July 24, 2024
ABC 7 News recently published an article featuring Jay Zagorsky, Clinical Associate Professor of Markets, Public Policy, and Law, discussing Target’s decision to stop accepting checks.
Target attributes this decision to the minimal use of checks by customers, but experts suggest that the surge in check fraud is the main motivator. While it’s accurate that fewer Americans are writing checks, this trend isn’t new. Hence, the question arises of why Target didn’t discontinue accepting checks earlier, when their popularity began to wane.
“Check fraud seems to be exploding in the last two years. In particular because there’s ways of washing ink off and making a check look basically new again once you’ve already taken it, somebody’s prewritten check, changing the amount, changing who it’s addressed to, these kind of things,” Zagorsky adds.
While this adjustment will have little effect on most Americans, given that many businesses have already stopped accepting checks, there are still individuals who favor using checks for budgeting purposes.
