Regicide Articles

It has been said that the most common non-cash method of payment in the 20th century was checks due to their convenience. Of course cash will probably reign as king for a long time to come, and the dominance of personal checks may very well be threatened by the rise of debit and credit cards that automatically withdraw money from a bank account, but for now they remain one of the most common methods to pay the bills and buy groceries available to people today. Not only is it possible to carry around your checkbook without having to fear losing all of your money to a mugging or simple mishap, but they allow you to pay for your purchases a day or more later or to date the checks for a specified time period down the line.

However one of the major disadvantages of widespread use of personal checks is leaving the banking system open to widespread fraud. It is more difficult for a thief to steal the identity of an individual in order to write checks on their behalf, but it is much easier to write bad checks and defraud banks and businesses left and right. The fatal flaw of checks lies in the promise to pay as opposed to the ability to pay up front, which is where certified checks come into play. Whereas personal checks are a physical representation of a debt to be paid, certified checks are essentially legal tender that can be used in lieu of cash. However certified checks have their own drawbacks, the most obvious one being a significant drop in convenience from a normal check.

This conundrum is in part what has given rise to the dominance of plastic over checks. Debit cards offer the ability to pay immediately, are even more convenient than checks, and usually do not result in losing your life savings if they get stolen. It will be interesting to see whether or not these cards ultimately replace checks and even cash as the dominant form of payment used in the industrialized Western world in future years.