It seems that cheques are fiddly …
I’ve received cheques from a few places now (not including payment mechanism like Neteller) – and they are nearly always hand-written.
So imagine the systems that have to be put in place to make sure they get it right and correctly record it all. I think it’s pretty manual.
$10 buys you a total of 15-20 minutes of someones time.
They have to :
– access your account
– write the check
– get the check signed
– confirm your address
– write the envelope
– pass an entry into your account to reflect the check
(and then there could be mail fraud and they’ll have to repeat it all)
:lookaroun
As an example :
Remember all the hassle it used to be to pay your own bills by check -and there the company told you how much was owed and usually included a post-paid and addressed envelope.
It took 4-5 minutes to make sure you hadn’t already paid, find the check book, and write it all out. And then you have to find a mail-box …
Now many people pay their bills online via internet banking – have perfect records – and it’s done in 15 seconds.