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On its surface, the Check Clearing for the 21st Century Act - Check 21 as it is better known - is simple.
As of next Thursday, instead of sending the check you write to pay your mortgage or for groceries all the way through the system, a merchant, bank or check processor will be able to make a substitute check, destroy the original and send the image of your check for payment.
"The biggest change that customers are going to see is that checks are going to post faster," said Helen Todd, spokeswoman for Regions Financial Corp. of Birmingham, the owner of Union Planters Bank of Memphis.
That won't happen with every check right away.
"It will be the end of the decade before the preponderance of checks will be processed electronically," said Jack Walton, an executive with the Federal Reserve in Washington.
Nonetheless, checking account holders will start seeing some changes immediately.
If their banks, or others along the way, create substitute checks, they'll receive those back instead of the real check.
That won't affect everyone. Many people aren't getting canceled checks back now - industry estimates are that covers 60 to 80 percent of accounts.
People will also have to stop living on float - that is, writing checks before they make a deposit to cover the payments.
Some of that has disappeared already, said Jim Blasingame, executive vice president...