Target to stop accepting personal checks next week

NEW YORK (AP) — Goal will now not settle for private checks from consumers as of July 15, one other signal of how a as soon as ubiquitous cost technique goes the way in which of outmoded objects like floppy disks and the Rolodex.

The Minneapolis-based discounter confirmed the transfer in a press release to The Related Press on Tuesday, citing “extraordinarily low volumes” of shoppers who nonetheless write checks. Goal mentioned it remained dedicated to creating a simple and handy checkout expertise with credit score and debit playing cards, “purchase now, pay later” companies and the Goal Circle membership program, which applies offers mechanically at checkout.

“We’ve got taken a number of measures to inform company prematurely” in regards to the no-checks coverage, the corporate mentioned.

Goal’s choice leaves Walmart, Macy’s and Kohl’s among the many retailers that also settle for private checks at their shops. Entire Meals Market and the Aldi grocery store chain beforehand stopped taking checks from clients.

Customers have pulled out checkbooks more and more much less typically because the mid-Nineties. Money-dispensing ATMs, debit playing cards, on-line banking and cell cost methods like Venmo and Apple Pay imply many younger adults could by no means have written a examine.

Verify utilization has been in decline for many years as Individuals have largely switched to paying for his or her companies with credit score and debit playing cards. Individuals wrote roughly 3.4 billion checks in 2022, down from practically 19 billion checks in 1990, based on the Federal Reserve. Nevertheless, the common dimension of the checks Individuals wrote over the 32-year interval rose from $673 in 1990 — or $1,602 in in the present day’s {dollars} — to $2,652.

The drop in examine writing enabled the Federal Reserve to sharply cut back its nationwide examine processing infrastructure. In 2003, it ran 45 check-processing areas nationwide; since 2010, it has operated just one.

Rising incidents of examine fraud are additionally making folks draw back from examine writing. It’s being fueled by organized crime that’s forcing small companies and people to take further security protections or to keep away from sending checks via the mail altogether.