From: carolo@cse.ucsc.edu (Carol Osterbrock)
Newsgroups: alt.peeves
Subject: Re: Paying by check
Date: 16 Apr 92 06:01:48 GMT
Organization: University of California, Santa Cruz (CE/CIS Boards)

In article <1992Apr16.041408.283@sunb10.cs.uiuc.edu> pjl@sunb4.cs.uiuc.edu (Paul Lucas) writes:
>
>	I still can't figure out why people pay by check.  The only time
>	you have to is to pay your bills, but when you're out somewhere,
>	pay by credit card or maybe something even as radical as cash.
>
>	When you pay by check, you have to transfer money into your
>	checking account to cover it; why don't you just withdraw the
>	money instead?

Ah, because it isn't in your account yet?

>	Peeve: waiting behind someone in line who is paying by check
>	while the store does a check (no pun intended) on the person.
>	(Yes, you have to wait for the clerk to validate a credit card
>	too, but it's quicker than validating a check...at least in my
>	experience.)

Hmm, around here they just look on a little typed list for checks,
but for credit cards they do something involving a magnetic strip
reader and a modem.

>	Don't the people paying by check get tired of waiting
>	themselves?
>
>	I know, I know...supermarkets don't take credit cards.  Why not?
>	They seem to be the only kind of store that doesn't.

They do around here.  ATM cards, too.

>	Peeve: Supermarkets don't take credit cards.

Well, it doesn't help.

There are still those financially hapless individuals who are always
in front of me in line with something like one box of Kleenex, so
it looks like the line to be in.  First, they whip out the ATM card,
run it through the machine, loud beeping noise, red face, "Ooops".
So they take out MasterCard, run it through the machine, brring,
brring, beeeep, screen must say something like "forget it", clerk
shakes head, repeat for Visa, American Express, and whatever other
overextended plastic this poor wretch can produce.  Now, *I* would
have said, "hey, I really don't need a box of Kleenex that bad,"
LONG before this.  But NO, what is the punch line?  After having 
proved not only that they have no money in their bank account, but
they are in debt beyond what anybody will trust them with, *they ask
if they can write a check*!  It doesn't take Columbo to figure out
that it has very little chance of clearing.  So naturally the clerk
has to call over the supervisor, and the manager, and maybe a few
other clerks, and they all get together to decide if they are going
to accept this check for $1.73 or something that will probably cost
them $20 in bouncy check fees.  Meanwhile carolo has read all the
headlines of the weeklies, plus the interesting articles in the Weekly
World News, and tries to calculate the odds that this guy's car will
have been repossessed by the time he gets out to the parking lot...

Oh, and the reason supermarkets usually don't take credit cards is
they cost the stores money, and supermarkets have a really low profit
margin.  I'm sure the prices are higher when they do.  So look on
the bright side, you save money *and* you don't have to stand in line
behind people with bad credit cards.

ObBob: Keeshan

-carolo
-- 
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Carol Osterbrock       *       Such a long, long time to be gone
carolo@cse.ucsc.edu    *         And a short time to be there...
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