4 ms·

Let's say I get a USPS account and attempt to cash a bunch of fake checks. Now what?

• j16sdiz 3y ago
  Electronic payment is ubiquitous outside US. Where cheque are still used, they verify and clear them the same day. There are little reason to cash a check when everyone have a bank account
• Grimblewald 3y ago
  get rid of checks. They are a terrible system which are horrifically out dated, with far better alternatives available.
• PeterStuer 3y ago
  Just curious. Europeans under 60 most probably only know about checks from US movies, and would never have seen one irl. Are checks still used over there and if so why?
  • kpw94 3y ago
    Care to precise which country in Europe? Checks to pay for a kid's school trip, or a soccer club membership, etc are very much a thing in many of the EU countries with 50+ million inhabitants.
    • PeterStuer 3y ago
      There are only 3 EU countries with 50M+ inhabitants. Germany, France and Italy. Only in France is the concept of checks still a thing, but mostly amongst the elderly in the countryside.
    • bramblerose 3y ago
      Your comment is technically correct, as there are only three such countries (Germany, France and Italy), and two of them (FR and IT) indeed still use checks to some amount. But the biggest county in the EU certainly doesn't use checks, nor do numbers 4-18 (Ireland is #19).
      • Svip 3y ago
        According this graph[0], there were over 1 million cheque payments in Greece, Germany, Cyprus, Malta, Ireland, Spain, Portugal, Italy and France in 2020. I recognise that the data is a bit dated, but it still seems like these countries maintain the concept of cheques. [0] https://www.statista.com/statistics/443677/cashless-payment-with-checks-europe/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/443677/cashless-payment-...
        • bramblerose 3y ago
          You are right, "don't use checks" was too strongly worded. Nevertheless, your own link shows that - except for France - the check usage is on the order of at most a few checks per person per year. So not exactly a widely used payment method.
      • JumpCrisscross 3y ago
        > as there are only three such countries (Germany, France and Italy) Bedsides being wrong, as another comment points out, you’re describing the EU’s largest economies.
        • bramblerose 3y ago
          No, I am describing the three EU countries with 50M+ inhabits (Germany at 80M, France at 65M and Italy at 60M). Of course, the largest counties in population are also often the largest in GDP...
    • PeterStuer 3y ago
      France is an extreme outlier in the EU when it comes to payments by checks (84.7 percent of total check payments in the EU in 2020 happened in France). But even there the method is rapidly falling out of favor [1] be it less fast then it has been in other EU countries [2]. [1] https://www.statista.com/statistics/443371/check-payment-in-france/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/443371/check-payment-in-... [2] https://www.statista.com/statistics/1110744/share-total-eu-check-payment-transactions-france/ https://www.statista.com/statistics/1110744/share-total-eu-c...
  • Svip 3y ago
    Cheques allow you to give someone a large amount of money (that would be too unmanageable with cash) without knowing anything about them but their name. Don't need to know an account number or a phone number/email address. Pretty handy. Also, I am 36, and I live in a country (Denmark) that has entirely abandoned cheques, but I am still familiar with Danish cheques (even if I never managed one myself). Additionally, I still see them frequently when I am in France. (Though these days, the vast majority of cheques I see are US cheques, since my wife is American.)
• JumpCrisscross 3y ago
  > Let's say I get a USPS account and attempt to cash a bunch of fake checks No-credit banking. That means the funds are not available until the cheque clears.
  • refurb 3y ago
    If they’re low income, are you going to hold their welfare check for two weeks? (yes, I know direct deposits exist) I'm only asking as many people who are "unbanked" are unbanked because no bank wants to do business with customers who play fast and loose with the rules.