The electronic payments company PayPal thinks it may have an answer. Unless you have cash on hand - or a personal check - how do you pay the babysitter or the kid who mows the grass? She adds that 62 percent of TD's customer transactions are by debit card, compared with 13 percent by personal check.ĭebit and credit cards aren't quite so convenient, though, when it comes to making person-to-person, or P2P, payments. Most debit card transactions these days involve amounts under $50 - a level once dominated by the personal check, according to Bakhshi. 'The average customer goes eight to 10 times to an ATM, and that makes a very loyal, what we call a 'sticky,' customer,' Bakhshi says. Trips to the ATM also reinforce bank loyalty. Nandita Bakhshi, vice president and head of product management at New Jersey-based TD Bank, says that once customers have set up online banking, they're reluctant to switch to a competitor. 'I don't know how many times I heard, 'Sorry, Tara, I forgot my checkbook.' 'īanks certainly aren't shedding many tears over the decline of the personal check. 'I work in an industry where the customer base is very male-dominated, and it was my experience that 80 percent of men don't carry checkbooks,' Quinn says.

After years of resisting, she finally broke down and paid $368 for a card-swiping device. Tara Quinn, who runs a small sail-repair business in Annapolis, Md., used to accept only cash and checks.

'Our research shows that while Generation X expects to write fewer checks in the future, the so-called millennials actually expect to write more,' says Susan Eick, Deluxe's vice president for financial services marketing.Įick also says the new rules that bar banks from charging for debit card overdrafts without first obtaining customer approval will most likely result in more embarrassing 'declined' moments when a personal check may be the only other option for payment.īut with the convenience of ever smarter plastic cards and online banking, she says she holds no illusions about the future of the checkbook, with its almost-quaint ledger.

My checkbook personal edition