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Target the Latest Retailer to Say it Will No Longer Accept Checks

MINNEAPOLIS — Target has become the latest national retailer to announce it will longer accept personal checks. The policy will go into effect July 15, in yet another sign of how the once ubiquitous payment method is fading away.

Target

Target cited the “extremely low volumes” of customers who still write checks as a primary reason for the move. In a statement, it said it remains committed to creating an “easy and convenient checkout experience” with credit and debit cards, buy now, pay later services and its Target Circle membership program, which applies deals automatically at checkout.

The company said it has “taken several measures to notify guests in advance” about the new no-checks policy.

The move by Target follows earlier announcements by the Whole Foods and Aldi supermarket chains that they will no longer accept checks.

Some of the nation’s largest retailers, however, do continue to accept checks, including Walmart and Macy’s.

Decades-Long Decline

Check usage has been in decline for decades. Federal Reserve data show Americans wrote roughly 3.4 billion checks in 2022, down from nearly 19 billion checks in 1990. However, the average size of the checks Americans wrote over the 32-year period rose from $673 in 1990 — or $1,602 in today’s dollars — to $2,652, the same data show.

In another indicator of the decline in volume: in 2003 the Fed operated 45 check processing locations nationally; today, it operates one.

What the Filene?

The ongoing decline in check usage and the announcement by Target prompted Filene CEO Mark Meyer to ask during the organization’s Spark Conference in Boston, “What the Filene are we going to call checking accounts?”

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