3 ms·

Why is this?

by kaon123 4y ago

Why is this?

thathndude 4y ago
Large organizations are big, dumb, and slow. Only a tiny bit of that is hyperbole.
- swores 4y ago
  Is it possible that even a small % of people losing and forgetting to actually use the cheques saves more money than a little added cost to each payment?
paulgb 4y ago
I wonder if companies want to have an image of a cashed, endorsed check as proof that the funds were sent, given the antagonistic nature of the relationship. With ACH/wire you can prove that the money was sent, but it is harder to prove that it landed in the customer’s account. Kind of a TCP vs. UDP thing.
- thathndude 4y ago
  This is probably partially right. Although it might sound silly to this crowd, the idea of asking people to get ACH and acct number is full of opportunities for things to go wrong (wrong info, typo in info, etc). Sending a check is the good ole fashioned way that everyone understands.
Tabular-Iceberg 4y ago
My guess is simply superstition. I don't know if this is true (I heard it from a local), but for decades there was not a single ATM on the Falkland islands. The local bank said ATMs just don't work on remote islands. So a Stanley petrol station took the matter into their own hands and just bought one. ATMs don't care if you're on an island, you just plug them in, put money in them and then people take it out. I can at least verify that that part is true because I was there, saw the machine and got money out of it. Another personal anecdote is an industrial application where safety critical updates had to be received on DVD-Rs that were routinely left unsupervised with untrusted intermediaries in very shady parts of the world. I suggested putting a message authentication code to ensure it hadn't been tampered with. The industry professional I was talking to would hear none of it, thinking the only way would be to transfer the entire contents of the disk over a very expensive satellite link to the head office and have it compared bit by bit. That MACs are a real thing that actually works, and that sending the data back and forth and comparing isn't actually secure unless a MAC is also used was like water off the goose.

Why is this?

thathndude 4y ago

Large organizations are big, dumb, and slow. Only a tiny bit of that is hyperbole.

swores 4y ago
Is it possible that even a small % of people losing and forgetting to actually use the cheques saves more money than a little added cost to each payment?

paulgb 4y ago

I wonder if companies want to have an image of a cashed, endorsed check as proof that the funds were sent, given the antagonistic nature of the relationship. With ACH/wire you can prove that the money was sent, but it is harder to prove that it landed in the customer’s account. Kind of a TCP vs. UDP thing.

thathndude 4y ago
This is probably partially right. Although it might sound silly to this crowd, the idea of asking people to get ACH and acct number is full of opportunities for things to go wrong (wrong info, typo in info, etc). Sending a check is the good ole fashioned way that everyone understands.

Tabular-Iceberg 4y ago

My guess is simply superstition. I don't know if this is true (I heard it from a local), but for decades there was not a single ATM on the Falkland islands. The local bank said ATMs just don't work on remote islands. So a Stanley petrol station took the matter into their own hands and just bought one. ATMs don't care if you're on an island, you just plug them in, put money in them and then people take it out. I can at least verify that that part is true because I was there, saw the machine and got money out of it. Another personal anecdote is an industrial application where safety critical updates had to be received on DVD-Rs that were routinely left unsupervised with untrusted intermediaries in very shady parts of the world. I suggested putting a message authentication code to ensure it hadn't been tampered with. The industry professional I was talking to would hear none of it, thinking the only way would be to transfer the entire contents of the disk over a very expensive satellite link to the head office and have it compared bit by bit. That MACs are a real thing that actually works, and that sending the data back and forth and comparing isn't actually secure unless a MAC is also used was like water off the goose.