businesses still require the Bank/Account number instead though.
The number of people with a cheque book is statistically insignificant. The government will cease using cheques by 2028, and they will be completely abolished by 2030. I haven't seen a cheque in the last 20 years in Europe, Asia or Oceania. The last time I saw one was in 2023 in Las Vegas.
My mom still writes checks for all her bills, then the shut-off notices and the checks cross in the mail, and she ends up getting her electricity cut off. I'm trying to get her to use the Internet to pay her bills, but she acts like I'm stupid for suggesting any other way than mailing a check.
its old, not 2026, it's American they have a zillion banks and they're stuck in the 1990s with banking. I have an old cheque book as an antique from yesteryear here in Australia where cheques are no longer used. (EFT everywhere)
I mean in fairness most people in America use credit/debit cards or echecks for day-to-day transactions. Paper checks are mostly for when corporations or slow-moving bureaucratic arms of the government want to sit on your money for as long as possible.
I've often found it's sometimes cheaper to pay some bills by check. The cost of a postage stamp can be lower than the "convenience fee" of paying online.
So you pay to use online banking? European banks started charging for everything else to force people online. They save a lot of money now that there are basically no more bank offices left. And cheques haven't been in use since the 90s
Tell that to French old ladies. I've had the pleasure of waiting in line at the supermarket check out while Granny in front writes a cheque for her groceries, far more recently than you'd expect!
Corporations still use checks—particularly to pay debt and penalties and such—because it's a better deal for them: the debt is counted as having been paid immediately, but it takes a few days for the money to actually transfer. That's more time for that money to generate interest for them. On a payment of millions, that's worthwhile to them. Electronic transfers remove the money from the sending account immediately, so they don't get that extra bonus interest.
Yes. Except in my mind it's a monkey's paw deal. You win endless discrimination lawsuits, but you just end up with a bunch of checks no bank will cash.
The secret is that you go to a credit union instead of a bank, and you DEPOSIT it instead of cash it.
They will have ample time to verify the check through official channels, and you can access the money after it has successfully transferred from the payer into the account.
Oh like you wish for a million dollars but everyone you interact with is lawsuit levels of racist. You can get the money but can't cash it. You can sue endlessly but you end up wasting all your time in court
Exactly. Classic monkey's paw. You end up dying homeless and in the gutter. On your corpse the police find millions of dollars worth of checks to your name. You get to be a millionaire that dies of hunger and exposure to the elements.
For recurring charges like phone bills or water bills, they'll often let you do a bank transfer/eCheck for free. But then debit cards are like $2.99 or so. Probably because the debit card is going through Visa or Mastercard or something. It's even more common to charge for things like parking tickets or things that you aren't paying all the time.
86 Comments
GreenShimada@lemmy.world · 90 pts · 1d
Chat, is this shitpost real?
piyuv@lemmy.world · 195 pts · 1d
Apparently it is: https://www.bbc.com/news/world-us-canada-51234141
The bank clerk herself was a black woman, and the man is an Air Force veteran… The onion couldn’t make this shit up
StillAlive@piefed.world · 98 pts · 1d
Sauntore Thomas when the bank called the cops:
perishthethought@piefed.social · 53 pts · 22h
From the article:
I'm taking bets the asst. bank manager was told she had to ask by someone else behind the scenes. Then that someone called the cops.
WTH is a beat cop going to do though? How would they know if the check is legit or not? They should have deposited it and waited to see if the funds came in.
jtrek@startrek.website · 39 pts · 21h
Enforce hierarchy
joyjoy@piefed.social · 5 pts · 19h
Call the person who wrote the cheque to confirm.
Tetsuo@jlai.lu · 29 pts · 20h
A small tidbit :
So non only the police didn't need to be involved but they also tried to find fraud charges instead of helping the victim of racism...
Bubs@lemmy.zip · 5 pts · 17h
Small chance, but it might have been a case of due diligence. The police might have done a by the numbers investigation just to ensure he had a solid verdict that there was no fraud.
daggermoon@piefed.world · 21 pts · 1d
Reality is often loonier than fiction.
red_bull_of_juarez@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 14 pts · 1d
Republicans hate this infinite money glitch.
itisileclerk@lemmy.world · -14 pts · 23h
Wait, what? Black-on-black racism? Whait is called this, homocism? Gaycism?
