@ElectroNymph - You see, more evidence that I am old. I still have the same Pentagon Federal Credit Union Share Account, Savings Account, and Interest Checking accounts, and the same USAA Savings Account, Checking Account, and VISA that I signed up for in 1977 (at that time only commissioned officers in the army and their dependent wives and children were eligible to open accounts with them - They've since opened USAA membership to enlisted men, and PFCU to any Federal employee, military or civilian). After graduating the Infantry Officers Basic Course at Marshall Auditorium at Fort Benning, we were ushered out into a long hallway with booths set up for opening accounts with those two institutions, and of course with the Association of the US Army.
Some folks already had checking and savings, and no interest in having $25 per year withdrawn automatically from their paychecks for a magazine published quarterly - Myself, I had never had a checking account, so I filled out the forms for the credit union and USAA, and had one of my last opportunities to listen to someone ELSE get their ass chewed for trying not join one or the other. "Dammit Lieutenant, don't you want to support the army? Don't you want to take advantage of the benefits you've earned for your family? Membership in these institutions is crucial to your career! What's that? I can't MAKE you join? Well, you little pissant, maybe in here I can't, but it's a long walk to jump school, and you can bet I'll have my eye out for all you pissants - By God I'll "convince" you to join then!"
Ah, the old army. Where muttering "Political Correctness" would get you taken out behind the nearest structure for a whipping by a monstrous Master Sergeant.
Anyhow, even back then financial data theft was a problem, and they showed us one of their canned 16mm films on how you could be ruined by losing a checkbook (or even a check) - And as usual the film (oh, they had so many of those films they made us watch) terrified me - There's no way I'd give my account numbers to internet merchants, not in a million years. Hell, my wife pays all the bills these days (we used to share that chore), because she understands all of that razzle-dazzle online billpay the banks offer these days and can be done in 10 minutes - I'd be sitting at the kitchen table with the paper copy of the bill, the checkbook, and the register for an hour and a half.
@anthonyk, you must have an awfully small stable of vendors son, if you "only use vendors that accept direct bank transfers." More power to you, but I need a much wider selection of vendors, and another benefit of growing old is that I've been working with some of them for 8-9 years. The TTM fiasco? Didn't affect me one bit.
OK, grouchy old man must go shave now.
Have a great weekend, you two.