Every year, paper checks by the billions must be sorted, processed, shipped through a complex network, processed again, and scanned electronically or returned to the writer by mail. That's one of the reasons why your bank would like you to pay your bills electronically - and they're making it easy and profitable for you to do so.
Until recently, the idea had been slow to catch on. Change doesn't come easily to many of us, especially when it comes to how we handle our money. Fears on the part of many small business owners and consumers about the security of paperless transactions added formidable hurdles on the road to a checkless society.