You know it, I know it, it’s been going on for a few years now. Nobody accepts checks! Why? Well, I still get my business checks decorated, because everybody still accepts business checks that I know of. But personal checks are in so many ways becoming obsolete, a thing of the past. And yet in a way, more people are actually turning to them. So the market’s hand is being forced. How does all of this work? I mean don’t businesses have complete control of the market? Not really.

The simple fact is that a lot of businesses don’t like taking checks, because a lot of people use it as a way to not pay their bills. They give you a piece of paper, walk out, and you don’t have a legitimate way to find them to get that $6.50 or whatever it was they wrote the check to you for when their check bounces. Of course, if you can find them, you can technically legally charge them $25. But who really wants to take the time? It’s a hassle a lot of companies don’t want to take.

But more and more, the consumer is demanding to use personal checks. Why? Not because every consumer wants to cheat the big or small guy. There are some who do to be sure, I’m by no means ruling that out. But I personally think it’s because Americans are becoming smarter. Americans are wanting to write things down, actually bother balancing their checkbooks, and otherwise keeping better track of their checking. After all, it’s a lot easier to just whip out a card than to actually pull out a checkbook, write the check, and at the same time record it in balancing it knowing what your actual available balance is for that.

So now, more and more companies are starting to accept personal checks again. More and more companies are being forced to, because a lot of smart Americans are actually cutting up debit cards, credit cards, and frankly speaking, it’s a move in the right direction.