Jhex@lemmy.world · 77 pts · 1d
ThErE iS nO rAcIsM iN aMeRiCa
Proprietary_Blend@lemmy.world · 17 pts · 23h
nOonE sAyS ThAt
velma@sh.itjust.works · 77 pts · 22h
Let me introduce you to the majority of my conservative coworkers.
usualsuspect191@lemmy.ca · 13 pts · 22h
I thought the conservative stance was that there's no systemic racism. Your co-workers actually think all racism is solved, in the US of all places?? Sheesh
velma@sh.itjust.works · 30 pts · 22h
So much so that I have one white coworker who openly uses the n-word because it's "not racist anymore".
captainlezbian@lemmy.world · 15 pts · 19h
What the actual fuck‽
velma@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 14h
We've had a few words over the years. He doesn't use slurs within earshot of me anymore, but I can't lie and say it's the easiest to work with him.
kestrel7_7@lemmy.world · 17 pts · 19h
Dawg, I think you may be overestimating many conservatives. Most of them don't draw a line between personal racism and systemic racism, and many of them think racism was "solved" when Obama was elected president.
MrVilliam@sh.itjust.works · 8 pts · 17h
They think that "racism" is when you're openly lynching brown people in the town square. Or marching in klan robes. Or Nazi saluting a Nazi flag. Because they aren't doing that, it means they're not racist. They're not smart enough to understand anything more subtle or indirect like generational poverty caused by a series of intentional hamstringings from enslavement to redlining and the like.
Holytimes@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 5h
I have bad news, but based on the people I've worked with. Lynching a black dude while wearing full klan robes and shooting a Mexican would be considered "light work" and thus not racist enough to be racism.
The amount of mental gymnastics I've seen is wild.
jtrek@startrek.website · 16 pts · 21h
I mean, there's no limit to how stupid people can be. But I think a lot of conservatives like to say that the racism of the past doesn't matter anymore. That a family that was enslaved 160 years ago (just beyond living memory now, but potentially someone's great-great-grandparent), and then subject to Jim Crow and other cruelties through... generously the 1960s but realistically the 1980s, that family has no long lasting effects.
But really it's important to remember that conservatives just say things. They don't care about facts or truth. They care about power, and their emotions. So even if you proved that racism was systemic and had measurable effects (eg: The Color of Law), it won't matter. They don't care about facts. They care about feelings.
This is funny because many conservatives say things like "facts don't care about your feelings", but it's well known that conservatives project more than movie theaters.
bran_buckler@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 22h
Jinkies!
Banana@sh.itjust.works · 28 pts · 22h
....a lot of people say that.
lucky you for not being surrounded by fucking idiots, i guess tho?
Zorque@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 20h
A lot of *racists" say that. Or at least racist apologists.
Banana@sh.itjust.works · 1 pts · 16h
bingo.
Kraiden@piefed.social · 1 pts · 10h
Racist apologists are also racists.
SpraynardKruger@lemmy.zip · 23 pts · 22h
Unfortunately, I had a middle aged white dude make that argument to me while I was a bartender. This was a little before the pandemic, in one of the least diverse states in the U.S. (population is ~90% white people). He said that in his entire life, he had never witnessed or experienced anyone be racist to anyone else, ever, and the only reason why people think it's an issue is because the news is overly sensational and tries to divide us. I tried to tell him his experiences are not universal and cannot be taken as representative of the experiences of a person of color, but he was not having it. Since I was about half his age at the time, he said I didn't have enough life experience to know that. This is despite the fact that I have several friends with first hand experience with racism in the same state he lived. They've been called slurs, followed around in stores, harassed by police and school administrations in public school, been told to go back to their own country (even though this is their own country, and the person telling them this is not indigenous), and numerous other examples.
It was a frustrating conversation that didn't go anywhere. It's especially disheartening that he at least recognized that the news tries to divide us, but then started repeating Fox News taking points when I tried sharing some of the things my friends have been through.
jtrek@startrek.website · 14 pts · 21h
I remember once on a forum a big cis het guy was saying that he's never seen cat calling on the street. Never him, and never at any of his friends. Someone pointed out that since he's a big dude, he's probably not going to be catcalled, and other shitty dudes are likely not going to bother people near him because of patriarchy.
