Who Uses a Checking Account Anymore Except for Us Old People?

Who uses a checking account but us old people?

Who uses a checking account anymore? My first checking account was opened at Franklin Bank in 1969, housed in a historic stone building on Franklin Avenue and Blaisdell in Minneapolis. Just to sit in that overstuffed chair of real leather made this 17-year-old kid feel like royalty and oh-so-grown up. One of the best pieces of advice ever given to me was by the clerk in that bank who suggested I start the number of my checks higher than 101; otherwise it was a dead giveaway my account was new, which meant vendors might not be so eager to accept my check for payment. Well, there was THAT, and I looked like I was seven.

Nowadays, though, hardly anybody uses a checking account. It’s all debit card or credit card or Apple Pay or Pay Pal. I know that makes me an old person because although I use those methods of payment, I don’t trust them. They’re not really safe. I don’t even like looking at my bank accounts online because no websites are secure from hacking, regardless of firewalls and security measures.

At least once a year, it seems, some crook swipes my credit card number. It happened for a while at the gas station on Broadway and Riverside, but that seems to have ceased. Now it happens at establishments. Server takes your card, disappears into the back room to run a credit card receipt, and in the time it takes to sing Happy Birthday, she’s written down your name, account number, 3-digit authorization code and date of expiration. That’s all it takes to go online to Henri Bendel in New York and buy a couple of designer handbags.

It happened to me in last fall in Midtown, Sacramento. At the sushi place right across from Mike’s Camera. I used my credit card at two places that day: Mike’s Camera and the sushi place. I doubt the thief was the guy at Mike’s Camera, so that probably leaves the waitress at the sushi place. Both charges at Henri Bendel were dated the same day, and I had left the following day for Portugal. Perfect timing for a crook. The problem with a person swiping your credit card is the bank will issue a new credit card, and that means changing the payment source for 53 auto-pay vendors.

Lately I’ve been trying to pay our $25 Hawaii electric bill online. It gave me 2 options: pay now or set up Autopay. Since it was due now, it made sense to pay it now. I paid for it through Western Union. Then I set up Autopay. A few days ago I received a letter from the Hawaii electric company. My payment had been rejected and it was charging my account $16 for the rejection. I had to call the company because it did not take the Autopay payment due on the 15th from my account. Oh, they’ll do it in a couple days, I was assured. Meanwhile, my $25 electric bill remains unpaid, I have a $16 charge and it appears to be overdue.

Sure, I could have used my checking account, written a check and mailed it, and been done with this debt by now. I still pay major bills by check. I like having a written record of my transactions, and in a place where unless somebody steals the mail out of my mailbox, which has happened in Land Park, I’m less likely to be a victim of identity theft. But someday they will do away with checks, and nobody will be able to use a checking account anymore, so I guess I’ll enjoy while I can.

Oh, and I have a big credit on my Fandango account for buying the wrong movie. If I had written a check, that would have never happened. And no to the banks who continually hound me about signing up for auto bill paying. I have enough problems. You kids get offa my lawn, too.