Prosecutors see hot-check accounts declining as check writing becomes passé

County Attorneys' hot-check fund accounts have ebbed as “Check writing is becoming a thing of the past,” reported the Odessa American on Sunday, magnifying a trend the paper had first documented three years ago.

County attorneys have prosecuted hot-check issuers for more than 40 years in Texas, but fewer checks being written may spell the end of the hot check fund.

With the Ector County hot check fund sitting at about $44,000, down from a high of more than $250,000 five years ago, County Attorney Scott Layh said it won’t be long before the fund will not be sustainable.

Reduced use of written checks combined with the trend away from using hot-check prosecutions to subsidize payday lenders has caused these once-lucrative revenue sources to dwindle. It'd be interested to see county-by-county data on these accounts.