To everyone's surprise, he came back and was like "ok that makes sense. And I asked my women friends and they told me a lot of stories"
Rare to see someone change their mind like that.
SpraynardKruger@lemmy.zip · 6 pts · 18h
Glad to hear he actually checked with the women in his life for their perspective. I'm sure the guy in my example did not have any friends who were POC. If he did, he never bothered to ask them about their experiences with racism and they never felt comfortable enough with him to tell him about their experiences. Based on his age, in the era he grew up, the state was over 95% white people, and that was likely more concentrated to urban areas. If I had to place a bet, I would say the area he grew up in was rural or suburban. It was just wild to me that he never considered that things could be different for other people living in a different area.
If I'm remembering correctly, this was during the time that NFL athletes were kneeling for the national anthem and conservatives were losing their minds over it. He was watching a game playing on the TV, watched them kneel instead of stand, and commented that BLM is a stupid, pointless movement. The conversation ensued from there.
captainlezbian@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 19h
Good on him for actually listening and checking with people who would know more
aeronmelon@lemmy.world · 8 pts · 12h
Racists and most of the Bible Belt says that.
Elting@piefed.social · 5 pts · 22h
America without the racism would be like ice cream with no vanilla flavoring. Not even the racists would be trying to tell you its not there.
velma@sh.itjust.works · 17 pts · 22h
Nah they think it’s in the past and black people are holding themselves back at this point.
Seriously.
Elting@piefed.social · 10 pts · 22h
One of the privileges if being a white guy is that other white guys wont even try hiding their racism from you if all you do is keep your mouth shut. Then you can let them run it all out before letting it slip that you aren't one of their friends.
Soggy@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 12h
Yeah, it's a real privilege to be subjected to a bigoted rant while waiting for an elevator because they assume you'll be on their side in the coming race war.
Squirrelanna@lemmy.blahaj.zone · 5 pts · 6h
Lmao please tell me where in the US I can move where not a single soul says those exact words unironically.
fyzzlefry@retrolemmy.com · 4 pts · 8h
Oh man. It must be nice living where you are.
Proprietary_Blend@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 8h
It's ok I guess.
TropicalDingdong@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 19h
LovableSidekick@lemmy.world · 74 pts · 16h
Apparently this was in Detroit in 2020. A similar thing happened a few years earlier in West Seattle. Black guy went into a Wa. Mutual to deposit a check and the bank people thought it "didn't look right" so they called the cops and charged him with check fraud. During the week or so he spent in jail, he lost his job, got evicted from his apartment, and gf broke up with him. He sued the bank and it took a couple years but he won.
Fleppensteijn@sh.itjust.works · 45 pts · 23h
Why do they apparently still use cheques in 2026?
unitedwithme@lemmy.today · 57 pts · 23h
Because metal briefcases stuffed with unmarked bills is too cliche.
Rooster326@programming.dev · 14 pts · 22h
They are also very heavy.
$1000000 in $100 is 22 lbs.
The logistics alone make most heist movies improbable.
foggy@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 21h
ParlimentOfDoom@piefed.zip · 6 pts · 19h
That's why they upgrade the shocks on their mini coopers...
okwhateverdude@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 20h
That's it? 10kg? And clankers seem to think that's about 11-12L. So I can load a heavy duty duffel with about 4mil and its only about 40kg. Easy peasy.
Janx@piefed.social · 1 pts · 7h
I guess I'm confused. You think ~20 lbs is unmanageably heavy for a million dollars?
Rooster326@programming.dev · 1 pts · 4h
Nobody in a heist is stealing just a million.
These heists are for hundreds of millions of dollars., and they're carrying it out in a duffel.
crunchy@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 45 pts · 22h
This story is ancient. I remember seeing it circulate in the early 2010s.
potter2010@lemmy.ca · 14 pts · 21h
They may not be the most common method of payment, but they are regularly used.
The_v@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 13h
It depends on the country you are in.
In the U.S. checks are still a very common way to pay bills for businesses. The reason: checks are cheaper. ACH fees are more expensive.
In other countries the reverse is true. Checks cost money while ACH is free. So everyone does ACH and checks are almost unheard of.
In the U.S. it's faster and easier to reimburse myself from the my business account with a check to my personal account. Its truly ridiculous process. I print out a check from the business software and sign the check. I then remote deposit the check into my personal account (endorsing then back) with my phone. The check never leaves my desk.
