Large banks offer protection against fraud when using a debit card that also has a visa or MasterCard featured. Writing a check is the equivalent to giving out your bank account number to the world, because it literally has your account number on it.

Recall the days prior to debit cards when everyone wrote checks for nearly everything! And remember how the check was imprinted with your name, address, SS#. DL#, phone, etc?
The only checks I write today are for a payment for a special event at my son's school, or some other unusual and limited situation. Last week I wrote a check for my son's field trip, and discovered only one more check blank in my checkbook. We moved to our new home in February 2015, and I ordered new checks at that time. In three years I wrote 100 checks!

Use a credit card. It's easier to jerk around the merchant if they screw with you.

Tell that to the woman in front of me at the grocery store today, who decided only AFTER all of her groceries had been scanned, bagged and totaled, to pull out her checkbook.

One....hundred....seven....teen....and...94..../100

I can only hope the last minutes of my life feel like they last that long.

Checks giv eyour account number. They are not safe, and you should not use them. Debit card isn't much better.