It just amazes me that anyone thinks the USPS is not a bargain at any cost. Not one person here could set up a system to do it as inexpensive as the postal service.
I'm now 62 so in about 45 years of using the USPS I have had far, far fewer things go wrong then with UPS. I only deal with some one that ships UPS or FEDEX if I must.
Ken G Price My N-Scale Layout
Digitrax Super Empire Builder Radio System. South Valley Texas Railroad. SVTRR
N-Scale out west. 1996-1998 or so! UP, SP, Missouri Pacific, C&NW.
garr,Your package from New Mexico got put on an airplane. Your envelope from Augusta got to you by truck. As for why it takes longer from Augusta, I think it's a matter of the volume of mail.
Put it this way: When my dad was a letter carrier in a town of 15,000 people, they dispatched 4 trucks a day carrying outgoing mail to the regional sorting office: one in the morning, again around noon, another at 4PM and one more after 6PM. Imagine that multiplied by every city and town in a 25 mile swath or so here in a very populated area between Boston and Providence, RI. That's a lot of trucks, and a lot of incoming mail.
This large volume of mail hampers the sorting and dispatching of outgoing mail. I'm sure that all the mail between Augusta and Atlanta does not fit on one truck. Multiple trucks are required, and the timing of dispatching them must be staggered so as to balance out the load on the various systems. This causes delays in local mail speed.
As for the package from New Mexico, I don't think there's as much mail volume interfering with the speedy movement of it through the system until it gets to your regional sorting office. It's possible that it is already pre-sorted by the mail facility at the airport, so it breezes through the regional sorting office and gets right on the truck to your local PO.
I know it seems to fly in the face of logic, that a piece of mail takes longer to go 150 miles than it does for it to go 2000 miles. But people have to understand that their piece of mail is not the only one being carried around. The PO is not a direct courier service. It's not like they get in their mail trucks and drive directly to your mail's destination.
Think of it just like a railroad. Say you are a scrap dealer today in Brockton, MA and you want to send a carload of metal to a steel mill in Pennsylvania. The car is not taken directly to the steel mill by one engine and one crew. First, it has to be picked up by a local freight, and brought to a small yard (Middleboro, MA). Then the small yard switches it onto the tracks of cars going to the local regional yard (Framingham, MA). Then it's carried to the big regional yard (Selkirk, NY), which then must sort it out to another train going to PA. After that, it goes to another big yard in PA, where it's classed again to go to the steel mill by local freight, which then takes it to the steel mill (and perhaps there's more steps in the process). If it misses the connecting train, it may have to wait another 24 hours until the next one. The mail isn't much different, though with trucks it's much more flexible and can eliminate a lot of handling vs. a railroad situation.
Paul A. Cutler III
Why use credit cards? Why mail order?
A few years ago i opened 2 credit cards that payed a bonus of $250.00 each just to open the account. Both offered cash back on all purchases. Cash back not points.
I still get 2-5% cash back. I always pay the balance at the end of the month. Haven't payed a dime of interest in 20 years on any card.
I love mail order with no local tax at 10%. If I purchase on Ebay I get 2% bouns bucks, 2% cash back on credit cards thur PayPal, and both cards DOULBE the MFG warranty. Never had a problem with a credit card. Have saved on average at least 50% on all ebay and mail order purchases.
At least 4 times i have opened new checking accounts that were free and payed $100.00 each bouns just for opening. Used these to pay credit cards.
If you can manage your money it's a big advantage.
Bob
I live in an Atlanta suburb. I have ordered 4 or 5 times from Trackside Emporium in Chama, NM. Every time the package has arrived in two days via 1st class mail. At the same time standard envelopes mailed via 1st class to me from Augusta, GA take 3 days to travel 150 miles.
Jay
BTW--On the check vs credit card discussion, one important difference guides my use of credit cards over checks when possible--victims of id theft involving checks can land you jail while victims of id theft involving credit cards never have this threat.
