Target TGT-T will no longer accept personal cheques from shoppers as of July 15, another sign of how a once ubiquitous payment method is going the way of outmoded objects like floppy disks and the Rolodex.
The Minneapolis-based discounter confirmed the move in a statement to The Associated Press on Tuesday, citing “extremely low volumes” of customers who still write cheques. Target said it remained committed to creating an easy and convenient checkout experience with credit and debit cards, “buy now, pay later” services and the Target Circle membership program, which applies deals automatically at checkout.
“We have taken several measures to notify guests in advance” about the no-cheques policy, the company said.
Target’s decision leaves Walmart, Macy’s and Kohl’s among the retailers that still accept personal cheques at their stores. Whole Foods Market and the Aldi supermarket chain previously stopped taking cheques from customers.
Shoppers have pulled out chequebooks increasingly less often since the mid-1990s. Cash-dispensing ATMs, debit cards, online banking and mobile payment systems like Venmo and Apple Pay mean many young adults may never have written a cheque.
Cheque usage has been in decline for decades as Americans have largely switched to paying for their services with credit and debit cards. Americans wrote roughly 3.4 billion cheques in 2022, down from nearly 19 billion cheques in 1990, according to the Federal Reserve. However, the average size of the cheques Americans wrote over the 32-year period rose from $673 in 1990 – or $1,602 in today’s dollars – to $2,652.
The drop in cheque writing enabled the Federal Reserve to sharply reduce its national cheque processing infrastructure. In 2003, it ran 45 cheque-processing locations nationwide; since 2010, it has operated only one.
Rising incidents of cheque fraud are also making people shy away from cheque writing. It’s being fueled by organized crime that is forcing small businesses and individuals to take additional safety protections or to avoid sending cheques through the mail altogether.