ATTN: CUSTOMERS! DON'T F***ING WRITE CHECKS IN THE EXPRESS LANE!

[WishfulSpirit]

Depends on the situation. My store has readers for checks (I didn't know that using a computer to print on the check like they do at the Mart of Wall was even a thing). If the reader approves it, the customer signs on the dotted line and they're done. Took slightly but not significantly more time than doing a transaction via card.

But if the reader doesn't like the check, that means calling it in, and getting a crap-ton of info from the customer as well as other coworkers (we have to enter a merchant number, which at my old store it was in a binder behind the counter, but I wasn't told that during training...I have no earthly idea where it's written down at the new store, if it is written down anywhere at all).

The check approval number is a touch-tone automatic system. If the cashier doesn't enter the requested info in within 30 seconds or so, the call disconnects and she has to start over. I made the mistake of handing back one lady's ID before I was done and couldn't get her zip code out of her for love or money (she'd apparently just moved and couldn't understand that the new zip code on her updated driver's license was her real zip code...she kept hemming and hawing about how she didn't know if they wanted her "real" zip code from where she used to live or her new one from where she lives now).

Because of the afore-mentioned line hanging up on the caller, and this woman's inability to understand the concept of zip codes, I had to call back three times to get her payment to go through. Total time: 10 minutes. Also, next time she came in, I found out SHE HAD A DEBIT CARD THE WHOLE FREAKING TIME! ARGHHH!

[Dreamstalker]

I was inadvertently almost given someone's (possibly multiple someone's) account number...only missing one digit. One day I made a deposit, and was given a different (likely the previous customer at that teller) deposit slip. I didn't realize this until after I got home and mom looked at the slip which said there was a balance of over $20K O_o , upon which we realized that the account in question wasn't even ours.

The bank only prints the last 4 digits on the slips. Account numbers are 9. I knew the first 4 digits (by virtue of our own accounts) and had the last 4, so all I would have needed was the means to figure out which of the 10 possible numbers were good...likely multiple numbers in the range would be valid accounts.

[raudf]

I use a check if I need an more immediate paper trail or if my debit card gets hacked *crosses fingers that never happens again* Or someone decides to play with a magnet and gets a hold of my debit card, which I thought was in my wallet, in my purse, out of reach. (First son started climbing vertically faster than I thought he would.) Or my debit card breaks in the older ATMs that swallow the card to read 'em.

I've had a lot of bad luck with cards...

[Tama]

Reminds me of one Wallaby (name changed) gas station my family used. We saw a lot of them because they were the ONLY gas station that accepted checks.

[Lace Neil Singer]

I only ever write cheques if I owe people money and can't get to a bank to draw out the cash. I get sent a chequebook regularly by my bank, but it hardly ever gets used. Practically every single shop, supermarket and petrol station, including the one I work at, will not accept a cheque. The supermarket had shitloads of complaints after it followed suit with one old lady actually having a bitchfit in the middle of the shop and screaming that the supermarket was being "cruel to the elderly" (her actual words) in refusing to accept cheques. This was after there had been signs and posters up all over the supermarket for months to warn customers of the eventual change.

[Ternasthebard]

Yeah but with a debit card it's just the debit card number, with a check it has your entire account AND routing number. So a potential thief could get a hold of your money if they know how to hack a system.

That is true I suppose, there are a lot of ways to do check fraud among other things.

From my point of view, however, with all these stories these days about there being security breaches everywhere from Target to Home Depot in the last year or so, some folks might see checks as being the more secure option since they don't hear too much about people breaking into someone's checking account and draining it dry. I have no doubt that it happens though, if there's something to steal then someone has probably tried to do it.

[mathnerd]

Routing numbers aren't exactly secret. The big deal is the account number, since I don't know of any banks that encrypt the account numbers on demand deposit accounts (I do know a few that do so on line of credit access checks).

[Kittykat]

Well I know that my mother still uses checks for paying bills to have several different source records of it occurring, including the bill, the voided check, and several other things just in case something happens and she needs to prove that she has paid those amounts. Then again she also despises the new-fangled machines at the stores that just run the check through and then return it to her.

The other reason I can see why someone would use them in this era is security. It is probably a fair bit harder for someone to get access to your checking account when you've got the only means sitting in a checkbook on your desk, unlike a credit/debit card that needs replaced the next time a store you've shopped at 2 years ago gets a security breach and your information is now out there. Got blindsided by that once when some folks got access to my mum's credit card and went on an online shopping spree without us knowing, but her checking account where she actually kept her money was safe and sound.