In the case of local mail going out of town to go next door, that's all a result of greater efficiency that is forever being pushed at the USPS. Why is sending mail dozens of miles away from it's destination considered an improvement?In the old days, you'd give your mail to a carrier on his route or leave it in the mailbox. At the end of the day, the carrier would take it to the PO and dump it in the outgoing mail tub when he got back to the PO from his route. The clerks would then sort through the tub and pull any local mail, then cancel it and sort it by route (all by hand). The next morning, the carriers would arrive and then sort their route in the case (by hand) with all the local and non-local mail that just arrived by truck. They'd then pull the case into trays, load the truck, and deliver the letter to it's destination.
Today, they have regional sorting offices that are built to sort tons of mail per day. Most of it is completely automatic. A carrier picks up your mail, and takes it back to the PO. All the outgoing mail is loaded into a truck and taken to a regional sorting office where it's placed in the giant sorting machines that cancel and sort just about everything without human interaction. Not only does the machine sort this mail by town, it also sorts it by route in delivery order. The mail is then placed in trays by the machine, then loaded onto trucks and taken to the local PO's. When it arrives, the trays are ready for the carriers to pick then up and load them into their trucks and deliver their route. What delays any local mail is when the arriving mail gets to the regional center and how busy it is. If it gets there just in time during a lull, it'll be on it's way in mere hours. Just miss the truck, or get an overloaded sorting center, and it could take several days to work down the volume of mail.
About the only thing that's hand sorted anymore are "flats" (circulars, flyers, etc.), and they are working today to automate that, too. The days of letter carriers and postal clerks throwing mail into pigeon holes is almost a thing of the past.
To summarize, the old days requred a lot of hands on the mail. Many hands = many salaries, pensions, benefits, vacation days, sick days, etc. Today, machines don't require anything other than maintenance, and can run 24 hours a day. This drive to total automation is all about more efficiency, as in moving more mail for less money. It may take longer for that letter to go next door, but they are moving a lot more of it. Let me put it this way: In the PO Strike year of 1970, the PO moved an average of 270 million pieces of mail per day. Today, the USPS moves 660 million pieces of mail per day.
pastorbob Anyone stealing my card number wouldn't be able to get much and I feel more secure.
Bob ...All...
One thing I've done to minimize any ID theft is to have a 'dedicated debit card' strictly for electronic transactions on line. I have this linked to a account with a flexible 'limit' that I control.
Each time I'm going to make a purchase on line, I just log in and then transfer the exact amount to cover the purchase into the account. If anybody tries to tamper with it... they get nothing. 7 layer Encryption is a wonderful thing.
Paying bills and perfroming banking on line is a Godsend for me and it save me a lot of time - it is also very , very safe.
I understand and totally respect the traditional methods of payment though and in some cases, like train shows - some vendors will not accept credit cards -so the ol' check book and cash is still good to carry just in case.
HeritageFleet1
maxman galaxyI pay off the CC at the end of the month or I don't put it on the CC. The EXCEPTION being.....auto repairs. You can go in for $200 repair and walk out with a $850 bill. I'm sure we all know that noise... I will pay interest IF NEED BE ONLY on auto repairs but try to pay off the balance in no more than 3 months. Actually there is a way around the auto repair issue. I take my car to Firestone for most of the normal work. If you have their credit card, they normally have a deal where you can take up to 3 months to pay without incurring any interest. Of course if you don't pay it off in time you get hit with the total interest amount. But if your practice is to pay within 3 months, you should be good.
galaxyI pay off the CC at the end of the month or I don't put it on the CC. The EXCEPTION being.....auto repairs. You can go in for $200 repair and walk out with a $850 bill. I'm sure we all know that noise... I will pay interest IF NEED BE ONLY on auto repairs but try to pay off the balance in no more than 3 months.
