[beAbU]

1/ I find it personally shocking that it's still OK to use checks in 2023, and doubly shocking that it's possible for a random 3rd party to cash said check without any, as you say, checks and balances in place in order to verify the identity of the cashee, and to verify that they are indeed the intended recipient of the value of the check. If it's this easy to cash a check by a 3rd party, why don't we forgo all the pretense, and send each other regular cash by mail? What's the difference?

In my crappy country the last time we used checks was like the early 2000s maybe, and then you had to put the recipient's bank account details on the check. So it's not possible for a 3rd party to cash it. And if it gets lost, no biggie, invalidate the original check number with your bank, and issue a new one.

2/ You can either write that $270 to school fees for using PayPal, or you can go to small claims and lose your mind during the process. I vote for the former.

[paypal_woes]

The difference between sending cash and a check is that when a check gets stolen, the sender can report that to their sending bank, which will contact the receiving bank, and sort it out. If it is reported and dealt with in a timely manner, this usually results in the funds transfer being reversed.

In this situation, however, the sender is flat out refusing to take the simple step of informing their bank -- most recently about an hour ago.

[TheLoafOfBread]

USA is using cheques a lot. I believe it is some kind of combination of regulatory capture which resulted in ancient and inflexible banking system.

[paypal_woes]

I think it's because the alternatives all suck. One is PayPal. Another is Venmo, which is owned by PayPal. Yet another is Zelle, which has its own problems I can rant about if you like.