Writing a Check

支票是在信用卡誕生之前就存在的一種支付方式。大多數美國人收到水電費賬單的時候，一般在信封里夾一張支票寄回給電力和自來水公司。在沒有信用卡、沒有網上付費的時代，個人支票可以說是唯一方便的付款方式。然而個人支票在中國并不普及，那我們來看看在美國，個人支票在銀行卡、個人電子支付盛行時代的興衰存亡。

It may be strange to Chinese people， writing a check， because the habit of the personal check， which is a popular way of paying bills in western countries， is not widely practised in China. But if you open a bank account in the United States， you will be asked and even offered a free checkbook with your name and address on each check. You can pay bills with checks， by simply writing the payment amount on a check in both letters and numbers， the recipient’s name， and finally your signature and the date， and you’re all set.

However， because of the popularity of e-commerce in America， consumers can make payments by credit cards or online. Today， Americans are writing fewer checks than ever. Perhaps the old-fashioned ones will still carry a checkbook around wherever they go. Young people definitely use more debit cards[借記卡] and credit cards than personal checks. But for payments to the government， it’s best to stick with tradition checks.

I remember a few years ago， when I applied for a driver’s license at the Department of Motor Vehicle—a state government office to deal with all vehicle-related issues in America， I needed to write a check to the agency for the application. No cash or credit cards were accepted. Since I had no experience in writing a check， I asked my American friends for help. They were as puzzled as I was， as they had not written a check for a while. So I Googled it like many American people do nowadays： resorting[求助] to Google to find a solution to their problems.

Here is a sidebar[工具條]. According to the U.S. Federal Reserve[美聯儲]， the number of checks paid declined by more than 50 percent since 2000. And falling check use has been accompanied by a rise in Google searches for“how to write a check”. Today， those searches are nearly five times as prevalent[普遍的] as they were ten years ago.

So with the help of my search engine， I learned how to write my first check. In fact， a veteran[經驗豐富的] check user also wrote me a voided check[作廢支票] as an example. So in the future I can refer to this sample. Now you know， just like learning a language， use it or lose it. If one seldom writes a check， it is easy to forget how to do it. But thanks to my friend’s sample check， I am going to carry it around， in case I need one of my own.