Actually there is a way around the auto repair issue. I take my car to Firestone for most of the normal work. If you have their credit card, they normally have a deal where you can take up to 3 months to pay without incurring any interest. Of course if you don't pay it off in time you get hit with the total interest amount. But if your practice is to pay within 3 months, you should be good.
I do do my rountine work at my local Firestone. Get good service there. I did the 90 days same as cash once. The problem is that I cannot always guarantee that I can pay it off in three months, so then, in that case I got hit with the total interest as I needed a 4th month to pay. SO I learned the hard way that may not always work either. I pay the interest either way.
-G .
Just my thoughts, ideas, opinions and experiences. Others may vary.
HO and N Scale.
After long and careful thought, they have convinced me. I have come to the conclusion that they are right. The aliens did it.
blownout cylinder Since Toronto is the center of the universe here, we, in London, see our mail get processed in Toronto before it comes back here---even if it is cross town mail----
Since Toronto is the center of the universe here, we, in London, see our mail get processed in Toronto before it comes back here---even if it is cross town mail----
We have the same thing here -- mail goes to Tucson, Arizona, 70 miles away, to be postmarked and then returned to Sierra Vista for delivery even if it's to an address just in the next block.
selector MisterBeasley...I pay the balance off every month, and I earn "points" for everything I buy. Ah, another deadbeat card holder. Pays off the balance before the cut-off processing date for billing so that he gets the points, but pays no interest. They hate you, Mr. B.....they really hate you. -Crandell
MisterBeasley...I pay the balance off every month, and I earn "points" for everything I buy.
Ah, another deadbeat card holder. Pays off the balance before the cut-off processing date for billing so that he gets the points, but pays no interest. They hate you, Mr. B.....they really hate you.
-Crandell
Yes, those who pay off their balance every month are considered deadbeats by the CC companies, cuz they only make their processing fee on you.
I pay off the CC at the end of the month or I don't put it on the CC. The EXCEPTION being.....auto repairs. You can go in for $200 repair and walk out with a $850 bill. I'm sure we all know that noise... I will pay interest IF NEED BE ONLY on auto repairs but try to pay off the balance in no more than 3 months.
The CC companies still make a little on pay-the-balance-off people, with very little hassle, but they are greedy and want you paying them interest every month. Selling 200 glasses of lemonade at $0.25 a piece can return more profits that selling only 10 glasses at $1.00 a piece! They forget that...
ANd now some will have changed to a variable rate so they can jack you up when the prime rate rises, IF you pay some interest. Now they also want to go back to charging annual fees to have the card. ANd these days people often "need them". And also to start charging for checking accounts agian unless you carry a big balance, or do things like use AT'M's so they can get fees from you there.
Just like insurance, medical stuff, car buying/selling, real estate, retailing, LIFE...IT IS ALL A RACKET.
If you have $$$, no matter how little you may have, SOMEONE wants your money!
galaxyPaul3 ...anywhere in the 3.8 million square miles of the USA from Machias, Maine to Dutch Harbor, Alaska, from Key West, Florida, to Maui, Hawaii for 44 cents each. For a post card, it's 28 cents. And it'll get there, on average, in 2 or 3 days... Yet Try mailing it across town, or the next town over. It will take 7-10 days. Seriously. Go figure.
Paul3 ...anywhere in the 3.8 million square miles of the USA from Machias, Maine to Dutch Harbor, Alaska, from Key West, Florida, to Maui, Hawaii for 44 cents each. For a post card, it's 28 cents. And it'll get there, on average, in 2 or 3 days...
...anywhere in the 3.8 million square miles of the USA from Machias, Maine to Dutch Harbor, Alaska, from Key West, Florida, to Maui, Hawaii for 44 cents each. For a post card, it's 28 cents. And it'll get there, on average, in 2 or 3 days...
Yet Try mailing it across town, or the next town over. It will take 7-10 days. Seriously. Go figure.
I here you on that one.
