Anyone else having trouble with the US Mail?

[meyatt]

Serious question....why do people prefer to go through the hassle of writing and posting a cheque when you can do the whole thing in a few seconds via a banks website? Or is the US banking system that far behind that EFT isn't widely used, or trusted?

And so I'm not completely OT....Australia Post is generally pretty good.

I recently moved from the U.S. (my home country) to Sweden and was absolutely shocked by how advanced digital payments are here. In the three years I've visited, and then finally moved here, I can count the number of times I've seen cash on one hand.

The U.S. is years behind digital payments, and if it weren't for Apple Pay the best "digital" payment you'd get would be a card with a chip — even "tap and pay" with your card was pretty novel until a few years ago.

My fianceé (who is Swedish) had to do her taxes last year in the U.S. and the nature of her visa she had to do all her quarterly payments with check as a first time tax payer. She'd never even seen a checkbook.

For the "run it like a business crowd" — I wonder how that really offers a solution, as UPS and FedEx only fair marginally better and also rely on USPS for all their "last mile" deliveries. They don't actually do the entire route, whereas USPS is forced by law to do so (even if they need to contract it out).

First class mail peaked in 2001 and it's now down to the volume not seen since 1968. The number of employees peaked around 1999 and we're now down to levels we had in the 1980s. However, packages that require enormous amounts of space, are slower to meter and sort, have skyrocketed. It's really not a surprise things are they way they are.

People in the U.S. are used to the service as it exists and have a certain expectation, but the funding for the USPS and lack of long-term investments don't line up with that. A simple change that would align with postal services in other countries and save an enormous amount of time and resources would simply be to end home delivery of packages, hold them at the post office for people to pick up, but it would feel like such a shocking change for people they'd never go for it.

The mandate to deliver is a main reason the service isn't profitable. Either you accept the loss and fund it to a level that the service is better, cut out routes that are clearly not profitable (sorry everyone who lives in rural areas), or massively increase the cost of shipping.

[Llewellyn]

Announced by the government today that cheques will no longer be issued from 1 July 2028 and will no longer be legal tender after 30 September 2029. Businesses selling essential goods and services will be forced to accept cash as a form of payment.

Given the ongoing trends for different payment methods it seems like a perfectly sensible decision.

[jlwdm]

Originally Posted by Llewellyn

Announced by the government today that cheques will no longer be issued from 1 July 2028 and will no longer be legal tender after 30 September 2029. Businesses selling essential goods and services will be forced to accept cash as a form of payment.

Given the ongoing trends for different payment methods it seems like a perfectly sensible decision.

Requiring use of cash anywhere 5 years from now does not seem sensible - the world is changing fast: even if they are "essential goods and services."

Jeff

[meyatt]

You've probably noticed a lot of businesses just say "card only" in the U.S. because having a register, manage petty cash, etc., is a hassle. The requirement of cash in some areas is because having a debit / credit card often means someone needs to be paying for that service (in essence, a tax on the poor just to pay their own bills).

[vav]

https://www.wsj.com/finance/banking/...hare_permalink

Our check usage is heaven for scammers and fraudsters

[Alistair]

Originally Posted by meyatt

The mandate to deliver is a main reason the service isn't profitable. Either you accept the loss and fund it to a level that the service is better, cut out routes that are clearly not profitable (sorry everyone who lives in rural areas), or massively increase the cost of shipping.

This. If we want letter mail delivered to Podunk Alaska at a reasonable price*, we need a functioning USPS. If we're ok without flat-rate letter mail deliveries, and the possibility of no letter mail deliveries in some regions, then sure, spin off USPS and make them sink/swim alongside the package/courier services. But, don't neglect the other benefits of USPS - they have federally protected mailboxes that nobody else can access - spinning them off means you get letter mail dropped on your doorstep just like packages (or everybody/anybody can fill you post box with junk).

* Yes, we've socialized mail delivery. It's considered a utility, so that's fine, IMO.