Electronic fund transfers may be hip but paper, personalized cheques are reliable and timeless
According to the Canadian Payments Association, the growth of electronic transfer options has coincided with a 72 percent decline in the use of manual cheques over the past 20 years. Yet, Guy Legault, CEO of Canadian Payments Association, told the Orangeville Citizen that there is no plan to get rid of paper, personalized cheques.
The Payments Council boasts a similar claim, with officials telling ThisIsMoney.com that "paper-based alternatives will safeguard a valued method of payment."
Many Canadians may wonder why this payment method is so valued in the face of electronic efficiency.
Beyond romantic attachments to tangible business cheques as opposed to computer cheques and forms, paper cheques offer users some money-saving advantages that electronic transfer methods just can't provide.
Paper cheques mean thinking twice before you spend
The impulse to buy can kill a budget. With electronic transfers, the temptation to make a purchase with an easy swipe of a card or click of a mouse might be hard to pass up.
Paper cheques, on the other hand, take longer to write. This could give users more time to consider whether a purchase is necessary.
Additionally, respondents at eHow.com suggest that writing all transactions in a cheque register makes it easier to keep an eye on funds as a means of limiting spending.
"Doing everything online with electronic checks may make it more difficult to keep track of your balances without having to go to an ATM or going online," said contributor Sameerah Blue.
Helium Personal Finance writer Natalie Delia agrees. She used to habitually overdraw from her account when she used electronic payment methods. "I never had any idea how much was in the bank account at any given time." Now, Delia uses paper cheques almost exclusively.
Paper cheques' potential ability to curb impulse spending should be a major consideration for a good number of Canadians. According to a report from Gamasutra, 40 percent of Canadians made an impulse purchase of video games in the past year.
This suggests the number of impulse purchases for other retail merchandise grew as well in 2009. Particularly in economically trying times, whim purchases could really add up and make a dent in personal finances.
If paper cheques will make consumers think twice before blowing funds, they might save Canadians much needed money this year.
Paper cheques prevent losing cash to fraud or transaction mix-ups
With electronic payments, it's easy to enter the wrong account information, suffer from connection timeouts, or accidently click a "submit payment" button twice. This can lead to costly failed transactions or fraud.
Some Canadians say they are hesitant to enter credit card information on websites. A respondent at eWeek.com points out that the more consumers enter account information online, the more likely an internet hacker can steal credit.
Even without hackers, Canadians can lose money from system errors.
Rodney Loftis told Helium Personal Finance that he has experienced many expensive electronic transaction failures when trying to pay his mortgage. "So far we have been threatened with foreclosures one week [only to] be ahead on our payments the next week," he says.
The mix-ups have cost the new homeowner cash he claims he doesn't have to spare, with both his bank and his mortgage company. Worse, he doesn't know how to prove that he is being wrongfully charged because there are no payment receipts.
He says it drives him mad. "I just want to walk into an office give them a check, get a receipt and walk out!"
With paper cheques, there is always a cheque stub that can be used to prove a payer's case to avoid undue charges.
Here to Stay
In spite of claims that paper cheques are nearing extinction with the ever-rising efficiency of electronic funds, manual cheques are here to stay. The Canadian Payments Association assured the source "paper cheques will survive."