If I want to mail something that goes to any town south of where I live. That parcel first has to go to a sorting location 20 miles north of me, then 90 more miles south, and then to the town directly south of me.
If I want to mail something to my neighbor, it has to go the same 20 miles north and arrives at my neighbor's house two days later.
Sometimes I can't help but wonder if the old RPOs were more efficient.
Will
galaxy Paul3 ...anywhere in the 3.8 million square miles of the USA from Machias, Maine to Dutch Harbor, Alaska, from Key West, Florida, to Maui, Hawaii for 44 cents each. For a post card, it's 28 cents. And it'll get there, on average, in 2 or 3 days... Yet Try mailing it across town, or the next town over. It will take 7-10 days. Seriously. Go figure.
Attempt #2 to reply--
Any argument carried far enough will end up in Semantics--Hartz's law of rhetoric Emerald. Leemer and Southern The route of the Sceptre Express Barry
I just started my blog site...more stuff to come...
http://modeltrainswithmusic.blogspot.ca/
selector Ah, another deadbeat card holder. Pays off the balance before the cut-off processing date for billing so that he gets the points, but pays no interest. They hate you, Mr. B.....they really hate you. -Crandell
That's not true. The discount rate they charge most vendors is higher than the interest rate they charge the card holder. They make just as much rolling it over as they do with running balances and there is less risk of default.
Dave
Lackawanna Route of the Phoebe Snow
CNJ831AntonioFP45 Aloco, I do agree with JWhitten, however, like you I still prefer to pay by check. One little "unofficial" tidbid of info: a number of ebay sellers still accept payment by check, however, they're not going to post that on their page. Before bidding on an item, I send the seller an email asking if he/she accepts checks or US Postal money orders. I politely point out that I have a 100% feedback rating, always send payment asap, and ask the seller to reply to me on my hotmail address. Surprisingly, the replies I've received in the past 2 years have always been yes! Including from sellers that list a "Paypal preferred" caption. I know people who use paypal and have no problems. My reluctance stems from the "horror stories" I've read regarding paypal. I'll continue the "old fashion way" until I have no choice. I agree and that was also my approach...until quite recently. I'm not sure what your latest experience might be, but in my recent cases I attempted to bid on two items and found that when I entered my bids they were automatically rejected by eBay, with an accompanying message that since I was not a listed PayPal participant, my bids were invalid! CNJ831
AntonioFP45 Aloco, I do agree with JWhitten, however, like you I still prefer to pay by check. One little "unofficial" tidbid of info: a number of ebay sellers still accept payment by check, however, they're not going to post that on their page. Before bidding on an item, I send the seller an email asking if he/she accepts checks or US Postal money orders. I politely point out that I have a 100% feedback rating, always send payment asap, and ask the seller to reply to me on my hotmail address. Surprisingly, the replies I've received in the past 2 years have always been yes! Including from sellers that list a "Paypal preferred" caption. I know people who use paypal and have no problems. My reluctance stems from the "horror stories" I've read regarding paypal. I'll continue the "old fashion way" until I have no choice.
Aloco,
I do agree with JWhitten, however, like you I still prefer to pay by check. One little "unofficial" tidbid of info: a number of ebay sellers still accept payment by check, however, they're not going to post that on their page. Before bidding on an item, I send the seller an email asking if he/she accepts checks or US Postal money orders. I politely point out that I have a 100% feedback rating, always send payment asap, and ask the seller to reply to me on my hotmail address. Surprisingly, the replies I've received in the past 2 years have always been yes! Including from sellers that list a "Paypal preferred" caption.
I know people who use paypal and have no problems. My reluctance stems from the "horror stories" I've read regarding paypal. I'll continue the "old fashion way" until I have no choice.
I agree and that was also my approach...until quite recently. I'm not sure what your latest experience might be, but in my recent cases I attempted to bid on two items and found that when I entered my bids they were automatically rejected by eBay, with an accompanying message that since I was not a listed PayPal participant, my bids were invalid!