It costs me under $0.03 (cost of the check) to do it this way. ACH fees are $5/transaction for essentially the same thing.
MeThisGuy@feddit.nl · 2 pts · 13h
and you owe me €0.03 for looking up what ACH is.
Taleya@aussie.zone · 1 pts · 12h
I just get a bank transfer and it's instantly in my account
Doom@lemmy.world · 13 pts · 19h
Checks are nice when you don't want acquiesce to the anti-privacy account making nonsense or pay the "convenience" fee some companies pull on their websites. With the added bonus of in order to get their money they need to take extra steps and have a real person process the payment because the company dicked around. Checks are awesome.
Pika@sh.itjust.works · 12 pts · 18h
In this case, it would actually be beneficiary to use checks because they can do it via cashier check to guarantee that it's going to deposit and also it makes the paper trail to help protect against the I wasn't paid or this person never got the money claim.
Not that I don't believe that checks are not ancient outdated technology as well, but I do agree there are some rare occasions where it makes more sense to use a check versus having to deal with a wire transfer or paying in physical denomination.
SuperApples@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 12h
What's the process and why is it so arduous? Here it's just account name, bank number, account number and you can expect it next day (or instant using modern methods). Sure beats going to the bank...
Pika@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 7h
I'm not sure where you are located but, in the US it's those 3 pieces of information as well. I think checks in the case of validity and legal situations make a lot more sense. Not everyone will have that information at hand, nor do they have banks that are willing to allow them or charge a fee for them. It's also 2 pieces of information more than a cashiers check would require, and discloses where the destination of the funds is going to anyone involved which includes both the handler and the person who is giving you money, where with a cashiers check you can deposit or cash those most anywhere that manages checks, be it your bank, an opposing bank, walmart etc. It also helps with the actual paper trail as you have a physical piece of paper confirming you are going to be receiving the amount, where a wire is fully digital and if something messed up along the way, it can take weeks to resolve the issue. You can't screw a cashiers check up without really trying, it's weighted against the bank itself instead of the person or entity that is owing the money, which means it can't bounce(like normal checks can), and it only needs your name which, the court and the payer should already know, where a wire transfer can be screwed up by a simple typo of the numbers.
The processing speeds are also night and day. You mentioned next day but, that is likely because because your bank is doing you a favor with it. A wire transfer can take up to 5-7 business days to actually transfer, in some cases it can even take up to a couple weeks. Cashier checks are handled similar to government checks and are legally mandated (at least in the US) to be cleared next day. Wire transfers to my knowledge do not have this obligation.
SuperApples@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 1h
Thanks for the concise explanation! Sounds like quite the hassle indeed.
My home country is Australia and it's basically the polar opposite. A direct deposit (what we call a wire transfer) is always less than 24 hours and never costs anything to the account holders. Even for hundreds of thousands of dollars (such as when purchasing property).
There's also a secondary system called Osko and if both banks support it the transfer is instant (and still free). Salaries must be paid using direct deposit (to ensure an electronic 'paper trail'). No one with a job or government benefits is unbanked. For at least the last 35 years everyone opens their first bank account at elementary school, where the (former) government bank attends and sets up a fee free account for each child. There are no account fees. Only 15% of transactions in Australia involve cash money, and almost all others are direct deposit or direct debit with about 0.1% being cheques.
If for some reason an individual doesn't have an app with their account info on it they will carry it in their wallet. Many people have an email address attached to their account anyway and you can use the email address instead for sending a direct deposit. Most businesses still require the Bank/Account number instead though.
The number of people with a cheque book is statistically insignificant. The government will cease using cheques by 2028, and they will be completely abolished by 2030. I haven't seen a cheque in the last 20 years in Europe, Asia or Oceania. The last time I saw one was in 2023 in Las Vegas.
phoenixz@lemmy.ca · 10 pts · 21h
They also still use cheques in 2026 though
BarneyPiccolo@lemmy.today · 10 pts · 21h
My mom still writes checks for all her bills, then the shut-off notices and the checks cross in the mail, and she ends up getting her electricity cut off. I'm trying to get her to use the Internet to pay her bills, but she acts like I'm stupid for suggesting any other way than mailing a check.
