Why Paper Checks Are Still Important In The Digital Age

The digital age that we live in makes it fairly easy for us to forget sometimes that we still have at least some vestiges from the way that the world used to be that maintain a certain level of importance. You may have seen some of the blaring news reports from any number of outlets discussing how paper itself is practically a thing of the past with so many tasks moving to electronic form. What those breathless reports forget to mention is the fact that certain physical products still have a lot of uses even if it at first seems that their time has already passed. Paper checks are one of those products. 

The Vitality Of Paper Checks In An Electronic World

You may have noticed that you can pay the vast majority of your bills online these days. That is not exactly breaking news. What is important is the fact that you may still need paper checks to pay for certain bills in certain circumstances. What exactly is meant by this? Well, you may still find situations in which a paper check does the job a lot better than any electronic payment. Some situations may include:

• If there is a problem at the bank
  
• If you are paying someone you know for something such as your rent
  
• To keep accurate records of payments made in a more physical format
  

Sometimes there are just situations in which an electronic payment will not quite cut it. 

Businesses Often Prefer Paper Checks

Many businesses actually prefer to still be paid via a paper check because it allows them to retain a paper trail of the payments made to them. They don’t want to have to dispute something that has been paid electronically as this is a much more difficult process for them to pull off. Instead, make their lives a little bit easier by offering to pay with a paper check. They will be pleased by this, and you will be able to move on with your business for the day. 

Avoiding Credit Card Minimums

A paper check can be a helpful tool in the event that you find yourself attempting to make a purchase that is below the threshold for the minimum allowed by the merchant that you are buying from. A lot of merchants only allow customers to use their plastic if they are purchasing a certain dollar value worth of items. This is because the businesses are charged a fee for processing the credit card payment. That cuts into their profit margin, and it is another good reason to carry around paper checks that can help you circumvent the need to reach that minimum. 

Avoid Processing Fees Yourself

Some people are of the belief that they can just transfer money to those that they need to electronically whenever the need arises. Why bother with paper checks when this method is available right? The problem with this theory is that you may still be paying processing fees yourself when you use any electronic means of transferring money. It is one of the ways that those payment processors make their money, and it is another way that you shell out funds when you don’t need to. 

Older Generations Are Still Attached To Them

No matter how much you may desire to move on to a world in which all payments are made electronically, there are always going to be some people who are just not ready to move on into that world with you. Older generations are often not as comfortable with letting go of their paper checks and moving on to the electronic payments. This means that they may not even have the technology required to send or receive payments as you would like. Therefore, there is nothing at all wrong with keeping some paper checks around just in case. 

Paper checks are simply not ready to leave this world just yet. They may seem like a highly outdated method of payment, but they are still used by plenty of people, and you just have to be respectful of that fact. Someday things might change, but for now it is a good idea to keep some paper checks available.