9-11 and the death of checks?

When the planes crashed into the twin towers on September 11, 2001, it signaled the death of checks.

Why?

Because while the planes were grounded, so were all the paper checks.

Billions of dollars in paper checks sat in airplanes. Waiting.

The banks hated that.

They lost money.

Big money.

And they vowed to never let it happen again.

They pushed to pass a law that allowed for electronic settlement of checks.

No more airplanes needed. Well, a lot fewer anyway.

And the banks saved…and are still saving…BILLIONS of dollars because they no longer pay for transportation and labor associated with moving paper checks around the country.

But what did you save?

Did the interest you earn on your savings go up?

Did your bank eliminate or lower their fees?

Of course not.

They just kept all that savings to themselves.

And then went on and caused the financial crises of 2008.

Nice work, fellas.

Here’s my point…

Not using checks is good for the banks.

But not necessarily good for you.

There are plenty of reasons to still use checks.

Probably the best reason is that using checks makes you stop and think about each purchase you make.

No mindless swiping or clicking and “adding to cart.”

Checks make you smarter about how you spend your money.

Don’t let the banks fool you into thinking checks are an old fashioned, dumb idea.

Oh, and don’t let them fool you into thinking that checks should be expensive either!