I am a senior citizen with excellent credit. I used to eat out with my wife and family five to six times a week, but that has almost stopped. No, it is not because of the economy. It is because regardless of one's credit history, more and more local restaurants will no longer accept personal checks. So they will no longer have me as a customer.

Using a bank card to purchase things is just the beginning. How long will it be before banks charge a small fee for each transaction? They will have to make up the lost revenue from printing of new blank checks, lost fees from those who do not keep their accounts current and other income sources. Then that small "fee" will begin to grow, and soon it will be quite a large percentage of the actual purchase.

And we senior citizens who have strived to obtain good credit and the ability to use the facility of writing checks will be reduced to using cash or credit cards. In the last six weeks, we have eaten out only three times.