Offer your thoughts or opinion on the input financial query or topic using your financial background.

Can't the account information on my checks be easily used for fraud?
I was a victim of this.  I'm not sure who got my routing and account number off my check, but someone subscribed to Playboy.com using my bank account information.  Luckily it was only for about $30 and the bank refunded my money.  However, it was a mess in that I had to open a new checking account and keep the other one open until all checks cleared.  The bank was extremely helpful and monitored the account to make sure only the checks I told them about were processed.  I then had to close the old account. This is why I believe checks are much less secure than credit cards or debit cards.  A paper check can lay on someone's desk for anyone to pick up or write the information down off of it.  I avoid checks if at all possible.  For things like Craig's list, I would try to use PayPal or some other intermediate processing service.