CNJ831
When I was selling some excess model railroad equipment on eBay last fall I ran into these changes.
The seller cannot mention any method of payment other than PayPal - eBay scans and automatically rejects the auction. The language I have had to use to get around this is "contact seller in advance for alternative payment". Then I have to reject potential buyers who want to use personal or cashier checks - I only accept Postal money orders besides PayPal due to the high fraud rate for anything else. Since as a seller I have no way of knowing a person's actual identity until an auction is actually won, I'm a little more cautious than if I could check out bidders in advance.
I can't remember what the default was but I remember having to make sure I didn't restrict the auctions to just PayPal account holders - there was a check box specifically for that. I also had to go through the buyer no pays and other problem categories to prevent bidding from those with poor histories - the eBay defaults were way too dangerous in my opinion. The other problem area I had as a seller was the postage. If I shipped within the US at flat rate, eBay wouldn't let me do actual rate postage to foreign countries. Again, I had to put verbage in the auction to allow foreign bidders to contact me to get the best postal rates I could come up with. To be honest, my foreign transactions were just as smooth as the US ones - a credit to the integrity of model railroaders everywhere.
I once got a scathing e-mail from a fellow who claimed I locked him out of bidding even though he had a clean record - and liked to bid high and win auctions. I did some checking and found nothing that blocked him from bidding - I suspect he tried to snipe a few seconds too late. But after thinking about the e-mail, I'm not sure I wanted his bid anyway.
just my experiences
Fred W
dknelsonAbout 1000 years ago -- well, OK, probably late 1964 -- I used to send actual CASH in the mail to America's Hobby Center. Dave Nelson
About 1000 years ago -- well, OK, probably late 1964 -- I used to send actual CASH in the mail to America's Hobby Center.
Dave Nelson
I remember buying stuff from AHC. I used to drool over their ads as a kid and every now and then I'd have a little cash saved up, either from chores or birthday money, and I'd make an order. I remember one year waiting for an order-- it was like february and snowing hard and I was out of school that day and pretty much guaranteed the next day too... and I was hoping my order would come but knowing it was a long shot... and it did! I was very happy!!! :-) Simple stuff like that used to make me really happy. Come to think of it, simple stuff like that still does!
John
They are automatically rejected based on restrictions set by the seller on who can purchase their items.
Put me in the camp of using cash whenever possible. Yeah, the plastic may have a great rewards package but it isn't paid for by the credit card companies. They foist an additional fee on the business that the card is being used at, making it less attractive for the business to take the card. Many of the local businesses here no longer accept credit cards for purchases under $25.00 because of this.
dknelsonAbout 1000 years ago -- well, OK, probably late 1964 -- I used to send actual CASH in the mail to America's Hobby Center. Bills and coins! And they'd accept postage stamps if you were buying a fifty cent catalog. (sigh). An Athearn Hi-F F-7 was $3.98 ..... Dave Nelson
About 1000 years ago -- well, OK, probably late 1964 -- I used to send actual CASH in the mail to America's Hobby Center. Bills and coins! And they'd accept postage stamps if you were buying a fifty cent catalog. (sigh). An Athearn Hi-F F-7 was $3.98 .....
I used to order from them - C.O.D (Cash On Delivery). I'd mail in my order sheet, and roughly 3 to 4 weeks later, the UPS guy would deliver my stuff. I'd pay the UPS guy for the order and head down to the basement with my new trains.
Modeling the Baltimore waterfront in HO scale
I prefer to use cash when I can. People talk about it costing money for a live person to handle checks. That's true, but a business will have an automatic machine that will read in the code on the check. All they do is type in the dollar amount and it's processed. And both paypal and Credit/Debit will cost the store owner, even mail order or ebay store money. They have to pay a fee for each transaction. That's why many small businesses have a minimum purchase to use them.
