J. Clarke wrote:

Banks and clearing house no longer rely on magnetic ink - it's now
all optical.

Do you have a source for this?

Sorry, no. That's what my banker told me.


Some merchants, however, still have magnetic ink scanners and won't
accept a non-magnetic check (i.e., Sam's Club).

I've never had a merchant use any kind of scanner on a check that I
presented at the counter.

Hmm. Then you don't deal with retail establishments that a) process a huge
volume of checks or b) have dodgy customers. Stores that subscribe to
TeleCheck (and similar) that guarantee the check for a small fee have to
have some fast and easy way to communicate the check's information. These
firms use check scanners.

Recently I wrote a (large) check to a physician. The Telecheck check-reader
thing-a-majiggy went "TILT" and I thought the help behind the desk was going
to fidget to death!

The problem was a miss-read.

Feeding the check through the machine again yielded a green light and they
quit beating me.