I'm currently the president of the local chapter of Sigma Xi (an honor society, not a fraternity, thankyouverymuch), and as such have been collecting RSVP's and dues for this year's new inductees. As part of this process, I've been struck by how many students don't have checks-- I've had a couple of students give me cash, one cashier's check from a local bank, a couple of checks drawn on parental accounts, and one check from the roommate of a nominee.
The first couple, I wrote off as individual eccentricities, but after a few more, and a little thought, I realized that this pattern is probably one of those living-in-the-future deals. Back in the day, when you got a bank account, you always got checks, because that was the only thing you could really do with a bank account. ATM cards were fairly novel when I was a student.
These days, though, everything is electronic. Between electronic bill payment services, electronic payment terminals at every grocery store and fast-food franchise, and online payment services, a student getting a new bank account these days doesn't really need checks for anything other than the occasional old-school campus organization that isn't set up to accept credit cards (a couple of students have asked about that).
(Thinking about it a bit, I realized that I don't even have up-to-date checks-- the only paper checks I have that draw on my personal account have an address from two moves ago (we do have a joint household account with up-to-date paper checks, but if I want to use the money in the account that only has my name on it, I end up transferring it to the joint account and writing a check off that. I could order new checks, but what would be the point?)
It's funny how this stuff creeps up (see also Fred Clark on 2037). Clearly, I need to look into setting the local Sigma Xi chapter up to accept PayPal, or whatever they use for money in World of Warcraft...
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If I could pay for real life stuff with my World of Warcraft gold, I'd be so happy :p
Paypal would actually be pretty easy to do, I think.
Realize that checks are a bit of an American specialty. I'm probably about the same age as you, and I have never owned a checkbook, nor have I ever seen an actual check. I think my dad did have a checkbook at one time, but that was never something he used as far as I know, and my mother certainly never had them.
You can do just fine without checks or plastic.
I think I'm currently sitting on about 6000g across all my characters. Current conversion rates seem to put that around $20-50 from the gold farmers. That will make a hell of a guild bank for your <Sigma Xi> guild.
Janne, I'm with you on the checks, but I don't know how you plan to carry on without plastic. I can see buying some things with cash, but that gets to be cumbersome with anything more expensive than the max withdrawal on the ATM.
I suppose the modern thing would be to set up dues payment via Paypal. Checks really ought to disappear; they are completely insecure. Donald Knuth has given up on checks, which is noteworthy because checks from him were highly prized in the nerd-o-sphere.
It's a shame that electronic bank transactions (e.g. paying your credit cards online) still take longer than simply being instantaneous. I don't think that's a technical issue but has to do with how much time banking law gives banks to reconcile transactions. It's also a shame that we can only do online transactions with big institutions, and not send money to other people's accounts. And it's a shame that all you need to start online transactions are your routing and account numbers, conveniently printed on every check, right there for anyone to grab who happens to have a check written by you.
and our libraries won't have books, just terminals to do text-word searches of archived volumes and journals...libraries will be the most sought after space for new academic programs/offices/classrooms as books become less relevant.
When I moved to North America a couple of years ago I was confused by checks. I looked it up on Wikipedia, and it seems to be only on this continent that they are still used. Other than here I haven't seen a check since I was a kid.
What we would do at home is to give everyone the account number of the society, and then they would all do an electronic transfer directly from their own bank account to the society bank account, with a little note about the sender.
Are these residential students? Paying rent to a small landlord is probably one of the biggest uses of checks that's hard to replace in our system.
Page 44 of Paying with Plastic has some data from 2001 on the relative amounts of money moved with direct debit, credit cards, and checks in several countries in 2001. The US is about 55% checks by amount of money; France is next at about 35%, and Germany is below 5%. Page 121 also has an interesting US breakdown of payment method by transaction size; checks are the plurality for every transaction over $20 (also 2001 data).
What we would do at home is to give everyone the account number of the society, and then they would all do an electronic transfer directly from their own bank account to the society bank account, with a little note about the sender.
The reason this is typically not done in the US is that most banks charge fees on wire transfers, both incoming and outgoing. For something like dues payments, the fees would dominate the amount of money involved in the transaction. (You may think that US bank fees and surcharges are excessive. You'd probably be right, although I have little experience with non-US banking systems.) Yes, checks are an expense as well, but the cost is typically amortized over 200 (the usual minimum order) or more checks, and the recipient doesn't pay (unless the check is returned for insufficient funds, which is a different matter altogether).
Long term, I suspect that PayPal or a similar service will be the way to go. Credit card transaction fees would probably also be too high for this kind of organization, and debit cards have security issues of their own.
I have checks from two banks ago. The checks are from Bank A, which was bought out by Bank B, which was bought out by Bank C.
I only have a few left, which means I may have to finally get Bank C checks. Unless they're bought out by Bank D in the next few months.
These non-check using students probably also were never dragged along on an errand to the bank because mom or dad had an actual physical check for a paycheck that needed to be deposited. I hated going into the bank (boring lines), but I liked the drive through because I thought the tubes were neat and they gave out gum.
I'm glad I don't have that job anymore. I hated going to folks, "honoring" them with an invite to Sigma Pi Sigma, and then they have to pay for it. Oh well, in a few years they may or may not have to learn what page charges are.....
I'm glad I don't have that job anymore. I hated going to folks, "honoring" them with an invite to Sigma Pi Sigma, and then they have to pay for it.
When I was inducted into Sigma Xi as an undergrad, the college (or the department, or somebody) picked up the tab for the first year's dues. This strikes me as an eminently reasonable solution to what is otherwise an exceptionally awkward and tacky situation. It does, however, cost money.
Cisko, I don't go without a debit card at all. I do buy stuff on the net from time to time, and I withdraw money as I need it.
But all regular payments are automagic (they're just deducted from my daily-use account every month) and any other I pay by transfer via my bank website (transfers are free up to some largish number of monthly transactions). Any incidental payments I do with cash.
Aha. Interesting. Thanks, Eric Lund and Nathan Williams -- now I know more. About bank fees: my Swedish bank has a fee for internet banking (and other more or less sensible/ridiculous fees), but that is per year, not per transaction. (In my experience it is common practice to pay little things between friends, or if you buy a used bike or something, just by transferring money between personal accounts.) Interesting that it can vary so much between countries.
It's funny how these things change almost without anyone noticing. I almost stopped using ATMs many years back because we can withdraw cash when paying with plastic in almost any store. The fee on this kind of transaction is normally smaller than on using an ATM. So, of course, it became common practise to withdraw some pocket money for small purchases every time you use your card for paying, with the inevitable result that all shops are out of cash all the time - so now I find myself going back to using ATMs.