As for safety and generational fears. There's a lot of new concepts involved in online shopping. Changing passwords, watching for viruses, hacking. All of these things are surmountable, but it's an entirely new language that needs to be learned and its harder for people who haven't been inundated with it for years to be comfortable with it. This isn't a knock on those people. It is simply a fact of life.
Paul,You may want to add they are just as fast as UPS dellivering packages..I had 2 orders shipped one by USPS and the Other by UPS..Both arrived the same day-2 days after they was shipped..
Larry
Conductor.
Summerset Ry.
"Stay Alert, Don't get hurt Safety First!"
HaroldA,In defense of the US Post Office, it is obligated to serve all Americans, regardless of geography, at uniform price and quality. Each day, the United States Postal Service delivers some 660 million pieces of mail to as many as 142 million delivery points. The USPS operates 32,741 post offices and locations in the US. It's employees deliver mail 6 days a week to every American residence at an average yearly cost of $235 per residence as of 2009. (factoids from Wiki)
So, for 64 cents a day, you can have someone come to your home, drop off your mail and pick up your outgoing letters 3.5 ounces or less, and take them anywhere in the 3.8 million square miles of the USA from Machias, Maine to Dutch Harbor, Alaska, from Key West, Florida, to Maui, Hawaii for 44 cents each. For a post card, it's 28 cents. And it'll get there, on average, in 2 or 3 days.
Inefficient? I don't think so.
P.S. My father retired after 30 years as a USPS Letter Carrier, both before and after the 1970 Strike.
richg1998Learn to use a debit card
I pay all of my bills by writing a check. The money stays in my account a little longer, especially if the vendor is inefficient in processing his payment. I don't like the idea of having the money automatically withdrawn from my account, primarily because I want only one person to be able to access that account...me.
No way, no how, would I use a debit card instead of a credit card. With a credit card the money again stays in my account until I get my monthly bill, plus there is some protection from fradulent card use. With a debit card you generally have little or no protection from fradulent use, unless you have one of those that requires a signature (or is it a password?) at the time of purchase. And I don't see any way of signing for something with a phone or internet order. Plus you again give someone direct access to your account. I frankly see no advantage to using a debit card, and a lot of negatives. But that's just my opinion.
Not to worry. This is just the world evolving. Change is inevitable, struggle is an option. You have to change with the times.
I am nearly seventy and I know from experience.
Learn to use a debit card, do online banking, watch your on line bank account daily, get a Pay Pal account and oh yes, pay attention to what you are doing. Make sure you have a good password for accounts. Don't be lazy when it comes to user name and passwords. Make sure your PC has good anti virus. Don't click on emails that you don't know the sender.
You can do it if you want to. Sorry, no Rant from me.
Rich
If you ever fall over in public, pick yourself up and say “sorry it’s been a while since I inhabited a body.” And just walk away.
Ok - Maybe I am also guilty of 'here is a story to top that one' but -
I wrote a check for $184 on May 15th to pay a bill that didn't have on line capability and it was mailed to an address in Chicago. Two weeks later it hadn't hit my account so I called them only to find that checks don't get processed at that address. Instead it was sent to another address here in Flint, actually about 3 miles from my house, to a person who handled that particular account. I was given that number and I called to find out they did have the check and I was told it would be processed within ten days. It's now July 7th and it still isn't in my account so do I call them again or consider it a donation back to me???
Yes - this is totally off topic for the forum, but it's just another reason why I want control over my finances by issuing payments myself.
There's never time to do it right, but always time to do it over.....
It costs money to have someone open and process a check order. THat can result in higher prices for prices, or for "handling" part of shipping and handling, which many already complain about the high price of.
