PayPal, Venmo, Alipay, Wechat Pay, Mercado Pago, Apple Pay: There are so many modern ways to pay for things, but today’s lesson is about the humble check.
Lesson summary
Hi there, I’m Jeff; JR is the producer, and you are listening to Plain English lesson number 370. The full lesson is available at PlainEnglish.com/370.
Coming up today, if you’ve been listening long enough then you know that I love new technology. But today, we’re going to pay tribute to a low-tech payment solution: the personal check. Most of you probably don’t use personal checks, in fact, many (if not most) of you haven’t ever written a personal check. But this low-tech payment option is stubbornly hanging on in America, Britain, Canada, and a handful of other places. So, today’s lesson is all about the humble check. The English expression we’ll review today is “reverse course” and we have a quote of the week. Let’s get started.
Check-writing holds on
In the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, intrepid merchants sailed around the world trading spices, crops, precious metals, fabrics, and other goods. Merchants didn’t want to carry around copious amounts of gold and silver to pay for spices arriving from Istanbul, fabric from India, wool from England, or other valuable goods from far away lands. So, they trusted their savings with banks in major financial centers like Amsterdam and London. And when they needed to pay for goods, they provided a “note” to the seller instructing the bank to make the payment on their behalf .
A hand-written note from one person telling a bank to pay an amount to whoever is holding the piece of paper. Does that sound familiar? It probably sounds strange if you’re in Taiwan or Mexico. But if you’re in America or Australia, it might sound an awful lot like today’s personal check.
The mechanics of check-writing have changed (a little) over the centuries. But, even in the days of payment apps and cryptocurrencies, checks have an enduring appeal and their place in the world. Check usage is most common in America, Canada, and the UK. And while fewer and fewer people are using checks, it’s clear that they aren’t going away any time soon.
For those of you that have never written a check, here’s a quick primer. You can write a check against a bank account that is designed to handle money moving in and out frequently. In America, we call these checking accounts; in most of the rest of the world, they are called “current accounts.”
If you have a checking account, the bank sends you a book of blank checks, pre-printed with your name, address, and account number on them. When it’s time to pay an individual, charity, or business, you fill in the name of the person or entity you’re paying, add the amount and the date, and then sign the bottom of the check and hand it over. The person receiving the check then signs the back and brings it to his or her bank to deposit the funds into their account. After a few days, the deposit is confirmed and the money moves from your account, through the deep plumbing of the banking system, into the other person’s account.
If passing around a piece of paper like that seems primitive, that’s because it is. A check is just a piece of paper that makes its way through the banking system. It’s expensive and slow: each check travels among several different people. The money isn’t actually available to the receiver until the two banks talk to each other and confirm the transfer of funds. It can take several days—even up to a week for this to occur.
It’s burdensome for the check writer, too. Companies and individuals need to track the checks they’ve written to ensure they haven’t promised more money than they have available in their accounts. That’s a process called “balancing a checkbook,” a time-consuming monthly ritual for individuals in the days before electronic payments.
So, checks are slow and expensive. But, they have enduring advantages. Here’s why they have such staying power .
Checks can be safer than cash. Currency can be lost or stolen; lose a hundred-dollar bill, and that money is gone forever. But if a check is stolen, you can cancel the check before you lose the money for good.
Paying with checks can also be more convenient than paying in cash. You can send a check in the mail for a precise amount. Try putting exactly $15.43 in paper notes and coins in an envelope and you’ll see why checks are great for paying bills by mail. Checks can be helpful for large transactions, too. A check is just a single slip of paper. If you need to pay $1,000, it’s easier to hand over a single piece of paper instead of fifty $20 bills.
Here’s another thing, checks are universal. Debit and credit cards are accepted at most businesses, but individuals can’t accept credit cards. Charities and small businesses often choose not to take payments by credit card because they don’t want to pay the associated fees. On the other hand, almost any person with a bank account can deposit a check at no charge, and even people without a bank account can cash a check for a small fee.
In addition, checks are an easy, low-tech payment option for the elderly and others not comfortable with payment apps and websites. One other point in the check’s favor: I’ve never heard of a checkbook running out of batteries or losing a signal.
So, for all those reasons, checks survive. But the biggest reason of all is that the US doesn’t have a universal and convenient way to pay electronically like Europe, China, and other countries. For example, in the US, small landlords often require rent to be paid by check. House cleaners, dog walkers, landscapers, and babysitters all take checks. People pay their gas, electric, cable, and internet bills by sending checks through the mail. As I mentioned, donating to charity is often done by check, parents frequently write checks for their kids’ after-school activities, and a check from grandma can be discreetly slipped inside a birthday or graduation card as a nice treat.
Checks are also deeply woven into the fabric of business transactions. The accounts receivable and accounts payable functions at small- and medium-sized businesses are built for the world of checks. Businesses can even require two signatures on checks over a certain amount to protect against fraud or unauthorized payments.
As low-tech as they are, checks allow businesses to attach information to a payment. When businesses pay an invoice, they put the invoice number on the front of the check allowing both the payor and payee to know what the payment is for and when it was purchased. When paired with invoices, checks allow businesses to have a paper or scanned PDF record of service provided, payment sent, and payment received. This paper trail is essential for good financial management and record-keeping.
Not every country uses personal checks. China, South Korea, and Japan are trailblazers in the electronic payment world, so they do not need checks. And many countries that had cash-based economies have leapfrogged over checks and gone straight to electronic payments. That’s the case in much of Asia, Latin America, and Africa. But in Britain, America, Canada, Australia, and a handful of other countries we’re clinging to our personal checks.
Back in 2009, the Bank of England proposed eliminating personal checks by 2018. The idea was met with outrage from advocates for small businesses, charities, and the elderly. After two years, they reversed course and decided checks could stay.
Balancing a checkbook
Balancing a checkbook—what a blast from the past. I’m down to writing just one check a month, so I don’t need to balance my checkbook. But years ago, I would write several checks a month and I’d have to balance my checkbook. I’d have to go through the exercise of tracking what checks I’d written, which checks had been cashed, which checks were still outstanding, what checks I had deposited but that had not yet cleared, and what my balance was, which meant every month calculating columns of numbers, pen to paper, with a calculator. Frequent check-writers still must do that.
I did an informal survey on the Plain English Facebook group. Nobody said they write checks regularly today! Interesting. Most of you have never written checks in your life. About a third of the respondents said they’ve written checks before, but they don’t do it any longer. JR had never written or cashed a personal check until recently—that was the inspiration for this lesson.
Great stories make learning English fun
