3 ms·

Whilst the suggested UI fixes will help, this seems less of a UI problem, and more of a checks are inherently insecure problem. Most western countries have mov

Whilst the suggested UI fixes will help, this seems less of a UI problem, and more of a checks are inherently insecure problem. Most western countries have moved away from checks - with the exception of bank cheques or money orders for certain, specific cases.

kochthesecond 6y ago
I am 33 and have never even seen a cheque, nor would I have any idea what to do with it. I am in EU though.
- xnyan 6y ago
  32 in the US and I still have to write fucking checks, most commonly for paying rent. No landlord wants to eat the ~3% fee for taking a credit card. The other day I had to pay for some trees to be cut down and pruned in my yard, cost a couple grand which I am never going to have in cash on hand - same deal, the landscaper does not want to pay the 3% fee so it’s cash or check only.
  - perl4ever 6y ago
    This. The other thing is property taxes, in my area they generally let you pay by modern methods but charge ridiculous fees, so a paper check is the only sensible method.
  - srtjstjsj 6y ago
    That's fine. Checks are risky for the receivers not the sender.
  - ginko 6y ago
    Why would you ever involve a credit card processor in this? Can't you just do a wire transfer?
    - xnyan 6y ago
      Yeah, and it happens but wire transfers can be a real pain depending on the bank. And you need to get the account number of landlord, and now you don't have a simple way (the canceled check) of proving you paid rent. While less than ideal, checks often have the most upside, which is why they still get used. Another way of looking at it, a check is more or less a form of wire transfer using the ACH system. I just wish there was a way to remove the paper check aspect of it, in a way that is commonly accepted by private individuals + small business in addtion to big outfits.
ginko 6y ago
Yeah, this whole thing seems almost impossible with SEPA bank transfers since the order is the other way round. The sender tells their bank to send someone money, the bank checks the sender's funds and notifies the receiver's bank of the transfer, then the receiving bank notifies the receiver they got the money. This whole thing used to take 2-3 days in the days of paper giros, but it's pretty much instantaneous now.
ZainRiz 6y ago
I completely agree that checks are inherently insecure. That said, getting rid of checks completely is a much harder social challenge than updating the UX to show the right status. UX updates are a practical recommendation that a few engineers at a bank could actually implement

kochthesecond 6y ago

I am 33 and have never even seen a cheque, nor would I have any idea what to do with it. I am in EU though.

xnyan 6y ago
32 in the US and I still have to write fucking checks, most commonly for paying rent. No landlord wants to eat the ~3% fee for taking a credit card. The other day I had to pay for some trees to be cut down and pruned in my yard, cost a couple grand which I am never going to have in cash on hand - same deal, the landscaper does not want to pay the 3% fee so it’s cash or check only.
- perl4ever 6y ago
  This. The other thing is property taxes, in my area they generally let you pay by modern methods but charge ridiculous fees, so a paper check is the only sensible method.
- srtjstjsj 6y ago
  That's fine. Checks are risky for the receivers not the sender.
- ginko 6y ago
  Why would you ever involve a credit card processor in this? Can't you just do a wire transfer?
  - xnyan 6y ago
    Yeah, and it happens but wire transfers can be a real pain depending on the bank. And you need to get the account number of landlord, and now you don't have a simple way (the canceled check) of proving you paid rent. While less than ideal, checks often have the most upside, which is why they still get used. Another way of looking at it, a check is more or less a form of wire transfer using the ACH system. I just wish there was a way to remove the paper check aspect of it, in a way that is commonly accepted by private individuals + small business in addtion to big outfits.

ginko 6y ago

Yeah, this whole thing seems almost impossible with SEPA bank transfers since the order is the other way round. The sender tells their bank to send someone money, the bank checks the sender's funds and notifies the receiver's bank of the transfer, then the receiving bank notifies the receiver they got the money. This whole thing used to take 2-3 days in the days of paper giros, but it's pretty much instantaneous now.

ZainRiz 6y ago

I completely agree that checks are inherently insecure. That said, getting rid of checks completely is a much harder social challenge than updating the UX to show the right status. UX updates are a practical recommendation that a few engineers at a bank could actually implement