I still like to pay most of my bills by check, but I do do my ordering online with my credit card, and I pay off at teh end of the month. NOt hard to do. FOr those with bad credit, prepaid, reloadable credit cards are available. I like to pay by check as I know the bill is paid, and am not paying any financing on bills. I don't like the idea of paying by any method online for bills which is surprising since i do do CCs over the net. See why below:
I have only one card that I use for online purchases that if it gets comprimised I can fairly easy figure out WHERE or rather WHO it got comprimised with {hasn't happened yet- knock on wood}. Most every one I personally know had their cards comprimised last Xmas, except me. CC's have protections you don't have giving out your checking account number, which you do by writing a check {it's right there at the botom of the check people} and TWICE I have had to completely close down checking accounts Due to someone repeat "automatically billing" several times on my checking account by scaming off my check. AND I had to have the bank restore my "overdraft fees" cause some checks I wrote had bounced -which I NEVER do- before I caught the fact taht my account was being multiple billed when it shouldn't have been.That is why I don't like to use my checking account online. You can always dispute a charge on a charge card,but once the money is taken from your checking account, very hard to get it back. I also do pay for a credit monitoring service on one of my CCs so I get notified when new credit {if any} is taken out in my name using my info. SO far I have had no problems. {knocken on the wooden}.
I'm half in the dark ages, the other half in modern daylight. go figure. But twice bitten {checking account comprimised two different times}, thrice shy.
BRAKIE Have no fear..Use a prepaid credit card.
Have no fear..Use a prepaid credit card.
BRAKIE-Can you recommend a good one?? Most I've seen have a monthly fee of $25 if you don't keep a $500+ balance and a $5 per transaction fee.
HaroldA And, now brace yourselves, our comfort level may be related to our age. (dodging glaring looks right now). My dad is 91 and he would no more think of doing anything on line because he doesn't trust it. He still uses envelopes, stamps and puts all his payments in the mail box by the curb - and that works for him. On the few occasions I have suggested to him that he pay things on line, I have pulled back a bloody stub - so whatever works is the best way.
And, now brace yourselves, our comfort level may be related to our age. (dodging glaring looks right now). My dad is 91 and he would no more think of doing anything on line because he doesn't trust it. He still uses envelopes, stamps and puts all his payments in the mail box by the curb - and that works for him. On the few occasions I have suggested to him that he pay things on line, I have pulled back a bloody stub - so whatever works is the best way.
A word of warning for your dad, and for anyone else who, "Puts all his (her) payments in the mail box by the curb." Unless it's one of those big steel mailboxes maintained by USPS, it's an open invitation to identity thieves.
A friend of my wife's, 80+ years old, followed that practice - until the day she got a notice from her bank that her utility bill payment checks had bounced. Seems someone simply took her electric bill payment out of the mailbox, got the data they needed off the paper check and cleaned out her bank account - several thousand dollars. She now pays by automatic deduction and doesn't even get a paper bill.
I'm old enough to have been drawing Social Security for a while now, and still pay by paper check - BUT, I get my bills at a Post Office lock box and mail my payments at a slot inside the Post Office - a slot just a few meters from the lock box. I don't get mail more significant than pizza coupons at the '16 mailboxes on a stalk' down the street from my house, and I certainly don't put outgoing mail there. I also maintain a low-limit credit card specifically for use on the internet and for phone-in orders.
This morning's eye-opener news had a bit on a new ATM scam. If there's a clear 'protector' over the keypad, it was probably put there by professional identity thieves. It works in tandem with a gadget in the card slot to get your account and pin number data - and you won't know you've been hit until you get your statement.
Ah, the wonders of modern electronics...
Chuck (Modeling Central Japan in September, 1964)
How about "The End of Cash?"
I hate cash. I don't like checks much, either. I use a credit card for almost everything. I pay the balance off every month, and I earn "points" for everything I buy.
There are only two places I regularly use cash. The cafeteria at work only takes cash, and I use it at my LHS. Cash does save the shop owner from paying transaction fees, which can be substantial. So, I try to do my part.
It takes an iron man to play with a toy iron horse.