For those of you who still get your checks and want to keep it that way, you'd better get ready for change. Within a small number of years, there will probably be no option to get your checks back, as they will be converted to electronic form by the depositor's bank.

Note that this is different from the current situation where the payer's bank doesn't return the check. When the payee's bank starts this, there will no longer be an option for the payer's bank to return the check, as they'll never get it themselves.

Also note that this is different than what some merchants such as American Express are currently doing by turning checks into ACH transactions themselves - these transactions appear as totally electronic as far as the banks are concerned.

This new system is called "check truncation" by the industry and applies to paper checks that are deposited for payment. Consumers Union has a good background piece on this:

http://www.consumersunion.org/finance/checkwc102.htm


Check out this information from the Federal Reserve:

http://www.federalreserve.gov/paymen...on/default.htm


Also, here's some information from the National Credit Union Association. What's particularly rich about this one is that the document starts with "After the September 11th terrorist attacks":

http://www.ncua.gov/news/legislation...Truncation.pdf

[This message has been edited by Steve M (edited 10-26-2003).]