Yeah but with a debit card it's just the debit card number, with a check it has your entire account AND routing number. So a potential thief could get a hold of your money if they know how to hack a system.

[Dreamstalker]

We still write checks for the storage unit, they don't have an online system. Everything else is online.

At one point I did put up a sign to that effect ('no checks') when I was express, but got told not to do that as it 'sent the wrong message' (not surprising considering they would rather we get screamed at than actually enforce express lane rules).

I've seen SCs write checks and then after everything is printed say they wanted cash back Once it goes through that's it, if you want cash back you'll have to buy something else.

Our SCOs have an option on the payment screen for "Check" (defaults to saving the transaction so they need to pay at the paystation). WHY? In addition to the wasted time on everyone's part, I happen to know that if someone puts it in the regular 'media drawer' rather than the register drawer it can be weeks before it gets collected and entered.

[KuariKaydrith]

I can't recall the last time I wrote a cheque for groceries. Or anything else for that matter. I even pay rent via e-transfer these days. I think the last time I wrote a rent cheque was about eight years ago now. Groceries are either cash or debit, bills are done online, and I have some payments (Netflix, SWTOR subscription fees) automatically taken from my account. When I opened my most recent chequing account I didn't even ask for starter cheques because I knew that I would likely never use them.

[raudf]

In most cases, writing checks in the express lane isn't so bad, if the person allows the register to print the check, or as Walmart now handles it, just runs it and prints void/amount all over the check. You get the check back along with the receipt and go on your merry way. One minute tops, if you've already pulled out your checkbook.

What is irritating is when you get the paranoid fossils that want to hand write the check, after spending 5 minutes digging around in their gigantic purses or pockets to find the checkbook. Then they spend another three looking for a pen, even if the cashier is more than willing to let them borrow theirs. Their hands tremble as they fill out the check, so very, very, very slowly. Turtles with no legs move faster than a pen in their hands. The tremble has nothing to do with their age, because I've seen 20 year old paranoid fossils with trembling hands. I think it's because they really are just that terrified of the blasphemy they just committed by using an electronic register! Who knows who will get their info?!

The end result is 10 minutes to write the damned (literally in their mind) check that they will have scanned and handed back to them. By this point most of us have left the line for the regular checkouts, because that big, full basket of small craft items is moving faster than the express line. *sigh* These are also the same idiots that just chuck the check into the regular trash and wonder why their accounts are compromised. (I hold onto the check for a year and then burn it.)

[Estil]

Write checks in the slow lane (what the "express" lane really is in practice) if you really must (if there's no sign saying not to I can't really fault them for it), just please, PLEASE politely enforce the x or less rule. If the store won't do so, then do everyone (customers/clerks alike) a favor and just make all the lanes regular ones.

[Ironclad Alibi]

Possibly like this?

I like this version better. If only...

[notalwaysright]

I remember reading something about a proposed SCO technology that would somehow be able to scan everything in the cart as the shopper walked up to a sensor. Not entirely sure how it was supposed to actually work, but I don't doubt that's what she thought would happen.

Possibly like this? RFID is the way it's proposed, and I think it's being tested in some stores. I have doubts about it, the main one being how expensive it would be for grocery stores to put an RFID chip in everything. Plus there would still need to be bagging areas because I don't want to wheel a cart of groceries to my car and bag them in the parking lot, since it's raining 80% of the time...

One of the first times I used a SCO I forgot my wallet on the counter. Luckily the guy in charge knew me, we were both current high school students, and called my cell phone so I was able to just drive back. Now I always remember to turn and look at the checkout (regular or self) as I'm walking away.

[Dreamstalker]

I remember reading something about a proposed SCO technology that would somehow be able to scan everything in the cart as the shopper walked up to a sensor. Not entirely sure how it was supposed to actually work, but I don't doubt that's what she thought would happen. I still get people who think that the S-it guns don't require them to actually pay (magically deducts money from some account).

Occasionally I'll get customers who ask "Are you open?" and stand there expecting me to ring them out. See the other people/person before you scanning their groceries? That's how this works. Now, I will do it for people who genuinely need help (elderly and don't understand it, custy has a medical problem such as shoulder/wrist/arm/hand issues that mean they can't do it themselves), but if you are not one of the above all I'm allowed to do is show you how.