Should paper checks be abolished like the penny?

President Trump recently ordered the federal government to stop writing checks, following Germany's plan to eliminate them by 2027 and Australia's by 2030. Yet in the U.S., nine point two billion checks were written in 2024, totaling more than twenty-four trillion dollars, per The Conversation. Checks remain essential to small businesses—over eighty percent of small firms use them—and roughly one-third of American adults. Older Americans rely on them far more than younger people, with about sixty percent of those over sixty-five writing checks regularly. Small businesses favor them for control: signatures required before money leaves the account, and they avoid the three percent or more credit card fees. Though check fraud and bounced checks pose problems, over ninety-nine percent of checks clear without issue.

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