Originally Posted by
airoli
When I moved to Canada a couple of years back, I had to have my bank advisor give me a 101 on cheques. In 30 years in Europe, I had
never had to use one and was amazed that such arcane means of payment still exist here, combined with very limited e-banking services for individuals paying individuals.
I rent and my landlord, as well as the odd craftsman, insist on cheques. I also get them from friends every now and then, and have to trek to the bank to deposit them. Oh, and I've had compensation cheques from both LH and UA in the last 12 months.
I can't wait for something like an
IBAN to put an end to this disgrace.
arecane...not so....had you said flexible and rather sophisticated for the average joe...perhaps....but cheques as a means of payment has been around for thousands of years originating in bills of exchange to avoid wads of cash being carried around...or gold....
if you actually understand how they work (which almost no tellers do any more) they are very flexible in terms of being able to endorse (even pay to bearer) and using them down the line to pay other people etc.
in fact, it's that they can not be used for amounts over 10M in the corporate sphere at least in Canada that wires became more common in financing transactions but let me tell you, dealing with a 2 billion dollar certified cheque (yes, i have dealt with one...
) on a closing versus fusing around with a wire transfer between two large corporate clients is WAY WAY easier. sadly, no cheques over 10M any longer so closings become a mess and it's hard to track wire transfers in real time.
cheques are going nowhere. they are valuable in many commercial situations.
in pretty simple day to day commercial transactions, sure, your cards do much of the lifting but there are good reasons why they will continue to exist.