In the spring of 1993, we received a hefty, “rubber” cheque at the resort from one of the groups that used to come up in the spring. It was for around $11,000 and Jim died long before we ever received any of it. I had to go to court the following year after charging the president of the group with fraud and it was another six months later before we collected the funds (and even then it was in small increments). That was the incident that caused us to change our payment policy from our guests to certified cheque, cash or credit cards only. It annoyed some of our American, long-time guests but they understood and adapted.

In Canada, cheques are gradually becoming obsolete with the advent of Interac machines for debit cards at almost every business and internet banking. Even at our little B & B business, we accepted credit cards as well as debit cards to pay for a night’s stay.

It has amazed us how here in the US; almost every establishment accepts personal cheques and few are the places that accept debit cards. Today we wanted to withdraw some cash from our bank account to take to Mexico with us and it was impossible to do it at any of the banks we went to. We had to use their ATM machines outside in order to access our account and even then we could only withdraw half of the cash we wanted. The only way we could get a lump sum of cash was if we used our Visa card to get a cash advance which we refused to do. It baffles me how a country that allows it’s citizens to carry guns, drive without insurance and write cheques at the corner store, doesn’t have Interac or ATM machines at the tellers counters!