The Check’s Last Writes

WASHINGTON–In these divisive times, it should come as no surprise that the staff at American University’s Kogod School of Business is taking sides.
And in the world of personal finance, it may not get more personal than this.
Chris Vockrodt is in the camp that sits down once a month with a stack of bills and a checkbook. He pays his rent, his utilities and his credit card bill by writing out checks, a ritual that the 25-year-old graduate assistant is reluctant to give up. His paper checks may have a map of the world printed on them, but when it comes to paying his bills, Vockrodt isn’t venturing far from home–and certainly not into cyberspace.
“I like to be able to see what’s in my account,” Vockrodt said.
Kellie A. Foy, a career counselor at the business school, used to be a check writer, too. But then, she said, she saw the light, and it was coming from her computer screen. Foy, 31, found out she could pay her bills with a few keystrokes: She’d pick a bill to pay, go online, type in the necessary information and hit “send.”
“Paying my bills is so much easier now,” she said. “I don’t even think about it at all.”
This is not a debate about the essence of money. That contest is mostly settled anyway. Cash, check or charge? “Charge” is clearly winning.
Besides, Vockrodt may be clinging to his checkbook to pay his monthly bills, but he buys merchandise online. He doesn’t write a check at the Gap. Or when he goes out for dinner.
This is something else, something both simple and large. This is about a ritual gasping for air, refusing to go quietly even as the technology gap becomes less of a canyon. This is about control, or the feeling of control, over the most personal of personal finances, our monthly bills.
Kellie Foy’s father is the chief financial officer of a limousine company based in Princeton, N.J. He is an accountant. He does not pay his bills using the Internet.
”I like to have complete control,” said Frank Foy, who estimated that he writes 40 to 50 checks a month. ”I control my financial destiny.”
Foy said he knows his daughter uses a computer to pay her bills, knows that ”all my kids are into this New Age thing.”
Kellie Foy just laughs.
”It’s a trust issue,” she said. ”My parents want to see where their money is going. I feel like I have more control over my finances than I’ve ever had.”
We have become a society divided between check writers and e-payers.