While writing a check yesterday I realized just how few checks I actually write these days. I remember seeing my grandparents checkbook back in the day and they were on check #10000 or some ridiculous number. How many checks do you write each month?
My chequebook still sees the light of day quite often - paying the milkman, children's activities blah, blah etc etc. Cheques are being phased out though aren't they?
Violet, how is it that you have a milkman? I remember you talking about this before but I've forgotten what you said. Are you in the states or the U.K.?
I'm also down to zero cheques. My bank recently issued international debit cards that can be used so I got rid of all except one credit card. Bank acct. interest rates at 2% and credit cards at 8% to start? I think not. I started using Interac online thru my bank. I'm fine with taking them though.
At least 1 per month, sometimes two. I'm still on the original order of boxed checks from when I switched from a Bank(oA) to a credit union, 5 years ago this upcoming Nov. Only now do I have to re-order.
One a month, for a reduced price transit pass at work. They don't take cash or credit cards. Gotta be a check. And one every six months for the water club.
Check for dog groomer, church sometimes, liquor store, animal rescue donations, and Pizza Hut (once a month). Our town is so small that Pizza Hut doesn't deliver AND they don't accept debit cards... Everything else online or cash baybay
@Harry, I have a milkman because, well, he's just around, with his little electric milk float at 4.30 am. And now I feel too guilty not to have him, because it's a franchise and it's his business and if people like me go to the major supermarkets then what hope does the little man have (little man being generic,not specific to Rod the milkman)? First world problems. Btw, UK.
1 check for the local utility company (they want to charge ME to pay them on line..I think not) and the occasional check for a school need for the child. I have not bought checks in like 4 years.
I put an end to using cheques when the bank charged me $45.00 for an NSF. They could easily have transferred the 83 cents they needed from my savings account.
No checks in Scandinavia. They just don't exist, and haven't for at least 20 years. Everyone sends money back and forth via mobile phone. The only time cash is used is when you're dealing with someone working off the books.
I write 3-4 a year. Usually for sports pools or having a friend buy something for me while on vacation. It's always a production because I have to tear the house apart to find the checkbook. Then find an envelope. And a stamp.
Checks sound so surreal to me. I've written maybe 1 or 2 when I moved To UK, but never any in my country. We pay everything by card or online. Back in the day I would pay my bills on these paying machines with debit card, which we still have a few around.
No personal checks. Anything important enough that I need a receipt for, I don't want to bounce, so I get money orders or bank checks. Then I take a cell phone pic and save the receipt.
Trying to go paperless as well, but I've got a backlog of work-related paper that I don't want to throw out.
Anybody have a high-speed scanner that they love? Care to make a recommendation?
Also, I have a lot of personal photographs from before the days of digital cameras, would love to scan those and go digital. So I need a high quality high speed scanner...
I actually like writing checks. Seriously. I put on some relaxing music and sit down with a cup of tea, a calculator, a book of stamps, a page of return labels, and a fountain pen. It turns a monotonous chore into a pleasant experience and sort of eases the pain of the whole draining-of-my-bank-account thing.
2-3. Mostly for tournament entries (I have tried to get them to take online entries but the paypal feed eat into the tournament payouts too much). I used to pay rent by check, but now that I bought, I deal with a savvy mortgage company. Checks are still necessary in the us for person to person payments. Joe Schmo isn't set up to take online payments.
A couple years ago someone tried to pay my work via cheque. Everyone just looked at each other confused. In the end they called the financial controller who dais fine, well take it and bank it - come back in a week when is cleared.
Most places in the UK stopped even taking cheques back in 2010. These days you just get a person's bank account number and sort code and do an online transfer. Always amazes me that the US is so far behind-especially with chip and pin for credit cards!
I hadn't written a check in years, then kiddo started school & I probably write 10 a year. Had considered getting rid of them, but now glad I didn't. It's also a nice way to keep track of charitable contributions when you're getting tax stuff together.
I hadn't written a check in years, then kiddo started school & I probably write 10 a year. Had considered getting rid of them, but now glad I didn't. It's also a nice way to keep track of charitable contributions when you're getting tax stuff together.
I write a monthly rent cheque, and then school fees x 2 kids plus school pics x 2 kids plus a couple assorted for church functions etc....so maybe 20 a year?
Literally the last check I wrote was back in 2003 and it was on the acct. of the restaurant I managed and only because the home office failed to pay for our food delivery the week before, so I had to find a check (harder than you'd think when you never have to use them, the other manager who had been there longer than me didn't even know we had them), do a fast countdown of registers, rush to the bank to deposit the money, get back to the store, check the inventory then manually figure the prices and taxes and write the check, all in 20 minutes so we could get food to people.
I write one for my car and send it in with the voucher - just so I can send in more when I want.
Other then that, an occasional charitable donation, though those are mostly online. And buying popcorn/giftwrap/whatever for some kids' fundraiser.
Everything else is auto-pay. There was a woman recently in Michigan who was found dead after a 6 years but all her bills were on autopay and no one noticed. A neighbor thought she moved away and mowed the lawn. http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/03/12/new-developments-in-the-case-of-the-mysterious-mummified-woman-supposedly-dead-and-unfound-for-six-years/
I give my landlord post dated checks once a year. I pay my income tax, and anything I order at a home party, like candles or Pampered Chef with a check.
