SoCalGas Cuts 50,000 Paper Checks Annually With Digital Rebate Payouts

Finance departments typically track printing expenses, postage, and fraud losses when calculating the cost of paper checks. But according to Theresa McEndree, chief growth officer at Choice Digital, the biggest expense rarely shows up in those spreadsheets: the recipient experience.

That insight aligns with recent industry research highlighting how slow disbursements damage customer trust and create operational complexity that organizations never fully quantify. The visible costs — paper, stamps, processing delays — represent only a fraction of the total impact.

Choice Digital operates more than 300 regulated disbursement programs and has witnessed these hidden expenses firsthand. One client, Southern California Gas Company, eliminated approximately 50,000 paper rebate checks each year by overhauling its payout process.

The immediate savings from eliminating paper were substantial, McEndree noted. Yet the more significant operational benefit emerged afterward: reconciliation became considerably simpler, and long-standing unclaimed-property obligations mostly vanished.

When we model a move away from checks, the float savings are real, but the bigger swing is usually the downstream cleanup going away.

Even these operational improvements aren't what organizations overlook most, McEndree emphasized. Nearly no one assigns a dollar figure to recipient experience. Younger consumers often interpret mailed checks as proof an organization hasn't modernized, while underbanked individuals may be pushed toward payment methods that simply don't serve them well.

Choice Digital's research reveals that 94% of recipients want a choice in how they receive payments, and 57% would be unhappy receiving a paper check instead of a digital alternative.

For McEndree, the central problem isn't digital versus paper — it's that recipient experience was never treated as a strategic decision in the first place. Organizations invest heavily in how they collect payments from customers but spend far less time deciding how to return money to those same people.

Once recipients gain meaningful choice, behavior shifts rapidly. In some Choice Digital programs, more than 90% select a digital payout option when given the opportunity.

Rather than relying on industry benchmarks alone, McEndree urged finance teams to start with data they already generate:

• Payment preferences
• Time to funds
• Exception rates
• Reissue volume
• Unclaimed-property totals

She also recommends calculating the full cost of a paper check by including labor, support calls, and administrative effort alongside printing and postage — expenses that often remain invisible in standard calculations.

Looking past the familiar check-versus-digital conversation, McEndree argued the more critical question is which payment options organizations actually offer. Choice Digital's program data demonstrates that simply expanding available methods can dramatically alter recipient behavior.

Adding a digital wallet option, for instance, significantly changed how recipients chose to receive smaller payouts. This illustrates that modernization isn't solely about abandoning checks — it's about giving recipients greater flexibility in how they access their money.

McEndree believes successful modernization conversations combine two complementary perspectives. The first is a finance story grounded in measurable dollars and operational savings. The second is a customer story grounded in recipient behavior and experience.

The numbers may initiate the conversation, she said, but real-world recipient outcomes ultimately persuade organizations to act.

The math opens the door. The recipient story gives finance a reason to care, and the real-world benchmark closes it.