hanrahan@slrpnk.net · 8 pts · 22h
its old, not 2026, it's American they have a zillion banks and they're stuck in the 1990s with banking. I have an old cheque book as an antique from yesteryear here in Australia where cheques are no longer used. (EFT everywhere)
dan1101@lemmy.world · 5 pts · 22h
Some offices (not necessarily just banks) still want people to send documents by fax.
bitjunkie@lemmy.world · 4 pts · 21h
I mean in fairness most people in America use credit/debit cards or echecks for day-to-day transactions. Paper checks are mostly for when corporations or slow-moving bureaucratic arms of the government want to sit on your money for as long as possible.
modus@lemmy.world · 3 pts · 21h
I've often found it's sometimes cheaper to pay some bills by check. The cost of a postage stamp can be lower than the "convenience fee" of paying online.
Fleppensteijn@sh.itjust.works · 2 pts · 21h
So you pay to use online banking? European banks started charging for everything else to force people online. They save a lot of money now that there are basically no more bank offices left. And cheques haven't been in use since the 90s
Sadbutdru@sopuli.xyz · 3 pts · 18h
Tell that to French old ladies. I've had the pleasure of waiting in line at the supermarket check out while Granny in front writes a cheque for her groceries, far more recently than you'd expect!
LostCarcosan@lemmy.today · 4 pts · 17h
Well they don't so much anymore in 2026, but that's not relevant to the story in the post
ilinamorato@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 4h
Corporations still use checks—particularly to pay debt and penalties and such—because it's a better deal for them: the debt is counted as having been paid immediately, but it takes a few days for the money to actually transfer. That's more time for that money to generate interest for them. On a payment of millions, that's worthwhile to them. Electronic transfers remove the money from the sending account immediately, so they don't get that extra bonus interest.
RememberTheApollo_@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 16h
kSPvhmTOlwvMd7Y7E@lemmy.world · 0 pts · 21h
because a card bas a spending limite, while the checks dont
ayyy@sh.itjust.works · -1 pts · 18h
Muricuhhhhh fuck yeahhhh freeeeeeedom
MithranArkanere@lemmy.world · 43 pts · 17h
That is the closest to reparations that a black person will ever get in the US.
Fredthefishlord@lemmy.blahaj.zone · -4 pts · 13h
Smaile@lemmy.ca · 36 pts · 20h
When life gives you lemons, penalize them.
solidheron@sh.itjust.works · 30 pts · 19h
So is other people's racism like an infinite money glitch?
WoodScientist@lemmy.world · 37 pts · 16h
Yes. Except in my mind it's a monkey's paw deal. You win endless discrimination lawsuits, but you just end up with a bunch of checks no bank will cash.
Draegur@lemmy.zip · 8 pts · 13h
The secret is that you go to a credit union instead of a bank, and you DEPOSIT it instead of cash it.
They will have ample time to verify the check through official channels, and you can access the money after it has successfully transferred from the payer into the account.
daannii@lemmy.world · 1 pts · 10h
You can deposit checks at some ATMs.
solidheron@sh.itjust.works · 4 pts · 13h
Oh like you wish for a million dollars but everyone you interact with is lawsuit levels of racist. You can get the money but can't cash it. You can sue endlessly but you end up wasting all your time in court
WoodScientist@lemmy.world · 2 pts · 13h
Exactly. Classic monkey's paw. You end up dying homeless and in the gutter. On your corpse the police find millions of dollars worth of checks to your name. You get to be a millionaire that dies of hunger and exposure to the elements.
aeronmelon@lemmy.world · 25 pts · 1d
Man finds infinite money cheat.
halezinflames@lemmus.org · 12 pts · 12h
Insane work
jlow@slrpnk.net · 11 pts · 21h
🔥
idealpink@feddit.nu · 8 pts · 12h
Free monies
mrmanager@lemmy.today · 4 pts · 4h
Thats amazing. Hope this guy becomes a millionaire doing this. :)
ScoffingLizard@lemmy.dbzer0.com · 2 pts · 4h
Just keep doing it until they stop being dicks I guess.
modus@lemmy.world · -2 pts · 20h
For recurring charges like phone bills or water bills, they'll often let you do a bank transfer/eCheck for free. But then debit cards are like $2.99 or so. Probably because the debit card is going through Visa or Mastercard or something. It's even more common to charge for things like parking tickets or things that you aren't paying all the time.