On: What Happens When You ACH a Dead Person?

[loeber]

That's not actually correct. By giving an external person a check, you give them the ABILITY to PULL funds from you. It looks like a push, but it's actually not.

https://www.bankrate.com/financing/banking/writing-checks-in...

[bsder → loeber]

Knuth had to quit giving out real checks (which nobody actually ever cashed, anyway) for exactly this reason.

[emiliobumachar → loeber]

They probably meant a fire-and-forget method to pay untrusted parties without giving them the ability to charge more than agreed.

Chargebacks are a thing, but they require constant vigilance and the occasional bureaucratic task.

[TylerE → emiliobumachar]

Checks have substantially less security there. Not more - and even if/when it gets fixed the money comes out immediately.

[mindslight → loeber]

More importantly you're giving them the authorization.

Everyone already has the basic ability to pull funds from arbitrary checking accounts. heh.