I write them for the utilities that charge for online payments--water, electric, gas--unless I'm late, always a possibility.
But I have a friend who uses checks everywhere. The grocery store, Macy's, wherever. If she wants something from Amazon, she writes me a check and I order it with my CC. She distrusts credit/debit cards and hates using her own cards.
I write tons of checks! For the cleaning lady, cheer stuff for my daughter, school field trips, etc... I have to carry it everywhere because I never know when I'm going to have to buy a necessity for a kid. But, I never write checks at stores. I rarely use cash.
Hello. I am so a lurker. I use one check basically for rent An online check for Electric. Tey charge you to use a credit card and re don't accept Visa. sometimes I use money orders from the Post Office. All other bills are online. I have an aunt who does not use credit cards or debit cards. Only cash and checks.
I only write checks my butt can't cash.
ReplyDeleteHigh larious... I've written quite a few of those my own self
Delete2 to the property manager for their bills and pretty much nothing else so I guess that's 24 per year give or take 1 or 2 emergencies.
ReplyDeleteWho actually numbers their checks in order? I just started out on 5000 for shits and giggles.
ReplyDeleteNone. Everything is paid online.
ReplyDelete2, gotta pay my weekly poop scooper with having 5 Russian Wolfhounds and the Snow Plough guy especially after the foot dropped last Monday.
ReplyDeleteCleodacat, 5 Borzoi?!?
Delete*jealous*
Such beautiful dogs!
I'm completely online. I have the bank write the checks for me.
ReplyDeleteThis comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDeleteMy chequebook still sees the light of day quite often - paying the milkman, children's activities blah, blah etc etc. Cheques are being phased out though aren't they?
ReplyDeleteViolet, how is it that you have a milkman? I remember you talking about this before but I've forgotten what you said. Are you in the states or the U.K.?
DeleteI'm thinking she's living in a country that spells the word "cheques" and not "checks" but I wonder where that would be... ?
DeleteOnly the. Gardener and the annoying water company.
ReplyDeleteI write between 5 and 7 a month and apparently that is a lot.
ReplyDeleteOnly one. Everything else I pay online through my bank.
ReplyDeleteI'm also down to zero cheques. My bank recently issued international debit cards that can be used so I got rid of all except one credit card. Bank acct. interest rates at 2% and credit cards at 8% to start? I think not. I started using Interac online thru my bank. I'm fine with taking them though.
ReplyDeleteI haven't written a check in at least 10 years everything done online and set up as recurring payments.
ReplyDeleteI try to live a paperless enviornment as much as possible and I hate paper.
At least 1 per month, sometimes two. I'm still on the original order of boxed checks from when I switched from a Bank(oA) to a credit union, 5 years ago this upcoming Nov. Only now do I have to re-order.
ReplyDeleteHaven't written a check in at least 7 or 8 years. All online or if I'm standing in front of you I'll hand over cash.
ReplyDeleteOne a month, for a reduced price transit pass at work. They don't take cash or credit cards. Gotta be a check. And one every six months for the water club.
ReplyDeleteCheck for dog groomer, church sometimes, liquor store, animal rescue donations, and Pizza Hut (once a month). Our town is so small that Pizza Hut doesn't deliver AND they don't accept debit cards...
ReplyDeleteEverything else online or cash baybay
This comment has been removed by the author.
ReplyDelete@Harry, I have a milkman because, well, he's just around, with his little electric milk float at 4.30 am. And now I feel too guilty not to have him, because it's a franchise and it's his business and if people like me go to the major supermarkets then what hope does the little man have (little man being generic,not specific to Rod the milkman)? First world problems. Btw, UK.
ReplyDeleteInteresting. Thanks for that Violet.
DeleteOops just saw this... UK it is!
DeleteOnly once a month to the gardeners unless I have the cash on me
ReplyDelete1 check for the local utility company (they want to charge ME to pay them on line..I think not) and the occasional check for a school need for the child. I have not bought checks in like 4 years.
ReplyDeleteOne for rent, water bill (they don't have website) and occasionally for kids school lunch when outta cash and fieldtrips, stuff like that
ReplyDeleteI put an end to using cheques when the bank charged me $45.00 for an NSF. They could easily have transferred the 83 cents they needed from my savings account.
ReplyDelete@ Sugar: Good one!
ReplyDeleteNo checks in Scandinavia. They just don't exist, and haven't for at least 20 years. Everyone sends money back and forth via mobile phone. The only time cash is used is when you're dealing with someone working off the books.
ReplyDeleteOne! For my office rent.
ReplyDeleteEverything else is transfer to accounts.
I wish I was depositing more checks, though!
No checks here in Germany either!
ReplyDeleteJust one for the rent. Which my landlord makes me deposit into his bank account, otherwise I'd never really have to go to the bank either.
ReplyDeleteI'm with you Timebob. Paper sucks.
