I know people who work in a bank and the stories I hear are becoming incredible. A HUGE number of people can no longer keep a bank account as they can't pay their account fees OR bills. A spike in attempted check fraud is occurring as I write this.
The place where I work got a 20 dollar counterfeit and the bank people tell me they're now getting 10s and 20s as counterfeits. The real indicators are out there, but the MSM doesn't report on it very much. That pizza joint until recently accepted checks. Now it doesn't. Recent change.
I see paper checks occupying the same status as first class snail mail, print newspapers and land line telephones. Not gone, but on an irreversible downward slope.
I agree the Baraqqi Depression grinds on, but view companies getting out of the check biz as more like the normal march of biz efficiency.
They need to look into credit unions, although many will be ineligible due to past NSFs.
This is true for large regional and money center banks. However, there are still some smaller Community and State banks that offer accounts with no fees, or comparitively small fees.
Still it has long been a policy of the government and the banks to wring the inefficiencies out of the banking system when it comes to checks and the processing of checks.
This process includes a bundle of checks being put on a plane and sent to a processing bank near to the bank the check was drawn on in order to clear the checks and get the money sooner. An expensive process to be sure.
That is one reason for the move to electronic presentment, and check images rather than actual checks coming with your statement, because this process of flying checks around is not needed to clear the checks if people pay electronically.