Checks? Do People Still Use Those?

Credit: Fuel Bookkeeping

Before I left Missouri for New Mexico, and I was going through odds and ends as to what to take and what to discard, I came across my checkbook and a modest supply of checks.

Did I need these anymore?

I'd been out of the country for a year and never wrote a check during that time. Well, at winter break, when I was in Missouri and needed to pay my personal property tax, I used a check. That was because my county government office, like some other Luddite government offices, don't take any form of plastic.  (What about those who want to "run government like a business," ... never mind, this is not a political blog.)

In Georgia, I used my Georgian debit card or cash. In my daily life in the U.S., I rarely use cash, relying on my debit card and credit card, and electronic bill payment.

In late September, though, as I held my checkbook, I contemplated shredding my remaining checks but decided, you never know, I  might need them, so I brought them along.

Thank God I did. And, in retrospect, it was kind of silly to think I wouldn't need any checks in the future.

I needed a check to pay my rent. I needed a check to buy New Mexico's annual park entrance pass. No plastic accepted by either operator.


Sidebar: This post reminds me of my irritation with mint.com, a free service that requires the inclusion of a credit card number to use the application. I don't get that, and there's no explanation provided. Not everyone uses plastic, but they still want to use a money-management application. No can do with mint.com.