ReplyDeleteI write 3-4 a year. Usually for sports pools or having a friend buy something for me while on vacation. It's always a production because I have to tear the house apart to find the checkbook. Then find an envelope. And a stamp.
ReplyDeleteChecks sound so surreal to me. I've written maybe 1 or 2 when I moved To UK, but never any in my country. We pay everything by card or online. Back in the day I would pay my bills on these paying machines with debit card, which we still have a few around.
ReplyDeleteNo personal checks. Anything important enough that I need a receipt for, I don't want to bounce, so I get money orders or bank checks. Then I take a cell phone pic and save the receipt.
ReplyDeleteI write one or two a month.
ReplyDeleteTrying to go paperless as well, but I've got a backlog of work-related paper that I don't want to throw out.
Anybody have a high-speed scanner that they love? Care to make a recommendation?
Also, I have a lot of personal photographs from before the days of digital cameras, would love to scan those and go digital. So I need a high quality high speed scanner...
I actually like writing checks. Seriously. I put on some relaxing music and sit down with a cup of tea, a calculator, a book of stamps, a page of return labels, and a fountain pen. It turns a monotonous chore into a pleasant experience and sort of eases the pain of the whole draining-of-my-bank-account thing.
ReplyDelete2-3. Mostly for tournament entries (I have tried to get them to take online entries but the paypal feed eat into the tournament payouts too much). I used to pay rent by check, but now that I bought, I deal with a savvy mortgage company. Checks are still necessary in the us for person to person payments. Joe Schmo isn't set up to take online payments.
ReplyDeleteThe only checks I write are to the IRS.
ReplyDeleteA couple years ago someone tried to pay my work via cheque. Everyone just looked at each other confused. In the end they called the financial controller who dais fine, well take it and bank it - come back in a week when is cleared.
ReplyDeleteNobody uses cheques here.
Most places in the UK stopped even taking cheques back in 2010. These days you just get a person's bank account number and sort code and do an online transfer. Always amazes me that the US is so far behind-especially with chip and pin for credit cards!
ReplyDeleteI hadn't written a check in years, then kiddo started school & I probably write 10 a year. Had considered getting rid of them, but now glad I didn't. It's also a nice way to keep track of charitable contributions when you're getting tax stuff together.
ReplyDeleteI hadn't written a check in years, then kiddo started school & I probably write 10 a year. Had considered getting rid of them, but now glad I didn't. It's also a nice way to keep track of charitable contributions when you're getting tax stuff together.
ReplyDeleteChecks? My mom pays her bills by MONEY ORDER..
ReplyDeleteI write two per week. One for child care and one for lessons for my daughter. In the summer months we pay our lawn guys with checks, too.
ReplyDeleteI write a monthly rent cheque, and then school fees x 2 kids plus school pics x 2 kids plus a couple assorted for church functions etc....so maybe 20 a year?
ReplyDeleteWho writes checks anymore? I may write 1 every year or two.
ReplyDeleteLiterally the last check I wrote was back in 2003 and it was on the acct. of the restaurant I managed and only because the home office failed to pay for our food delivery the week before, so I had to find a check (harder than you'd think when you never have to use them, the other manager who had been there longer than me didn't even know we had them), do a fast countdown of registers, rush to the bank to deposit the money, get back to the store, check the inventory then manually figure the prices and taxes and write the check, all in 20 minutes so we could get food to people.
ReplyDeleteI write one for my car and send it in with the voucher - just so I can send in more when I want.
ReplyDeleteOther then that, an occasional charitable donation, though those are mostly online. And buying popcorn/giftwrap/whatever for some kids' fundraiser.
Everything else is auto-pay. There was a woman recently in Michigan who was found dead after a 6 years but all her bills were on autopay and no one noticed. A neighbor thought she moved away and mowed the lawn. http://www.theblaze.com/stories/2014/03/12/new-developments-in-the-case-of-the-mysterious-mummified-woman-supposedly-dead-and-unfound-for-six-years/
One a month to my hair stylist. A few for business (real estate).
ReplyDeleteI give my landlord post dated checks once a year. I pay my income tax, and anything I order at a home party, like candles or Pampered Chef with a check.
ReplyDeleteNone.
ReplyDeleteI write them for the utilities that charge for online payments--water, electric, gas--unless I'm late, always a possibility.
ReplyDeleteBut I have a friend who uses checks everywhere. The grocery store, Macy's, wherever. If she wants something from Amazon, she writes me a check and I order it with my CC. She distrusts credit/debit cards and hates using her own cards.
I write tons of checks! For the cleaning lady, cheer stuff for my daughter, school field trips, etc... I have to carry it everywhere because I never know when I'm going to have to buy a necessity for a kid. But, I never write checks at stores. I rarely use cash.
ReplyDeleteI was born in a small town. When my father died, I found the check he wrote to pay the doctor for delivering me. He had saved it 35 years.
ReplyDeleteHello.
ReplyDeleteI am so a lurker. I use one check basically for rent An online check for Electric. Tey charge you to use a credit card and re don't accept Visa. sometimes I use money orders from the Post Office. All other bills are online. I have an aunt who does not use credit cards or debit cards. Only cash and checks.
@Seachica--what type of tournament?
ReplyDelete